All About Prostate Cancer
Who treats prostate cancer patients?
This is the job of a specialist team of hospital doctors and nurses, including a Urologist (surgeon), Oncologist (physician specialising in radiotherapy and chemotherapy for the treatment of cancers) along with specialist prostate cancer nurses.
Usually, following a consultation by the patient’s General Practitioner (GP), the GP will make arrangements for the patient to see the Urologist or specialist nurse at their local hospital, so that a full range of tests can be carried out and an assessment of the prostate made.
How is prostate cancer treated?
At present, there is no definite evidence as to which is the best treatment for prostate cancer, especially for early stage T1 or T2 tumours, and different Urologists and Oncologists may have differing views. The reality is that in experienced hands, all of the major treatment options appear to have similar cancer cure rate although the side effects of the treatments may be very different.
Also, many patients with early stage, low risk disease may live 10 years or more (or their normal life expectancy) if no treatment at all is used and so the values of treatments need to be carefully considered. However, in other patients, the disease can be much more serious. Unfortunately, whilst it is possible to generalise, it can be difficult to predict what course the prostate cancer will take in any individual. Also, the side-effects of treatment must be balanced against the overall benefit of therapy. For example, there is little point in undergoing major surgery to take out the prostate if the tumour has spread to areas where it cannot be removed. The treatment of prostate cancer is therefore determined by the stage and the grade of the disease as well as the PSA. There are a number of treatment options for every stage, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the therapy needs to be tailored to suit each individual patient.
Prostate brachytherapy can be used on its own or with external beam radiotherapy and or hormone therapy dependant on the severity of the disease.