Treatment Options
If you have prostate cancer, the treatment your doctor or doctors suggest will depend on several factors, including your age, your general state of health and the cancer itself—whether it is early-stage disease or advanced disease.
At Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), you may choose your doctor according to the treatment you would like to receive. Or you may choose to meet with a team of providers who will collaborate and discuss the best options for treatment for your cancer.
As a patient at SCCA, you have access to all the treatment options currently available, as well as new therapies offered only in clinical studies. This is one advantage of seeking treatment at SCCA, which has two strong research organizations behind it: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine.
Prostate cancer is a complex disease. In some cases, it grows slowly over 10 to 20 years and may never move beyond the prostate. Disease like this is treated differently than advanced, aggressive disease, which may be treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or hormone therapy.
The choice that you make for your treatment is a personal and individual one. The key to making a good decision is getting input from an experienced team of leading prostate cancer specialists who know the outcomes and quality of life issues associated with each treatment.
Active Surveillance
If you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 70 to 75, your doctor may recommend active surveillance rather than more aggressive treatment, such as surgery or radiation therapy.
Surgery - Conventional & Robotic
If your cancer is localized to the prostate, and you are in reasonably good health and younger than 75 years old, your doctors may recommend that you have surgery to treat your prostate cancer. The most common procedure is called a radical prostatectomy.
Radiation Therapy
We use the latest technology to provide the most precise radiation treatment possible, including special equipment to detect motion and position of the prostate--the Calypso System, also referred to as GPS for the Body.
Hormone Therapy
If you have advanced prostate cancer at the time of your diagnosis, or if your prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels are rising despite having had other treatment for prostate cancer in the past, your doctor may suggest hormone therapy.
Chemotherapy
If you have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer or if your cancer has returned after treatment, your doctor may recommend chemotherapy.
Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer
Despite treatment, prostate cancer sometimes recurs. Also, prostate tumors can grow beyond the prostate gland, and cancer cells can travel to other parts of the body, such as the bones.
New Treatments for Prostate Cancer
New treatments for this disease include the drug Provenge as well as advances in radiation therapy.
Quality-of-Life Outcome Results
Dr. Bruce L. Dalkin, MD, explains results of studies of quality of life after prostate cancer treatment.
Treating High-Risk Prostate Cancer
Optimizing control of cancer in the prostate, while effectively treating cancer that has escaped the prostate undetected, is necessary to cure more men with this disease.