Prostate cancer, being one of the common cancers that happen in men, has indeed caused an alarm to those who are and who will be affected. Knowledge about prostate cancer treatment is indeed important so that possible patients will know about the methods that will be used in order to treat this kind of cancer. The use of radiation is one of the methods being adapted by experts to cure and alleviate not only that of prostate cancer symptoms but also other types of cancer.

Radiation therapy can be delivered in two ways, internally or externally. It depends upon the choice of the patient and the decision of the doctor when it comes to the severity of the tumor that needs to be treated with radiation. During delivery, the personnel must be protected. The amount of exposure to harmful radiation effects is directly proportional to the length of time of exposure, the distance from the radiation source, and the use of shields containing lead like the walls, aprons or movable shields which absorb the radioactive rays and decrease exposure to their harmful effects.

Internal radiation therapy includes intracavitary, interstitial and systemic treatments. With intracavitary treatment, gamma rays are emitted from a radioactive source that has been introduced into a cavity in a suitable applicator. The applicator is usually inserted in the operating room with the patient under general anesthesia. The radioisotope is not inserted into the applicator until the patient is returned into the room. This type of radiation therapy is usually done for patients with uterine or cervical cancers. Systemic radiation therapy in the form of radioactive iodine is sometimes incorporated in treatment for thyroid cancer.

Prostate cancer treatment includes interstitial implants or brachytherapy wherein radiation is inserted in the tumor mass or adjacent tissue to concentrate the effects of radiation in a local area. Radon, iodine, and gold seeds are used as permanent implants and are not later removed. Because of the small amount of radioactive material, you are not considered to be radioactive. Radium and cesium needles and tantalum and iridium wires, which are all temporary implants, are also used. These approaches for delivery of radiation can be used alone or combined with either a surgical procedure or external radiation therapy.

The second type of radiation procedure which is the external radiation therapy is delivered with either kilovoltage or megavoltage machines. Kilovoltage refers to thousands of electron volts and the machine delivers x-rays at a low energy level. The maximum dose is produced at the skin surface or 1 to 2 cm below the skin surface. Skin tolerance has been a limiting factor for this type of therapy. With megavoltage machines, the radiation penetration is much deeper because of the energy source and the skin reaction is much less.

Lastly, the linear accelerators or sometimes called the supervoltage machines use protons, neutrons, or electrons as the radiation source. The radiation dose penetrates below the skin surface, varying in depth from several millimeters to several centimeters, therefore sparing of the skin is significant. This has also expanded the use of radiation as a treatment modality.

Prostate cancer treatment involves the use of radiation in killing the cancerous cells of the prostate gland so that it will not spread and metastasize which could complicate matters. You can learn more about this kind of therapy at http://prostatecancerradiation.org/blog/.

The new treatment for prostate cancer has been given an authorization by the Food and Drug Administration of the USA drug regulators have made the decision just recently. The new treatment enables the human in battling prostrate cancer. The medicine is called Provenge which was developed to fight prostate tumor in its later stages.

The new drug costs around ninety three thousand dollars, it very expensive. The dosage intended for every patient must be set in accordance with their needs. The drug has not been considered to take the place of some treatments that are already being used, but can be accessible along with some treatments. Trials have been confirmed that Provenge can give a patient with prostate cancer an extra four months to live while chemotherapy can give only three months in average.

Five hundred twelve men joined in the therapeutic trials intended for the medicine established by Dendreon, a company created in early 90’s by Dr. Samuel Strober and also Dr. Edgar Engleman, both of them are Stanford professors. The new treatment persuades the immune system of the body to battle against the tumor. This type of therapy is known as immunotherapy. A comparable treatment for malignancy is assumed to be along the way. Provenge can be most helpful to patients who were effectively treated by the regular forms of therapy.

According to the Chief Executive of The Prostate Cancer Charity, John Neate, treating cancer by means of annoying reactions from the immune system of the body was a clear center of attention of study for several years and it is optimistic to see the theory being interpreted into a new therapy for men. But he gave a warning of the tests ahead in the use of such treatment: “The information that this kind of immunotherapy can offer extra survival advantage is promising. On the other hand, this process of treatment can give multiple challenges. These intricate processes require the removal of the immune cells of the patient from blood circulation and expose them to any protein which is found in most prostate tumors, associated into a resistant stimulating substance”.

Learn the New Cancer Treatment for the Prostate Cancer. For more Info, please visit us at: http://newcancertreatment.org/blog/

Most people are aware of the negative health effects of being overweight or obese.

Now, it appears that obese patients may have poorer outcomes if diagnosed with prostate cancer for at least two distinct reasons.

It appears that obese men tend to be diagnosed with more aggressive forms of the disease as compared to non-obese men. The reason for this is that it appears that the PSA blood test is not as reliable in obese men as a predictor of prostate cancer.

In a recent study of 3400 men who had PSA testing, researchers found that the risk of an aggressive cancer diagnosed by an elevated PSA was twice as high in obese patients as compared to non-obese patients.

The reason postulated for this is that obese patients have greater blood volume which may dilute the PSA and lower results. By the time a PSA was elevated in obese patients, the cancer was more spread.

Researchers suggest therefore that the index of suspicion be higher for obese patients and that PSA levels which would be considered as worthy of further investigation be lowered in obese patients.

It should be noted that the definition of obesity is a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or above.

OBESITY AND PROSTATE CANCER SURGERY

A second recent study showed that obese patients were 60% more likely to have recurrence of prostate cancer after surgery for prostate cancer removal.

In this study of 1434 men, obesity was defined as a BMI of 35 or over.

The reason postulated for the increased recurrence rate was the technical difficulty of operating on obese patients.

So, here’s two more good reasons to lose that excess poundage.

Dr. Glenn Sheiner is a medical doctor with diplomas in Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine, and Family Medicine.

Dr. Sheiner is the author of the medical multimedia digital product called Cancer Research Online Made Easy which you can read for FREE online at CANCER RESEARCH ONLINE MADE EASY

Dr. Sheiner created this product to help patients research cutting-edge medical information in hours not days. The FREE Ebook contains 5 videos illustrating exactly what to do.

To learn more about prostate cancer go to Prostate Cancer Information

Technology is amazing and it’s life changing in more ways than can be counted. For one, there is the internet that gives you access to information all over the world and has opened up your avenue for research into the other areas of technology available. For some, especially those with life threatening diseases, it is a blessing and a curse. Someone once said ignorance is bliss. Is it? Is it bliss to not know all of the options for someone with prostate cancer? Without technology would you know that one technological option for prostate cancer is a robotic prostatectomy?

You may be wondering why a robot is better than a surgeon. The answer is simple, it’s not by itself. The surgeon uses the robot as an assistant. The da Vinci robot doesn’t act alone in the surgery, it dramatically magnifies the view of the surgical area and offers incredibly precise movements which decreases the likelihood of damaging delicate nerves and tissues of the surrounding areas. With a robot the doctor can make smaller incisions, reducing the blood loss, the pain, the possibility of infection and scarring. This leads to less recovery time and a better quality of life. If you are in the Illinois area, you can find this marvelous technology at one of the top 10 hospitals in llinois at Riverside. There the urologists are training surgeons about the da Vinci prostatectomy and the tools involved. It’s a wonderful program and a fantastic use of technology.

This program is leading the way for less intrusive and greater recovery time for this type of surgery. If you are not familiar with prostate cancer, it is a disease in which malignant cells form in the prostate. This gland is in the male’s reproductive system and surrounds the urethra. It’s about the size of a walnut and produces the fluid that makes up part of the semen. With approximately sixteen percent of the male populations probability of getting diagnosed with prostate cancer, greater public awareness and early detection are leading the way to mortality rates declining.

With these new prostate cancer treatments the quality of life is also improving for those who survive. Along with a shorter recovery time the patient gets back to normal activities. With the ability to perform more precise surgical procedures with the da Vinci robot the surgeon is able to make much more precise surgical procedures within the operative site. The system cannot be programmed and cannot make decisions. It is truly just an extension of the surgeon, a much more precise extension at that. The system scales, filters and translates the surgeon’s movements into precise movements of a micro-instrument, making the surgery less risky and more exact.

If you’re are planning to have a prostatectomy in any hospitals in Chicago area be sure to have them check out what is being offered at Riverside Health Care. It is well worth the time to research your options; it’s so easy with technology today.

Riverside is one of the top 10 hospitals in Illinois that performs numerous robotic prostatectomy [http://www.riversidehealthcare.org/services/cancer-institute/robotic-cancer-surgery.html] operations. When choosing from hospitals in the Chicago area look to Riverside Medical Center for your healthcare needs.

Despite the precautions taken to give the radiotherapy as accurately as possible there will always be some side effects associated with radiotherapy to the prostate gland even with “best treatment”. This is partly because to reach the prostate gland from the outside the X-rays have to pass through normal tissues (bladder, bowel, skin) and partly because an area around the prostate gland needs to be treated in case the prostate is in a slightly different position each day (e.g. because the bladder is filled to a different extent) and because it can treat any cancer cells which are trying to invade out of the prostate gland itself.

EARLY SIDE EFFECTS

a. Tiredness and Fatigue – most patients receiving radiotherapy will feel tired especially towards the end of treatment.

b. Skin reaction – this is usually very mild with prostate cancer treatment and may be a slight pinking of the skin or sometimes a sore back passage

c. Diarrhoea – the x-rays will have to pass through some of your bowel to reach the prostate gland and this can irritate the bowel and cause diarrhoea, it can usually be well controlled by medication

d. Cystitis – a burning feeling when you pass water is due to irritation of the bladder by the X-rays on their way to the prostate gland

e. Piles – these can often flare up during treatment

f. Loss of Hair – you may lose some of your pubic hair where the x-rays pass through the skin but this normally grows back after treatment finishes, the hair on you head will not be affected

g. Impotence – radiotherapy may make it difficult for you to have or maintain an erection

LATE SIDE EFFECTS

In a small number of patients permanent damage to bowel or bladder may occur and can sometimes require treatment. In some men the impotence fails to recover.

While there are forms of alternative prostate cancer treatment, the above are considered to be the proven techniques and procedures.

Adrian Jones writes on several forms of cancer. Further information is available on his website dealing with prostate cancer treatments. You may reprint this if you include this credit.

For prostate cancer treatment we give the patient hormones that will suppress the
male hormones (andrones) in their body. Androgens (male hormones) are produced
mainly in the testicles. Sometimes androgens will stimulate the growth of prostate
cancer and speed up the growth of the cancer cells. If the levels of the androgens is
lowered then the cancer will grow much slower and possibly shrink. Hormone
therapy is not meant to cure the cancer in the prostate but if used in conjunction
with other therapy such as radiation or surgery if their is a risk of recurrence.

There are numerous ways that the androgen levels can be lowered in the
bloodstream:

Orchiectomy – is the surgical removal of one or both of the testicles which are the
main source of androgen production in the male body. By removing the testicle or
testicles the levels of male hormones will drop enough to slow the growth of the
cancer

Luteinizin hormone-release hormone analogs (LHRH) – often chosen instead of
having an orchiectomy, LHRH analogs are injected or inserted as small implants
underneath the skin. These injections are usually given every month or ever 3, 4, 6
or 12 months. The LHRH analogs that are used most of the time are Lupron, Viadur,
Eligard, Zoladex or Trelstar.

Antiandrogens – are given to block the action of the androgens (production of male
sex characteristics). Antiandrogens are given in daily pill form and the drugs used
are Eulexin, Casodex, and Niandron. Antiandrogen treatments is often used in
conjunction with an Orchiectomy because even after the orchiectomy there are sill
androgens that will be produced by the adrenal glands.

Estrogens – largely replaced by LHRH therapy because of severe side effects, the use
of estrogens (hormones that produce female sex characteristics) was often used in
the past as a substitute for Orchiectomy

Side Effects of Hormone Therapy

The side effects for Orchiectomy and LHRH treatment are basically the same:

-reduced or no libido (sexual desire)

-impotence

-hot flashes (these may go away with time)

-breast tenderness and growth of breast tissue

-osteoporosis (weakening of bones) leading to bone fractures

-anemia (low red blood cell counts)

-decreased mental acuity

-loss of muscle mass

-weight gain

-fatigue

-decrease in HDL (“good”) cholesterol

-depression

The Side Effects of Antiandrogen Treatment

-diarrhea

-nausea

-liver problems

-tiredness

*Note that the biggest difference between the side effects of LHRH treatment and
Antiandrogen treatment is when Antiandrogens treatment is given alone their are
less sexual side effects. The patients libido and potency can still be maintained.

Many of the side effects noted above can be treated so if they do arise consult with
you doctor about what can be done to reduce them.

Steven Wallace provides information about Prostate Diseases and Prostate Cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment options at [http://prostate-answers.com]

In July 2008, there was a media frenzy over the new drug “abiraterone” which a clinical study claimed dramatically reduced the size of a prostate tumor and had long term benefits that greatly outweighed any other treatment on the market. As prostate cancer is such a common and deadly disease amongst men it is little wonder there was such intense media coverage of this story.

However, at the time of writing the leading researcher for the team in Britain who are developing abiraterone has admitted that the press have hyped up the drug far beyond its actual capabilities at the present time. He also pointed out that the drug is not yet a cure, as it works on some people and not on others.

Abiraterone is a prostate cancer new treatment that works along the same lines as hormone treatments. However, instead of blocking the testicles from generating testosterone the drug blocks the testosterone that is believed to be made by the tumor. This helps because it is now thought the tumor in its late stages actually lives off its own supply of testosterone.

It has been estimated that if the drug is a successful new treatment after a much larger clinical trial it will not be available until 2011.

The good news, even though it will be a small comfort to men who have prostate cancer now, is that the illness is finally getting the research it deserves and needs to find a prostate cancer new treatment. It is no longer the ignored disease that it once was, which gives us all hope that a cure will be found in the future.

Are you worried you have prostate cancer? Do you have prostate cancer and want to learn more about it? To find out more about prostate cancer, please visit Prostate Cancer Info.

http://www.ProstateCancerFAQ.org

Antioxidants can prevent prostate cancer. This is the new finding revealed by the scientists from Maryland and New Jersey after testing it on laboratory mice. This article will tell you more about these supplements and their ability to prevent or reverse the damage. Make sure to read it all the way to the end.

Those scientists spent considerable time and effort in proving that antioxidants can prevent prostate cancer not only in animals, but also in human beings. During their animal testing phase, they ascertained a molecular pathway in mice that causes cancerous cells to become defenseless to attacks. One notable discovery about this is the resemblance of this pathway with human prostate disease. This can significantly help us find out if antioxidants can prevent prostate cancer in humans.

Below are some of the significant findings in the study:

1. Cancerous cells, such as prostate cells, have the ability to defend themselves from oxygen damage. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey verified through their study that these cells lose that ability when the tumor suppressor gene Nkx3.1 breaks down. Their comprehensive study is part of an issue of the journal Research.

2. Theodore DeWeese, director of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at Hopkins and at the same time one of the authors of this study, explained that normal cells could guard themselves from fee radicals that cause DNA damage and cell death.

3. They used a high-level computer technique or gene expression profiling in order to see a clear comparison of the detailed genetic makeup of normal mice and mice with damaged Nkx3.1 gene. As a result, the mutant mice revealed a higher risk of for DNA damage.

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It was established in the first part of this article that prostate cancer can spread to order parts of the body and this is often manifested long after the condition has advanced. One of the major symptoms experienced is bone pain.

Having or feeling bone pain is never a good sign because it generally indicates aggressive disease that may not be responsive to hormone treatments, while being also highly resistant to other therapies. In that wise, interventions are often combined to ensure the best results in treatment, which would be removal of the cancer and assurance of the disease not relapsing. How helpful are the symptoms of prostate cancer in self diagnosis?

Unfortunately, waiting for the symptoms to appear is not a very healthy idea. As stated earlier, early stage prostate carcinoma has no symptoms, yet this is the best time to cure the disease with something like 10 year biochemical disease free rate. If you miss the treatment at this time, allowing the disease to progress to the later stages when it starts to present more symptoms, you are bound to be rather unlucky in therapies.

Late stage prostate cancer in the spine can start to compress the spinal cord, you know, causing leg weakness and urinary and fecal incontinence, and then you would really wish you had caught it early. Do yourself a favor – knowing your risk increases with age, start to see a doctor yearly from when you turn fifty (or even earlier) so that they can catch the disease before the symptoms appear.

To Learn Secrets of Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Symptoms all you have to do is Click Here!

An aggressive approach to treating and preventing the growth of prostate cancer is the best way to attack the disease, and not the traditional tactic of watchful waiting, according to new research. This proved especially true in older men afflicted with prostate cancer.

“There has been a belief that watchful waiting was the safest treatment for older men with moderate prostate cancer,” said study author Dr. Yu-Ning Wong, an oncologist from the University of Pennsylvania. “Our study suggests there may be a survival benefit,” Wong said.

But, he added, a more definitive answer will have to wait for the outcome of future controlled studies currently underway.

“Our study was observational,” she said. “We looked at the records of men treated or not treated for prostate cancer. It was not a randomized, controlled trial.”

The issue of treatment versus watchful waiting has gained importance as more men live longer; many are diagnosed with low or intermediate grade cancer, which poses no immediate threat to their lives.

The study, published in the December 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at data on more than 44,000 men, aged 65 to 80, who survived at least 12 months following diagnosis.

32-thousand of these men, roughly three quarters of all participants, underwent treatments such as radiation therapy or surgery within six months of being diagnosed. In the other 12,500 cases, the physician and patients opted for watchful waiting to monitor the condition.

Over a 12-year follow-up period, it was found that the death rate for those who opted for an aggressive strategy was significantly lower then the group who watched and waited. 23.8 percent of those who had treatment died, compared to 37 percent of those who did not.

The reduced death rate was true across all subgroups, including men aged 75 to 80 at the time of diagnosis and those with low-risk forms.

“The cautionary note when interpreting this trial is that although it suggests that every man should be treated radically, the decision must be made case by case,” said Dr. Mark S. Litwin, a professor of urology and public health at UCLA who contributed to the study’s accompanying editorial.

Generally, “we know that most men don’t die from it but die with it,” Litwin said of prostate cancer.

“One has to be careful to be sure not to over-treat. The treatment can be worse than the disease.”
When making the crucial decision, the physician “has to be very astute in assessing a patient’s general functional status and overall health,” Litwin said. He added the importance of allowing the patient to have a say in the decision-making.

“The patient should be the driving voice,” Litwin said. “The physician must be cautious not to be paternalistic because this generally is not an acute, life-threatening illness.”

According to Wong, smaller studies in the past have shown benefit to the watchful waiting strategy. However, the majority of research in this area has determined that aggressive treatment is a much more effective life preserving technique, she added.

“Ultimately, a randomized, controlled trial will give us the answer we are looking for,” Litwin said.
A trial that fits this description is currently being performed by the U.S. Veterans Administration, Wong noted. Results are expected in just a few years.

For now, “the decision needs to be based on the patient’s overall condition and personal beliefs,” she concluded.

For more Health News and other Breaking News, visit http://www.ecanadanow.com