One of the treatments for prostate cancer is surgery. If you want to know about prostate cancer and side effects of surgery, you should first know what prostate cancer is and what treatments there are out there against this disease.



The prostate is a muscular glandular organ, situated just below the bladder in the prostatic capsule, surrounding the top portion of the urethra. The prostate is of chestnut form at the lower end of the bladder. The dorsal face of the prostate comes in connection with the rectum, making it possible to be touched through the anus. In a man aged 20 to 25, the prostate is 4-4.5 cm long, 3-5 cm wide and weighing about 20 grams, having a diameter of about 38 millimeters.

The prostate is a delicate organ and quite moody, requiring care, even though it is neglected by most men. Prostatitis is a prostate infection that occurs mainly in young men. Prostate adenoma is a benign tumor, known as the prostatic hypertrophy or periurethral adenoma. Prostate cancer, commonly in men over 50 years, occupies an important place in urologic pathology. It has a slow, insidious clinical course, with no immediate and noticeable events, being often found incidentally, in a general clinical examination.

The prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in men. Thanks to early detection and appropriate treatment, the disease can be effectively fought today. In case of advanced cancer, hormonal therapy is indicated or radio-hormone therapy (the hormone treatment combined with radiotherapy). In metastatic cancer, hormone therapy is associated with chemotherapy).

If the tumor is located at the prostate (stage T1 and T2), the standard practice is surgical treatment associated with radiotherapy. T4 tumors should be treated initially with chemotherapy and hormone, tumor irradiation is useful in controlling local or remote metastases. As a palliative, the doctor can use different surgical procedures.

When the diagnosis is made, the question is of course of treatment. Although prostate cancer has a reputation to move slowly, in fact, its speed of evolution is often unpredictable. Most often, prostate cancer is found between the ages of 60 and 70. At this age, the evolution of cancer may have a direct impact on the patient’s life expectancy, but treatment is, however, indispensable. If cancer is discovered at an age over 80 years, the doctor will estimate the benefits of surgery, depending on the speed of evolution of cancer.

Surgery can be: -curative (removing the primary tumor and healing), -palliative - to improve symptoms (with the purpose to improve the quality of life and in some cases for longer survival), -emergency (in cases of intestinal occlusion, decompression, bleeding) or reconstruction after mutilating interventions (post mastectomy).

There is no special connection between prostate cancer and side effects of surgery. Generally the side effects of surgery can produce infirmities (amputations of limbs, nose, ears, mastectomy or breast removal, enucleating or removal of an eye, keloid scars), lymphedema (of the arm post mastectomy, the lower limb after excision of pelvic lymph), abdominal pain syndrome (caused of adherences or clamps occurring after surgery on the abdomen).