Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the United States. The National Cancer Institute estimates that over 240,000 men will be diagnosed with the disease annually, and that as many as 28,000 will die as a result of the disease.
Early-Stage Disease
In cancer terminology, early-stage disease refers to a diagnosis that is determined to be either stage I or stage II. When prostate cancer is discovered in early stages, the prognosis with the best known treatments available is very good: the 5 year survival rate for early stage prostate cancer is listed as being 100 percent. This is misleading however, because the median age at diagnosis for this disease is 67, the reality is that many patients succumb to other diseases before their prostate cancer can become a threat to their health.
Early stage prostate cancer treatment
Treatment of early stage prostate cancer may take one of the following routes, depending on the decisions of one's doctors as well as the overall health of the patient and other related factors.
Watch and Wait, or Watchful Waiting
Watchful Waiting is a treatment option that consists in doing nothing but 'keeping an eye' on the progression of the disease, either through frequent PSA measurements or through watching for the disease to become symptomatic.
Surgery
Sometimes, the oldest and most frequent cure in cancer medicine is still the best, and that is through surgical resection or removal. In this case this typically involves the removal of part or all of the prostate, which can have some unpleasant side effects. Procedures include: open surgery, laparoscopic prostatectomy, robotic laparoscopic surgery, cryosurgery and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP).
Radiotherapy
External beam radiation or brachytherapy is considered an effective form of treatment for early-stage prostate cancers, either as a front-line therapy or in the adjuvant setting, for example following surgery. The side effects can be only minimally problematic and some recent studies suggest that as a front-line treatment, radiotherapy is more effective than watchful waiting.
Hormone therapy
It is believed that male hormones or androgens can promote tumor growth, so this treatment option typically involves medications that block the action of hormones in the body. It is also referred to as anti-androgen therapy.
