The prostate, part of the male reproductive system, is a gland that is responsible for producing parts of the seminal fluid. Next to skin cancers, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, and according to the American Cancer Society, 1 in every 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. There are several treatment options available that are less invasive than surgery but yet are effective in treating the cancer.
Radiation Therapy
There are several types of radiation therapy to treat prostate cancer. External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) uses high-energy x-rays delivered by a machine from outside your body to kill the cancer cells. Computer imaging software helps to precisely map where the radiation should be delivered, but some healthy tissues will be affected by this treatment.
Brachytherapy uses radioactive seeds that are implanted into the prostate. These seeds deliver high doses of radiation, higher than can be used by the EBRT, over a long period of time. This type of therapy is most effective on smaller tumors, but the side effects are generally milder because fewer healthy cells are exposed to the radiation during this therapy.
Hormone Therapy
Prostate cancer cells need the male hormone testosterone to grow. Hormone therapies that can block the production of testosterone or inhibit the testosterone from getting into the cancer cells can effectively slow the growth of the prostate cancer. Once the tumors stop growing, other therapies such as radiation can be used to effectively shrink the remaining tumor.
Hormone therapy may use luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonists, which block the testicles from producing testosterone or anti-androgen medications that block the testosterone from binding to the androgen receptors on the cancer cells, or a combination of both.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy, the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, can be used to treat prostate cancer, but it is not the most effective option. Chemotherapy is delivered systemically, meaning that it is injected into the bloodstream and can therefore affect cells, even healthy cells, throughout the body. Because there are so many side effects of chemotherapy, hormone therapy is used more often. Chemotherapy is usually used only on patients who have developed hormone resistant prostate cancer, according to the doctors at the Mayo Clinic.
New Therapies
There are a number of new non-invasive treatments for prostate cancer undergoing research. Biologic therapy, also called immunotherapy, is the use of natural immune cells that are made in a laboratory to fight off the cancer. High-intensity focused ultrasound uses high energy sound waves to destroy cancer cells. Proton beam radiation therapy uses small, positively charged particles called protons to kill the cancer cells.
