However, CaP CURE urges patients to learn all they can about all available options. Surgery carries a risk of incontinence and impotence. But advances in nerve-sparing surgery have reduced these, and other side effects. Radiation therapy is usually given to patients whose disease is confined or immediately outside the capsule of the prostate. Radiation is used to control the disease, but it is also used in advanced cases to ease pain.
Radiation works by damaging all cells that divide quickly.
Along with eliminating cancerous cells, radiation can damage cells in the lining of the intestine, which can lead to controllable side-effects. New computer imaging techniques help focus the radiation beam on the tumor, away from healthy tissue. Hormone therapy seeks to control prostate cancer by limiting the supply of hormones that cancer cells need to grow. It is used in advanced cases in which the cancer has spread outside the gland. Doctors can reduce or eliminate the supply of testosterone by administering anti-androgen drugs or LHRH analogs or by surgically removing the testis.