Orchietomy is a radical prostate cancer treatment in which the testicles are completely removed. This is done because most cases of prostate cancer develop and progress because of the presence of male sex hormones, or more specifically testosterone and this hormone is produced by the testes.

This type of prostate cancer treatment is a form of hormone therapy which works by manipulating the hormone levels in the body so that the cancerous cells stop growing and dividing. While this therapy is known to have a positive effect on the cancer you must realise that the operation is non-reversible and the chances of your sex life being affected are virtually 100%.

Men who have undergone this form of prostate cancer treatment often report that their libido decreases and so does their desire to have sex. Unfortunately even when they do have the desire for sexual intercourse they may find themselves to be impotent and this can lead to psychological problems in the long term. These side affects of orchietomy are very common and you should take them in to account and discuss them with your partner before you decide to undergo this form of prostate cancer treatment.

Other side effects of this radical prostate cancer treatment are associated with the unbalancing of the male and female hormone levels within the body. By removing the testicles the concentration of testosterone in your body will be reduced by around 90% however the concentration of oestrogen, the female hormone will remain the same. This means that on occasion breast tenderness, growth of the breast tissue and osteoporosis can develop. Other side effects include anaemia, weight gain, and depression and fatigue however your oncologist will be able to explain each of the side effects in much more detail.

Before deciding for or against this form of prostate cancer treatment you need to decide what exactly you want to get out of the treatment. If you want to eliminate the cancer from your body then an orchietomy is a possibility however there are other ways to remove the cancer totally and these alternative treatments have fewer and less severe side effects. If however you are 60+ and do not want to have surgery then this procedure is not for you and radiation therapy can be used to simply control the growth of the cancer. Similarly if you are still relatively young and do not want to be plagued with impotence and lack of sex drive then, again, an orchietomy is probably not the prostate cancer treatment for you.

Because impotence is a major side effect of this radical prostate cancer treatment you should think long and hard before agreeing to anything. Talk to your partner and your oncologist and look into the alternative forms of treatment. There may be a better one for you that only has temporary side effects so that after a few weeks or months you can once again enjoy a full sex life.

About the Author:Your prostate health is important for cancer prevention. For more information, resources and support, please click http://www.prostate-cancer-treatment-hub.com.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Orchietomy For Prostate Cancer Treatment

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Radiation therapy, also commonly known as radiotherapy, is the most frequently prescribed prostate cancer treatment. It is designed to kill off your cancerous cells with high energy radiation beams however even with the accurateness of the process today some normal body cells are inevitably also killed during radiotherapy sessions. This accounts for any side effects you may suffer from.

Radiotherapy as a prostate cancer treatment can be used for all stages of the disease. If you are diagnosed as having early stage prostate cancer then radiotherapy can often cure the disease without the need for surgery. Later stage cancers may require surgery followed by a course of radiotherapy and in terminal cases radiotherapy can still be used to relieve the pain associated with the disease.

There are two main ways in which radiation can be used as a prostate cancer treatment; internally and externally. The type of radiotherapy you receive will depend on your circumstances and the extent of your cancer. For more information about the treatments and how they work you should speak to your oncologist as they will be able to give you much more detailed information than is given here.

The prostate cancer treatment known as brachytherapy, or internal radiation, works by implanting microbeads of radioactive material directly into your cancerous tissue. These microbeads act to kill the cancerous cells in the immediate vicinity and only a very small number of normal body cells also become damaged. This will lead to you suffering from minor side effects such as urinary leakage and occasionally penile dysfunction however in some cases these are almost non-existent.

Having internal radiotherapy as a prostate cancer treatment will mean you have to undergo keyhole surgery however this is a one-time procedure and will only entail a short stay in hospital. Because of the relative expense of this procedure, it is only used in cases where cure is still a viable outcome i.e. where the cancer is still confined to the prostate and has not yet spread to other sites in the body.

External radiation is the more commonly used prostate cancer treatment. It will involve you travelling to the hospital on average five times per week and spending time underneath the radiation machine. In this case the radiation beam penetrates through the skin, muscle and fat before it reaches the cancerous tissue of the prostate and so many more normal body cells are damaged. Thus with this form of treatment you will often suffer with more severe and varied side effects than with the previous option.

With regards to the skin you may lose some of the pubic hair permanently and the area may become a little sore and dry however this is a small price to pay considering the potential outcome. Internally, you might suffer with incontinence, urinary and bowel discomfort and some degree of impotence as the tissues around the prostate gland are affected. Thankfully, advancements are continually being made that mean fewer normal body cells are damaged and so the side effects described may be minimal in your case.

Radiation therapy is a very effective prostate cancer treatment and although it can be gruelling and cause you to feel fatigued a lot of the time, it is well worth pursuing as a treatment.

About the Author:Your prostate health is important for cancer prevention. For more information, resources and support, please click http://www.prostate-cancer-treatment-hub.com.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Radiation Therapy For Prostate Cancer Treatment

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• Robotic Prostate Surgery May Mean Big Trade-Off (abcnews.go.com)
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There are many treatment options for prostate cancer available today. Basically the type of treatment will depend on the extent of the disease as well as the age and health of the patient, expected life span, personal assessment of the potential risks and side effects of the treatment.

For tumors that are still contained within the prostate itself, radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy are common treatment options. Sometimes, no treatment is given until the tumor gets bigger. For the older men who have larger risks of dying from other health problems rather than the prostate cancer, a ‘watchful wait’ approach is often adopted. The doctor will monitor the tumor’s growth by constantly checking the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. If the cancer is not too serious, there will be no further treatment. Once the tumor grows, hormone therapy is usually given. Hormone therapy basically reduces the level of androgens. The androgen male hormone helps in the growth of prostate tumor, hence reducing the level will cause the tumor to shrink over a period of time.

Radiation therapy is another form of prostate cancer treatments. It is divided into two types – external beam and radioactive pellets. External beam is performed using an x-ray type machine, while a radioactive pellet is done by placing high doses of radiation right on the prostate’s tumor. Unfortunately, most patients that undergo radiation therapy end up with impotence within two years.

Radical prostatectomy is a surgery to remove the entire prostate gland as well as the nearby lymph nodes. A catheter is put in through the penis into the bladder to remove the urine from the body until the area is properly healed. This method offers the best treatment for prostate cancer, as long as the tumor is totally removed. The potential risks of this surgical procedure are impotence and incontinence.

The latest technique using robotic arms to alleviate the risk associated with surgery. During the surgery, the surgeon’s hands are connected to a glove-like device with sensors that allow him to use his hands naturally to operate robotic arms that perform the actual surgery. Tiny camera with magnification gives the surgeon a close-up view from the inside. The instruments used are more slender, which results in smaller holes in the body. The scene magnification and the design of the robot arms allow for more subtle movements than a surgeon could perform on his own. The result is that there is less scarring and faster healing.

Each of these prostate cancer treatments has cons and pros. All are most effective when the cancer is detected early. So it is important to go for regular health screening and to consult a doctor if you have any warning sign of prostate cancer.

About the Author:Cindy Heller is a professional writer. To learn more about prostate cancer recurrence, please visit prostate problems symptoms.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – What You Need to Know About Prostate Cancer Treatments

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The most common therapies for prostate cancer are surgical removal of the entire prostate gland, radiation treatment, and hormonal therapy.

All of these are highly effective, however, they can often lead to serious side effects that can downgrade quality of life by making erections difficult to achieve and causing loss of nightly urinary control. Fortunately, there are a few new treatments in the works that show promise.

One is an actual cancer vaccine called Provenge, which has shown an increase in survival times of men with prostate cancer as compared to a placebo in controlled studies.

The company that makes it, Dendreon, has sought FDA approval, and although the FDA has agreed that it appears to be a safe and effective drug, they have taken a long time in approving it, asking for more clinical trials.

The drug aims to teach the body’s immune system how to find and fight cancer cells without hurting normal cells, and so far appears to do just that. If and when Provenge is approved it could be an excellent treatment option for all prostate cancer patients.

Another treatment in the works is a gene therapy called Ad5-TRAIL, which is a deactivated human cold virus (called an adenovirus) that carries the gene treatment to the area of the prostate cancer.

So far Ad5-TRAIL has shown promise, but researchers working on it say it is currently too early to make any conclusive statements about its effectiveness. It is currently in Phase I of clinical trials, and so is a bit far away from being on the market, but gene manipulation is a promising future treatment for all cancers, prostate included.

The third new treatment in the works is a form of cryosurgery colloquially known as “male lumpectomy” but officially called focal cryosurgery. Cryosurgery has been around for awhile, and consists of the surgeon injecting cold argon into the prostate gland destroying the cells. It has always had a better recovery rate than surgeries involving cutting, and less side effects as well.

The new focal version of cryotherapy adds new accuracy with even less chance of such side effects as impotence and urinary incontinence.

The procedure has successfully treated 95% of those with prostate cancer in trials, and 80% walk away with no impotence or incontinence, a blessing for those faced with prostate cancer. The treatment is also outpatient, so patients don’t have to face an extended hospital stay, however, it is generally only aimed at early stage prostate cancer as it consists of destroying only a small tumor confined to the prostate gland.

This treatment is currently only performed at a few places outside of research centers, such as Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

While current prostate cancer treatment is effective and many illnesses are caught on time and treated successfully, there is room for improvement due to the serious side effects of erectile dysfunction and bladder control problems that are so common. Fortunately, some of these new therapies show hopeful promise for those with prostate cancer.

About the Author: James Culp is a prostate cancer survivor and runs ProstAide.org, a blog that keeps track of all the latest prostate cancer treatment options available.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 3 New Prostate Cancer Treatment Options
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If you want to know the latest prostate cancer news you will have to use the Internet to get this information. Although the Web may be a difficult place at times to locate specific information, there are ways to get the latest prostate cancer treatment news right from your computer. It’s even possible with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to have that news delivered right to your computer every day.

I thought of giving you some of the prostate cancer news but it would be yesterday’s news so to speak and be of little value as time wore on. Instead, here are a few ideas on finding the latest prostate cancer treatment news yourself anytime you want to.

To get started you will need to visit one of the larger search engines, like MSN, Yahoo.com, or Google and will begin a search for news specific information. Although you may have use a search engine to find things on the Web, many search engines also have an option to look for news. By selecting news, you’re limiting your search to only those sites that have the latest information you may be looking for.

So once on the search engine home page and after selecting a news type search, you’re ready to begin locating your prostate cancer treatment information.

After doing that, then type in the information in the space provided. In this case, type in “prostate cancer” in the space provided. When you have done this, then click the search button. This will return all the latest news articles about prostate cancer, but we can do better by refining our search a little.

To refine our search to get the latest news on prostate cancer treatments, you would enter the following into the box

“prostate cancer” + “new treatment ” then hit enter.

Be certain to use the quotes are you will get a lot more news that isn’t nearly as targeted as our interest is only in new treatments for prostate cancer. Without the quotes, we may get information on all types of cancer and all treatments, no matter new. The quote marks are important, so that the search engine will know that you want new treatments concerning prostate cancer.

The + between the prostate cancer in new treatment phrases tells your computer system to bring you news that has “prostate cancer” AND “new treatment” in the article. This is the absolutely best way to find prostate cancer news on the Internet.

Another option is to manually review popular news sites such as www.healthfinder.gov and health.yahoo.com/.

If you want your news on any new treatments for prostate cancer to be delivered to your system automatically, consider using a news aggregator and RSS feed. This bit of technology can provide regular updates on any new prostate cancer treatment that’s mentioned in the news or health journals and deliver about information write to your desktop.

Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia has a with of news aggregators available for your use at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/List_of_news_aggregators.

There are of course the old media and methods of staying updated about new treatment options. Of course, this means reviewing newspapers, magazines and journals manually. The good news once again however, is that a news aggregator can do this review of all online editions of these resources

So, although you may think the Web is nothing more than advertisements and spam e-mail, you will find that its search capabilities can provide a fantastic array of useful information on any subject, including new prostate cancer treatments and advancements.

About the Author:Abigail Franks writes on a variety of subjects which include home, family, business, and health.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Best Way to Get Prostate Cancer News About the Latest New Treatments
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