According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cancer cases will be diagnosed this year and over 609,000 cancer deaths will occur in the U.S. alone. Despite these sobering numbers, however, the death rate from cancer is in decline from what it was 25 years ago thanks to steady reductions in the number of smokers and advances in early detection and treatment.
Notably, the mortality rate for prostate cancer – the most common malignancy in men after skin cancer – has been dropping steadily over the past two decades. Between 1994 and 2013, the overall prostate cancer mortality rate decreased from 38.6 deaths per 100,000 cases to 18.9 in 2015, the most recent year for which data was available.
Life-Preserving Therapy for Prostate Cancer
PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) blood tests have been important in the early detection of prostate cancer, but advanced, state-of-the-art treatment options have proven to be highly successful in treating cancerous tumors. Specifically, CyberKnife radiation therapy is rapidly becoming the number one preferred treatment for men.
That’s because CyberKnife is non-invasive and thereby reduces the risk of side effects that often result from conventional treatments, including surgery and standard radiation. CyberKnife – often referred to as Radiosurgery also saves a lot of time and, most importantly, your quality of life is not interrupted. Here’s why …
What Are the Benefits of CyberKnife?
With CyberKnife, you undergo 5 treatments over 10 days, compared to 45 treatments over 3 months with standard radiation. You can dress comfortably in your own clothes for your treatment sessions and nothing is required of you, except to lie down on the CyberKnife table and relax while the robot delivers pinpoint radiation to the tumor.
Despite its name, CyberKnife is not a knife at all. It doesn’t involve any cutting, incision, bleeding, anesthesia, pain, or catheters. Treatment is completely pain-free and there are few, if any, side effects and no recovery time.
Why Is CyberKnife Better than Surgery?
CyberKnife is the only technology that follow the tumor as the patient breathes normally during treatment. The prostate constantly moves as the bladder and rectum fill, which makes it difficult for conventional radiation to target the affected area without damaging the healthy tissue that surrounds the prostate.
CyberKnife’s robotic missile-guided image technology, however, continuously pinpoints and follows the tumor’s exact location. This enables your doctor to zero in on the moving tumor and focus hundreds of radiation beams from different angles. The beams bombard the tumor, delivering the highest dose of radiation possible without affecting surrounding tissues or organs.
After completing a CyberKnife treatment, you simply schedule your follow-up appointments. In the meantime, the urologist will follow your PSA results, which should decrease over time.
After completing CyberKnife treatments, you simply schedule your follow-up appointments to make the tumor is responding and is shrinking. In the meantime, the urologist will also follow your PSA results, which should decrease over time.
Prostate Cancer Treatment in Miami
If you have prostate cancer and would like to find out if you are a candidate for CyberKnife, call the CyberKnife Center of Miami today at (800) 204-0455 or 305-279-2900 or request an appointment online. For more information about prostate cancer and CyberKnife radiation therapy, visit our specialized website for prostate treatment at prostatecancertreatmentmiami.com.