Medical Treatments for Prostate Cancer

There are many different medical treatments for prostate cancer that involve the clinical care of a healthcare professional. These treatments include expectant therapy, surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy. Expectant therapy is to carefully observe and monitor the prostate cancer. Because prostate cancer cells often spread very slowly, many older men who have the disease may not need more extensive treatment. However, expectant therapy usually includes routine physician examinations, including digital rectal exams and PSA tests. The different types of surgery for prostate cancer are radical prostatectomy - an open-surgery procedure in which the entire prostate gland and surrounding tissue are removed. Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) - surgery to remove part of the prostate gland that surrounds the urethra. Cryosurgery - this procedure involves killing the cancer cells by freezing them with a small metal tool placed in the tumor. Side effects of prostate cancer surgery include incontinence and impotence. Incontinence is the inability to control urine and may result in dribbling of urine, especially immediately after surgery. Normal control usually returns within weeks or months after surgery. Impotence is the inability to achieve an erection. For a month, or so, after surgery, most men are not able to get an erection. Eventually, approximately 40 to 60 percent of men will be able to get an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse, but without ejaculation of semen, since removal of the prostate gland prevents that process.

Radiation therapy uses high energy rays to kill or shrink cancer cells, and to decrease their ability to divide. Radiation is often used to treat prostate cancer that is still confined to the prostate gland, or has spread only to nearby tissue. If the disease is advanced, radiation may be used to reduce the size of the tumor and to provide relief from symptoms. Possible side effects of radiation for prostate cancer may include diarrhea, with or without blood in the stool, and colitis, problems associated with urination, a degree of impotence (inability to get an erection), which may occur within two years of radiation therapy.

The goal of hormone therapy is to lower the level of male hormones in the body, particularly testosterone. Hormone therapy does not cure the cancer, and is often used to treat persons whose cancer has spread or recurred after treatment. Produced mainly in the testicles, testosterone causes prostate cancer cells to grow. Thus, reduced testosterone levels can make the prostate cancer shrink and become less active. Most studies show that hormone therapy works better if it is started early. Chemotherapy is the use of powerful, anti-cancer medications to kill cancer cells.. Hospitalization may be needed to monitor treatment and chemotherapy's side effects. Common side effects of chemotherapy include: nausea and vomiting, hair loss, anemia, reduced ability of blood to clot, mouth sores, increased likelihood of developing infections, fatigue. Most side effects disappear once treatment is stopped.

gleason 6 prostate cancer
Prostate cancer: what your psa and gleason score mean
For example, a biopsy showing a major pattern of 3 and a minor pattern of 3 is labeled as "Gleason score 3 + 3 = 6 prostate cancer.

Figure 6 : Integrative molecular concept modeling of prostate
Figure 6 - Molecular concept analysis comparing lowâ“Gleason grade to from low- to highâ“Gleason grade prostate cancer' signatures from this study and

Medscape Urology Journal Scan: June 2004
After excluding patients who had received neoadjuvant therapy before surgery, the authors focused on the 451 men who had Gleason 6 prostate cancer on biopsy

Finasteride as a Chemopreventive Agent in Prostate Cancer
The decrease in prevalence of prostate cancer seen in men in the finasteride arm of the PCPT primarily relates to Gleason 6 cancer, because the prevalence

Prostate cancers scored as Gleason 6 in prostate biopsy are
Background: Differentiation between a Gleason score (GS) of 6 and 7 in Meeting: 2005 Prostate Cancer Symposium Abstract No: 71 First Author: J. H.

Gleason Score
Making the Grade with the Gleason Score Adapted From: Prostate Cancer For Dummies They say such things as "I'm a Gleason 6," or maybe "I'm a Gleason 4"

Prostate Cancer Gleason Score
Your Gleason score can range from 2 through 10. Most of the prostate cancer cases diagnosed today have Gleason grades of 5, 6, or 7.

Prostate Cancer Treatment Guide
The Prostate Cancer Treatment Guide is a comprehensive source of prostate cancer cancer, external radiation recurrent cancer, Gleason scores under 6,

Shift In Prostate Cancer Gleason Grades From 1989 To 2001
Shift In Prostate Cancer Gleason Grades From 1989 To 2001 In multivariate analysis, improved BRFS remained for Gleason score 6, but not for patients

Gleason Score: A Significant Biologic Manifestation of Prostate
The majority of men present with either GS 6 (48%) or GS 7 (33%) prostate cancer. There are a relatively small number (2%) of men with low Gleason score

Gleason Grade - the Pathology Report
Prostate cancer is a malignant growth originating in the cells of the Moderately well differentiated cancers have a moderate Gleason grade of 5 or 6.

Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer: Evaluating the Evidence
The majority of patients had Gleason 5 to 6 cancer. More than one third of these men were diagnosed with prostate cancer because of symptoms;

Virgil's Prostate On-Line
Gleason 7: A New Risk Category? A man is told he has prostate cancer. In contrast, Gleason 6 patients survived 16 years and Gleason 4-5 for 20 years.

eMedicine - Controversies in Prostate Cancer : Article by
Careful review of the data also suggests that the risk of prostate cancer mortality is as high as 30% for patients with Gleason 6 disease.

A Primer on Gleason Grading in Prostate Needle Biopsies
The Gleason grading system, based on prospective study of more than 4000 patients between 1960 and 1975, is the standard method of grading prostate cancer

Prostate Cancer: Stage
Low risk comprises those prostate cancer that are low in volume, Stage A or B1/B2, with a Gleason Grade of 6 or less, and a PSA less than 11.

Making the Grade with the Gleason Score - For Dummies
When men who have prostate cancer talk to each other, they sometimes exchange They say such things as "I'm a Gleason 6," or maybe "I'm a Gleason 4"

Gleason Grading of Prostate Cancer Illustrated Phoenix5
An illustration by Gleason of the five grades of prostate cancer cells, for localized cancer, prostate cancer had claimed the lives of 6 percent of the

Gleason Grading, Understanding it, from the Prostate Cancer
Understanding Gleason Grading, from Prostate Cancer Infolink web site, has a Gleason grade of 2 and the secondary pattern has a grade of 3, or 6 (3 + 3)


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