Treatment
Many treatment options are available for prostate cancer, and new additional options are right around the corner.
You can beat prostate cancer. Nearly 100 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer are still alive after five years.
Talk with your primary care doctor, get to know your prognosis and understand your treatment options before choosing a course of action. Minimizing side effects and maintaining your quality of life are serious factors to consider. Your options may also include treatment still in the research phase, by participating in a clinical trial for experimental treatments and drugs.
Prostate cancer is usually slow growing, so unless your doctor tells you otherwise, you should have plenty of time to learn and consider your options.
Your doctor will help you put together a team of specialists and supporters. There are several types of treatment, and different specialists will often recommend different options, so it's important to know your doctors and get multiple opinions. It’s also important to know how much experience your surgeon has, before the treatment.
While we may not have all the answers to your burning questions regarding treatment decisions, we do have a comprehensive list of questions that you should ask your doctor and even ask yourself, to determine what is most important to you when evaluating your treatment options.
Treatment Options
It's important to keep in mind that every man is different and every case of prostate cancer is different. And there are a number of options for treating prostate cancer. No one method has proven to be more effective overall, and each treatment option has its pros and cons. The decision is yours, with the guidance of your medical team and the support of your loved ones.
For early or local prostate cancer that has not spread outside the prostate gland or nearby area, the most common treatment options are:
