Prostate Cancer Treatment Options

Knowing your prostate cancer therapy options empowers you to make smart choices.

Prostate cancer is the leading solid organ cancer in the USA and the second most common cause of cancer related death. Worldwide, it is the fourth most common cancer with differing biologic activity in different cultures, probably related to different lifestyles.

Many prostate cancers can be managed conservatively, especially in elderly men. But larger tumors, those with higher Gleason score and higher (and rising) PSA levels, especially in younger men, should be treated more aggressively.

Prostate Cancer Therapy Options
There are many options available to residents of Northern California. Prostate cancer is usually managed with active surveillance, radiation therapy, surgery to remove the cancerous gland, freezing (cryotherapy), or high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Hormonal therapy is used to control cancer that has spread beyond the prostate and is no longer curable, or for very elderly patients with a limited life expectancy.

Active Surveillance
Prostate cancers that are very small and look to be growing very slowly under the microscope may be watched carefully with periodic rectal exams, PSA blood tests, and repeated biopsies (after one year, then every 3 years if the PSA and rectal findings remain stable) to rule out more aggressive tumor growth.

If the cancer appears to be faster growing, one or more of the following therapies may be used.

Radiation Therapy
Radiation is given using external beam (IMRT) with the beam being aimed using CT scans to develop a 3 dimensional model of the prostate. The patient goes to the Radiation Therapy office daily for 6-8 weeks (depending on the "recipe" used) to receive small doses of the radiation in the hope of killing the cancer without damaging the normal tissues. With IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy), gold seed markers are placed for CT Scan targeting of the prostate each day of radiation therapy.

Radiation can also be given by implanting radioactive seeds (Brachytherapy) under ultrasound guidance into the prostate gland. The seeds deliver intense doses of radiation to a small area in the hope of not damaging the surrounding organs. In some patients a combination of seeds and external beam radiation may be used. Men commonly have swelling of the prostate for 6-12 months making it more difficult to void.

Adverse effects from radiation mostly relate to the radiation effects on the bladder and rectum. Bladder and rectal burning, frequent urination, diarrhea, and blood in the urine or stool are the most frequent complaints. Erectile dysfunction commonly develops over 1-2 years. Rectal injury resulting in perforation and permanent swelling in the legs from edema were seen in the past, but are very unusual now. In some patients these rectal and bladder problems recur on a permanent basis, but the majority of patients will improve with time after the treatment is ended.

If a patient has a PSA over 10 or high grade prostate cancer cells, and the Bone Scan shows no cancer in the bones, a Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection should be done to rule out spread to the regional lymph nodes. This is done to prevent giving radiation without benefit (no help if cancer has spread), and it allows the therapist to narrow the beam to expose less of the bowels and lymphatics (less chance of bowel problems and leg swelling from the radiation).

The node sampling may be done using a small lower abdominal incision or by laparoscopy.

Radical Prostatectomy
Surgical removal of the prostate for cancer is performed with the intention of removing all of the cancerous gland to achieve a cure. This is accomplished about 75-90% of the time. The surgery is done through either a lower abdominal incision (Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy) or an incision between the scrotum and rectum (Radical Perineal Prostatectomy), or via laparoscopic approach. The laparoscopic approach may be done with a DaVinci Robot in some centers.

The great majority of urologists do the Retropubic approach because it allows for sampling of the lymph nodes which is the first part of the procedure. The Perineal approach gives better exposure during the reconstruction of the urethra after the prostate has been removed, but the front of the prostate is not as well controlled during removal, and the lymph nodes must be sampled through a separate procedure.

Laparoscopic surgery allows for earlier return to normal activities, but very few centers do enough cases to be proficient, and the operating time is longer with no improvement in adverse effects. In men with small, low grade tumors and very low PSA levels, Perineal, Retropubic or Laparoscopic surgery may be performed without sampling the lymph nodes. In these cases the chance for spread to the nodes is so low it is not worth the extra surgery to check them.

Radical Prostatectomy usually involves a hospital stay of 2-4 days. The surgery is performed the day of admission to the hospital. The operation takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours for all parts of the surgery: Sampling the lymph nodes, removing the prostate, and constructing a new bladder neck to attach to the urine channel.

Common adverse effects associated with Radical Prostatectomy include those of anesthesia, infection, bleeding (occasionally serious), incontinence, impotence, and stricture of the urethra/bladder neck. Less commonly seen are fluid collections requiring drainage, rectal tears, and deep vein thrombosis which can lead to pulmonary embolus and possibly death.

Cryotherapy
Freezing the Prostate Cancer can be performed using liquid nitrogen under ultrasound guidance. Urethral injuries may occur, and some men require repeat treatments. The success rates are slightly less than seen with radiation, and impotence occurs 90-100% of the time.

Hormonal Therapy
About 85-90% of prostate cancers depend on male hormones to grow. In men in whom the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, hormone deprivation will shrink the cancer for an indeterminate period of time (months to many years). Hormone therapy is frequently used to sensitize prostate cancers to the IMRT radiation.

Chemotherapy
After many years of poor response rates to the usual chemotherapy medicines, an explosion of new therapies are coming out specifically for Prostate Cancer. Medicines that kill tumor cells directly, stimulate the man's immune system to attack the tumor, and prevention of the tumor from growing a blood supply are but a few of the areas being developed. These therapies are for cancers that have spread beyond the prostate and are not treatable with Radiation, Surgery, Freezing, or HIFU.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)
HIFU is a precise and targeted therapy that reduces the risk of complications caused by surgery and radiation.

HIFU uses ultrasound energy, or sound waves, to heat and destroy specifically targeted areas of tissue. During HIFU, the sound waves pass through healthy tissue without causing damage. However, at the focal point of the sound waves (like a magnifying glass focusing the rays of the sun to burn a leaf), the tissue temperature rises to 90 degrees Celsius destroying the targeted tissue.

I'm Dr. Michael J. Lazar, and I specialize in offering HIFU prostate cancer therapy. I invite you to contact me at my office in Northern California to begin discussing your prostate cancer treatment options.

Call me at (707) 546-5553, or email me at info@californiahifu.com.

Find out if you qualify for High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Therapy.