Therapy

During the recent years, the range of prostate cancer therapies has broadened considerably. Substantial development took place particularly in the area of radiation therapy. For patients with prostate cancer, there are currently many different forms of treatment available. However, this does not really make it any easier to decide for the right therapy, neither for the treating physician nor for the patient.

Essentially, we differentiate between two main treatment approaches with an extensive number of options:

1. Curative treatment – cure

A prerequisite here is that the prostate cancer is confined to the organ.

Reliable results can be achieved with:

• Brachytherapy (internal radiation)
• External radiation

• Surgical removal of the prostate gland (radical prostatectomy)

If the cancer is still in its early stage, all methods will achieve the same cure rates. Once the tumor has advanced or spread, radiotherapeutic procedures are superior to surgical therapies.

Currently many interesting procedures for curative therapy of localized prostate cancer are in clinical trials. However, because of missing results for long-term effects, these procedures are still not applicable as standard therapies. 

Two of these experimental procedures are particularly noteworthy

• HIFU (high intensive focused ultrasound)
• Cryotherapy

2. Palliative procedures – alleviation of symptoms

In this procedures, it is of utmost importance to achieve a reasonable relationship between effect and side effects. A cure cannot be achieved. The treatment is recommended for patients with locally advanced prostate cancer, or the need of advanced pain management, and as a preventive measure for the spreading of metastasis.

Some of these treatments are:

• Hormone therapy
• Chemotherapy
• External radiation