One common form of therapy now for localized prostate cancer is radiation therapy that uses excessive energy x rays to eliminate cancer cells. These x-rays can either be delivered using an outside light beam or by implanting radiation’ seeds’ into the prostate gland.
External beam radiation therapy treatments are normally offered on a regular basis 5 times every week (Monday to Friday) for anything up to about six or maybe seven days and each treatment, and that is painless, lasts for just a few minutes. (Such remedies are usually commonly offered to patients whose cancer is not localized on the prostate gland but has spread into the pelvis and can also be used to relieve discomfort and also minimize tumors in cases of advanced prostate cancer.)
In instances where tumors are big it’s likewise typical to provide hormone treatment alongside radiation therapy in order to block the action of the male hormones which feed the growth of prostate cancer tumors. Such hormonal treatments are usually continued for several months, or even years.
External beam radiation targets not only the prostate gland but additionally the seminal vesicles, to which prostate cancer could conveniently spread. In earlier styles of this particular treatment it was also common to irradiate the pelvic lymph nodes but today this’s simply done in a minority of instances where evidence indicates that this’s required.
There are few fast side-effects to outside beam light apart from exhaustion and possibly diarrhea when light is used to the rectum, but both of these soon pass after treatment is finished.
Longer-term affects include impotence that affects aproximatelly 40 % to 50 % of individuals. This figure is however declining with the launch of computer technology which now permits treatment to be customized precisely on the anatomy of the patient with much more accurate targeting than has earlier been possible.
Turning to internal radiation therapy, this is a process in which many tiny seeds are implanted straight into the prostate gland to supply a high dose of light straight into the affected tissue.
Ultrasound is utilized to guide very thin needles from the perineum into the prostate gland to put the tiny seeds of palladium and iodine in a design that has previously been mapped using an extremely advanced computer program. The procedure, which usually takes around an hour, is carried through under local anesthetic and the patient is generally allowed home the very same day. One alternative approach is to use more powerful temporary seed implants that are launched over several days and perhaps to combine this with low dose external light therapy. This particular procedure does however require hospitalization.