What is the right way to treat prostate cancer?
Four methods are often used in the United States to treat prostate cancer today. The first is surgery to remove the cancer. The second is radiation therapy, which uses different types of high energy radiation to kill the cancer cells. The third is cryotherapy or cryoablation, which is a way of freezing the prostate to destroy the organ. (Cryotherapy is widely considered to be an experimental procedure at this time.) The fourth is hormonal therapy, in which different types of hormone are used on their own or in combination with other methods to stop the cancer cells from growing. All these methods have benefits and risks. There is no one “right” way to treat prostate cancer. The treatment that offers the best option for one patient may be quite wrong for another patient. Making the proper choice of treatment for a particular patient is sometimes very difficult. The doctor will want to consider the age and general health of the patient, the extent of the patient’s disease, how the patien
