1 Prostate Cancer Hospitals In San Francisco, California

Prostate Cancer (click for worldwide facilities list): Prostate cancer is cancer of the small walnut-shaped gland in males that produces seminal fluid, the fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in men

Every man over the age of 50 should know that he is at risk for prostate cancer. In the early stages, prostate cancer is curable. With prompt treatment the percentage of men who survive longer than 10 years is roughly equal to that of men who have never had prostate cancer.

While some types of prostate cancer grow slowly and may need minimal or no treatment, other types are aggressive and can spread quickly. If prostate cancer is detected early — when it's still confined to the prostate gland — you have a better chance of successful treatment.

There are a number of ways to treat prostate cancer. For some men a combination of treatments — such as surgery followed by radiation or radiation paired with hormone therapy — works best. The treatment that's best for each man depends on several factors. These include how fast your cancer is growing, how much it has spread, your age and life expectancy, as well as the benefits and the potential side effects of the treatment.

The most common treatments for prostate cancer include the following:

External beam radiation treatment uses high-powered X-rays to kill cancer cells. This type of radiation is effective at destroying cancerous cells, but it can also scar adjacent healthy tissue.

Radioactive seeds implanted into the prostate have gained popularity in recent years as a treatment for prostate cancer. The implants, also known as brachytherapy, deliver a higher dose of radiation than do external beams, but over a substantially longer period of time. The therapy is generally used in men with smaller or moderate-sized prostates with small and lower grade cancers.

Hormone therapy involves trying to stop your body from producing the male sex hormones testosterone, which can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. This type of therapy can also block hormones from getting into cancer cells. Sometimes doctors use a combination of drugs to achieve both. Simply depriving prostate cancer of testosterone usually doesn't kill all of the cancer cells. Within a few years, the cancer often learns to thrive without testosterone. Once this happens, hormone therapy is less likely to be effective. To avoid such resistance, intermittent hormone therapy programs have been developed.

Treatment strategies for prostate cancer can disrupt normal urinary, bowel, and sexual functioning. During prostatectomy, after the prostate is removed, the bladder is pulled downward and is connected to the urethra at the point where the prostate had sat. If the sphincter at the base of the bladder is damaged during this process, or if it is damaged during radiation therapy, some measure of urinary incontinence or leakage will occur.

Damage to the rectum caused by radiation, or, more rarely, by surgery, can result in a number of bowel problems, including rectal bleeding, diarrhea, or urgency. During prostatectomy if the nerves that stimulate the processes by which erection occurs are severed or otherwise damaged erectile dysfunction may occur.

If the prostate cancer has either spread into the seminal vesicles or has spread around them, the seminal vesicles are typically removed during prostatectomy and are targeted during radiation therapy. The loss of the prostate and the seminal vesicles renders men infertile. Surgery to remove the testicles, which produce most of your testosterone, is as effective as other forms of hormonal therapy.

Surgical removal of your prostate gland, called radical prostatectomy, is used to treat cancer that's confined to the prostate gland. During this procedure, your surgeon uses special techniques to completely remove your prostate and nearby lymph nodes. This surgery can affect muscles and nerves that control urination and sexual function.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) s is a relatively new procedure for removing the prostate

Chemotherapy can be quite effective in treating prostate cancer, but it can't cure it. Because it has more side effects than hormone therapy does, chemotherapy is reserved for men who have hormone-resistant prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

Cryotherapy This treatment is used to destroy cells by freezing tissue. Although progress continues, more time is needed to determine how successful cryotherapy may be as a treatment for prostate cancer.

In the future, gene therapy or immune therapy may be successful in treating prostate cancer. Current technology limits the use of these experimental treatments to a small number of medical centers.

http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/site/c.itIWK2OSG/b.70617/k.8235/Prostate_Cancer_Overview.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prostate-cancer/DS00043