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Prostate Cancer Treatment
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There are
many different forms of prostate cancer treatment, in this articles we
take a look at the different types of prostate cancer treatment.
Prostate
cancer is second in the table for cancer related deaths in American
males, one behind lung cancer.
Approximately 2 million Americans suffer from this potentially fatal
disease. Fortunately the death rates of prostate cancer sufferers are
gradually going down, thanks to recent advancements in the field of
medical research.
There are
various types of prostate cancer treatment and these fall into two
categories: Local therapy and Systemic therapy. Local therapy includes
procedures such as radiation therapy and surgery, these are used when
the disease is limited to a particular area or organ within the body .
Whilst Systemic therapy involves hormone therapy using agonists. This
is used when the cancer has reached a late stage of development and has
spread to other organs in the body.
When
surgery is carried on the prostate gland it is known as prostatectomy.
This involves the removal of part of or the whole prostate gland.
However this is not the only method of surgery, other procedures
include, laproscopy, cryosurgery, TURP, pelvic lymphadenectomy, radical
perineal prostatectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy. Surgery is
usually used to treat prostate cancer in it's early stages when it only
affects a certain area. The side effects of surgery include urinary
incontinence, dry orgasms and impotency.
If
radiation therapy is used to treat prostate cancer, one of two types
are used. One form of radiation treatment includes the use of
externally-produced radiation beams to eliminate cancer cells.The other
option is a procedure known as brachytherapy. This procedure involves a
radioactive material being implanted into the affected part of the
prostate in the form of small seeds. The radiation that these seeds
emit are strong enough to kill cancerous cells in the surrounding area.
The side effects of brachytherapy include urination problems, diarrhea,
permanent hair loss and dry skin.
Hormone
therapy to treat prostate cancer involves the use of drugs known as
agonists to block androgens that the prostate cancer cells need to grow.
Drugs that
are commonly used in hormone therapy include lutenizing ,hormone
releasing agonists such as leuprolide and goserelin. Flutamide and
nilutamide which are anti-androgens. And drugs that prevent the adrenal
glands from synthesizing testosterone such as ketoconazole. These drugs
can be used individually or in a combination, depending on the
instructions of the doctor.
A patient
is advised to speak to a specialist in order to get a second opinion
about the diagnosis before starting any treatment procedure.
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