Cancer Care

Do you need prostate cancer treatment?

One of the biggest challenges today is distinguishing slow-growing prostate cancers that may never need treatment from cancers that are more aggressive and require therapy. Our specialists carefully assess your prostate cancer and use tools such as MRI scanning and molecular testing to make an informed decision about whether you need treatment or active surveillance. If you receive active surveillance, we will monitor your prostate health periodically and will not start treatment unless your cancer continues to grow.

Minimally Invasive Prostate Cancer Surgery

If you need surgery for prostate cancer, you may be able to have it robotically, which gives the surgeon an enhanced view of the surgical field. A robotic approach allows for more precise surgery and helps preserve erectile function and urinary continence. Our urologic surgeons are highly experienced in performing the latest robotic prostate cancer procedures, including nerve-sparing prostatectomy (removal of the prostate without damaging nearby nerves).

Localized Prostate Cancer Treatments

Some patients benefit from focal therapy, which can be given using cryosurgery (also called cryotherapy, the application of freezing temperatures to kill cancer cells) or high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU, the use of high-energy sound waves to heat and destroy tumor cells). Your doctors will discuss whether focal therapy may be appropriate for you.

Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

You can receive radiation therapy in our state-of-the-art Radiation Oncology Center . We offer radiation treatments designed to spare healthy tissues as much as possible and reduce the risk of side effects, including:

• Image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy, which aims radiation beams of different intensities from many different angles to precisely treat your cancer and adjust for changes in tumor size and shape in real time
• Brachytherapy, the implantation of tiny radioactive seeds in the prostate
• Radiolabeled drugs to treat prostate cancer
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which delivers intense, thin beams of radiation to prostate tissue. Some treatments can be completed in five sessions.

Some people are candidates for another form of radiation therapy called proton therapy. Protons do not penetrate tissue as deeply or scatter radiation as widely as conventional "photon" radiation therapy, thereby reducing the risk of side effects. If proton therapy is an option for you, we can refer you to a local proton therapy center to receive this treatment.

Medical Treatments for Prostate Cancer

Some men with prostate cancer need hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted therapies. You can receive infusion treatments in our comfortable Therapeutic Medicine Center. Your medical oncologist will work closely with you to choose the medications that are best suited for the biology and stage of your tumor.

Targeted therapies

Targeted therapy is designed to affect cancer cells only, thereby minimizing some of the side effects that other medications can cause. (This is contrasts with chemotherapy, which affects all cells in the body.) People with prostate cancer who have a particular mutation in their DNA may benefit from targeted therapy with drugs called PARP inhibitors. These medications are taken orally (by mouth), so you can take them at home.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy boosts the ability of the immune system to find and destroy cancer cells and is an option for some men with advanced prostate cancer. One type of immunotherapy is a cancer vaccine created using a patient's own immune cells to fight the cancer. Another is a family of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors, which take the brakes off the immune response and allow immune cells to detect and kill cancer cells. Studies of immunotherapy for prostate cancer are ongoing.