Prostate Cancer

Fortunately, prostate cancer is usually a slow-growing cancer. This affords us the time to educate you about the many treatment options available, including the benefits and disadvantages of each. No one treatment modality is suitable for all patients. It is, therefore, important that both you and your physician are familiar with all of the possible choices, so you can choose the option that is right for you.

In addition, we can connect you to Us Too and the Cancer Hope Network. Both programs are designed to help you and your loved ones receive support, advice, and encouragement in a safe and confidential environment from others in similar situations.

Nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy: This procedure removes the entire prostate gland and seminal vesicles. During a prostatectomy, the surgeon may also perform a sural nerve raft, a procedure that attempts to preserve erectile function by reconnecting the nerves of erection using nerves harvested from the patient's leg.

We also offer bloodless surgery, as well as prosthetics and implants. Advances such as these have resulted in less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, and decreased incidence of incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

The main types of radiation therapy include:

• External Beam Treatment: This traditional radiation technique encompasses the entire prostate gland, and for those at high risk of disease spread, the pelvic lymph nodes as well. This treatment is further enhanced by these two techniques:
  • 3-D Conformal External Beam Therapy: With this technique, the radiation therapy team creates a three-dimensional reconstruction of both the target structure (the prostate) and any critical normal structures (e.g., the rectum). That reconstruction can then be used to design a radiation dose distribution that can deliver higher amounts of radiation to the cancer without exceeding the tolerance of the nearby normal tissues.
  • Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT): IMRT has recently been introduced as a refinement to conformal therapy. With this treatment, the intensity of the different beams of radiation constantly changes to create a more conformal dose distribution, which allows a higher dose of radiation to reach the cancer without exceeding the tolerance of nearby critical structures.
    
• Brachytherapy: Recent advances in technology have made this technique much safer, resulting in a renewed interest in this treatment option. The two types of Brachytherapy include:
  • Permanent Seed Implantation: This procedure traditionally involves placing tiny radioactive seeds directly into the prostate, thus maximizing the dose of radiation to the prostate, while minimizing the dose to adjacent organs
  • HDR Iridium: This temporary implant delivers higher doses of radiation to the cancer. It has the advantages of permanent seed implantation, but the radioactive material does not stay in the patient. This treatment is performed twice over a two-day period and is used in conjunction with conformal radiation treatments.