Patients should look for facilities where surgeons conduct many such procedures and have shown good results, Huffman suggests. Even if incontinence or other effects occur, Huffman says. But doctors also use radiation to treat prostate cancer. It may be used instead of surgery, for early stage cancer, or after surgery to destroy cells that may remain in the area. In a technique called brachytherapy, doctors implant tiny radioactive seeds in the prostate to focus the radiation right where it's needed.
Doctors also use hormone therapy.
Because prostate cancer cells need male hormones to grow, cutting the amount of testosterone in the body helps suppress the cancer for a period of time. This may be helpful to men whose cancer has spread outside the prostate. Others are studying using extreme cold to destroy cancer cells. Finally, a man who is elderly may choose to live out his life with prostate cancer, untreated.