Prostate Cancer And Radiation Therapy
Published on Mar 26 2010, in the categories: Radiation Therapy
The second most utilized conventional treatment for prostate cancer has to be the radiation therapy.
It was developed for the first time in the early 20th century, consisting of intraprostatic radium implants but once the radiation sources became stronger, external beam procedure soon became the popular choice for radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy is done by damaging the DNA of a cell so it won’t be able to multiply. There are two known radiation procedures: brachytheraphy or internal beam radiation, referring to the direct placing of the treatment or at a short distance away from the infected tissue, and the EBRT or external beam radiation therapy where x-rays with a high energy are directed towards the tumor area. The first method of radiation therapy dates back since 1983.
Brachytherapy is considered to be more advantageous in comparison to the external beam radiation, since the radioactive seeds are being directly inserted in the prostate gland through needles thus avoiding the damaging of the surrounding organs or body parts. Studies about these two procedures have not ceased to appear.
Prostate cancers, depending on how wide spread they are, are classified into organ confined, meaning inside the region of the gland, locally advanced, when the cancer spread locally and metastatic, the advanced form of prostate cancer. A cure for this last stage cancer is unavailable at the moment but it could be avoided if the cancer is diagnosed on time.
Treatments are used to slow down the multiplying of cancer cells or the growth of a tumor but also for eliminating painful symptoms. Before advising you to choose a treatment procedure, a doctor has to take in consideration a patient’s age, general health details, extent of cancer and last but not least, it’s preferences. Information is a bliss so before making up your mind about something gather as much information as possible about it.
If a patient has a disease with low risk he can either choose radiotherapy or prostatectomy as a treatment method; the intermediate and high risk diseases are treated with radiation therapy and either for a long or a short period of time with hormonal ablation.
Radiation therapy has the benefit effect of damaging only the cancerous cells, while normal cells continue to function.
The negative side effects encountered when radiation therapy was used are impotence and incontinence, but are less frequent in comparison to the surgery’s effects. Studies have shown that the survival rate after ten years of treatment is similar to that for prostatectomy.
The data obtained after comparing the radiation therapy to cryotherapy gave a favourable result for the first treatment procedure.
Remember, each patient can choose the method of treatment but a doctor’s advice is still important, so if you find yourself among those struck by this disease, remember, again, that there are treatments. The only important thing is to select the right one for your case.
It was developed for the first time in the early 20th century, consisting of intraprostatic radium implants but once the radiation sources became stronger, external beam procedure soon became the popular choice for radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy is done by damaging the DNA of a cell so it won’t be able to multiply. There are two known radiation procedures: brachytheraphy or internal beam radiation, referring to the direct placing of the treatment or at a short distance away from the infected tissue, and the EBRT or external beam radiation therapy where x-rays with a high energy are directed towards the tumor area. The first method of radiation therapy dates back since 1983.
Brachytherapy is considered to be more advantageous in comparison to the external beam radiation, since the radioactive seeds are being directly inserted in the prostate gland through needles thus avoiding the damaging of the surrounding organs or body parts. Studies about these two procedures have not ceased to appear.
Prostate cancers, depending on how wide spread they are, are classified into organ confined, meaning inside the region of the gland, locally advanced, when the cancer spread locally and metastatic, the advanced form of prostate cancer. A cure for this last stage cancer is unavailable at the moment but it could be avoided if the cancer is diagnosed on time.
Treatments are used to slow down the multiplying of cancer cells or the growth of a tumor but also for eliminating painful symptoms. Before advising you to choose a treatment procedure, a doctor has to take in consideration a patient’s age, general health details, extent of cancer and last but not least, it’s preferences. Information is a bliss so before making up your mind about something gather as much information as possible about it.
If a patient has a disease with low risk he can either choose radiotherapy or prostatectomy as a treatment method; the intermediate and high risk diseases are treated with radiation therapy and either for a long or a short period of time with hormonal ablation.
Radiation therapy has the benefit effect of damaging only the cancerous cells, while normal cells continue to function.
The negative side effects encountered when radiation therapy was used are impotence and incontinence, but are less frequent in comparison to the surgery’s effects. Studies have shown that the survival rate after ten years of treatment is similar to that for prostatectomy.
The data obtained after comparing the radiation therapy to cryotherapy gave a favourable result for the first treatment procedure.
Remember, each patient can choose the method of treatment but a doctor’s advice is still important, so if you find yourself among those struck by this disease, remember, again, that there are treatments. The only important thing is to select the right one for your case.
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