When it comes to the prostate cancer disease, the patients receive treatment depending on how advanced the cancer is. We differentiate the prostate cancers into three categories: organ-confined, locally advanced and metastatic. For the last there is no known cure, but for the first two categories, surgery is probably the most frequently used treatment method.



The surgery for the prostate cancer is also known as prostatectomy, and it is usually carried out if patients have a low risk disease. In some cases surgery is used even for advanced stages of cancer.

Prostatectomy basically means the removal of the prostate gland, and it was first performed by Hugh H. Young, in 1904, at John Hopkins Hospital. Other methods of surgery were soon developed afterwards like the transurethral resection of the prostate or TURP and in 1983, the radical retropubic prostatectomy, developed by Patrick Walsh, both of which preserved the penile function. Ever since 1990, in the United States alone, almost thirty six per cent of the male population with confined prostate cancer opted for this surgical procedure.

The discovery, in these last years, of some other forms of treatment, lead to a bit of a paradox regarding surgery to whether it’s worth having it or not.

If we are talking about an advanced type of cancer, the surgery has little worth, since the cancerous cells already reached the surrounding areas of the prostate gland. If the cancer is still contained into the gland, there are some other treatments the patient could opt for, without being necessary the removal of the gland. Some of these treatments have almost the same results as surgery.

Before deciding on this medical treatment you should probably know complications may arise during surgery, and even if the surgery is successful there are some side effects.

Prostatectomy includes the risks of local bleeding, one per cent among men with ages between sixty five and sixty nine die because of the operation, anesthesia, impotence in about thirty five point five per cent cases or incontinence, in four point five per cent cases. For impotence there are treatments like Viagra or sildenafil tablets, devices to help stiffen the penis, injections with Caverject or the penile prosthesis; incontinence can be treated with medications or by using an artificial sphincter implanted around the urethra.

Alternative treatment has its set of advices in case you opt for the surgical approach of treating cancer, so to prevent medical complications, with two weeks before the surgery keep a nutritional diet which includes products with vitamin C, the recommended dose being of 2000-5000mg daily, vitamin B-complex, 60mg doses of zinc daily, vitamin A, modified citrus pectin, vegetables, water, bioflavonoids and protein; avoid smoking, sugar, alcohol, valerian, kava, aspirin and vitamin E.

After surgery you can add to your diet curcumin, small doses of vitamin E or bromelain.

You can also use as a complementary method of treatment homeopathy and follow your doctors recommendations to prevent the cancer cells from appearing again. Health starts with being careful!