The prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut, located between a man’s bladder and penis, just in front of the rectum.
It is a reproductive organ with the main function of secreting fluid to protect the sperm and providing the inertia for ejaculation. When a man develops prostate cancer, it can cause pain or burning sensations during urination or ejaculation, frequent urination, difficulty stopping or starting urination, erectile dysfunction and/or blood in urine or semen. It’s not clear what causes prostate cancer and if caught early and treated it has one of the lowest mortality rates. Left untreated it can be deadly.
What Are The Treatment Options For Prostate Cancer?
Treatment for prostate cancer depends on the stage of the cancer, your age and overall health. In select cases, men with very slow growing prostate cancer who are older or have other major health problems may forgo treatment initially. Instead, doctors closely monitor their cancer growth and symptoms.
For men who are at higher risk, traditional treatment routes include surgery, radiation therapy, cryosurgery, hormone therapy and/or chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, the side effects of these methods can be harsh and emotionally difficult for men. The type of side effects that you experience may depend on the type of prostate cancer treatment or combination of treatments that you receive. Side effects may include impotence, sterility, incontinence, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fatigue, low blood counts, an increased risk for infection and bleeding.
That’s why the CyberKnife is becoming the number one treatment of choice for prostate cancer.
It’s non-invasive with minimal side effects, if any, plus the CyberKnife saves time and your quality of life is not affected throughout the process.
One of the largest difficulties in treating the prostate is its propensity to shift unpredictably as the patient’s bladder and bowels fill up during treatment and to a lesser extent as he breathes naturally. This is completely natural for a prostate to do; however, this can reduce the effectiveness of standard radiation treatment. Fortunately, the CyberKnife system is designed to target the tumor with pinpoint accuracy and move with the prostate, resulting in a high cure rate, about 98% with minimal, if any side effects and zero downtime.
How Is the CyberKnife System Different?
The CyberKnife System, also known as Radiosurgery delivers hundreds of beams of high dose radiation from all different angles directly to the tumor site. Its robotic arm tracks the tumors motion in real-time minimizing the risk of destroying healthy surrounding tissue and side effects.
The CyberKnife drastically reduces the number of treatments to 5 instead of 42 with other types of radiation therapy. Each treatment takes about 45 minutes and the patients get up off the CyberKnife table and carry on with their daily activities. Other treatments may have painful side effects or long healing times.
CyberKnife patients can also expect exceptional long-term cancer control, minimal side effects on sexual, urinary and bowel function, preserving the quality of life during and after treatment. CyberKnife technology is non-surgical, non-invasive and pain-free with more than two decades of clinical evidence, proven results and patient testimonials.
Patients have an abundance of options for treating prostate cancer. Do your homework to help decide which option is best for you. Things to consider are your overall health, age and lifestyle. The CyberKnife® System was designed to provide treatment for prostate cancer with as little impact on your life as possible so you can quickly and painlessly get back to a healthy, full life.
To schedule an appointment or to learn more about our prostate treatment call 305-279-2900 and go to our website now www.prostatecancertreatmentmiami.com