If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and your doctor recommends surgery, it’s important to realize there is no one-size-fits all option to treat your prostate cancer.
There are several different types of surgical procedures – all with different risks and benefits. The right procedure often depends on the age of the man and the stage of the cancer.
Sometimes the right treatment isn’t surgery at all, according to the experts at the CyberKnife Center of Miami.
CyberKnife Miami, which offers a surgical alternative for prostate cancer using stereotactic body radiation therapy or SBRT, compiled a list of different surgical procedures to help you make an informed decision about your choices.
Prostate Cancer Surgery
- Open prostatectomy is a surgery to remove the prostate and nearby tissues, according to the American Cancer Society. Men generally need a catheter for a week or two following surgery, and this procedure requires a hospital stay. This procedure can also lead to side effects like erectile disfunction and incontinence.
- Laparoscopic prostatectomy removes the prostate with smaller incisions. That has some advantages like less blood loss and pain and fewer days in the hospital. But long-term side effects remain similar to open surgery.
- Robotic prostatectomy is a laparoscopic surgery done with a robotic system. This leads to better precision, but the procedure’s long-term effects are like other surgical procedures.
- Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) can be used to treat an enlarged prostate, or it can be used to relieve symptoms with advanced prostate cancer. The surgeon removes the inner part of the prostate gland to relieve symptoms like trouble urinating. This will not cure the cancer.
Prostate surgery comes with risks; like damage to nearby organs, infection, and reactions to the anesthesia. As mentioned before, it also can lead to side effects like incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Older men may have more problems with incontinence than younger men. According to the Cleveland Clinic, 6% to 8% of men who have had surgery to remove their prostate develop incontinence issues.
According to one study from 2017, 85% of men will report problems with erections following a radical prostatectomy.
Advantages of CyberKnife for Prostate Cancer
There’s a reason patients turn to CyberKnife as a prostate cancer treatment. It has a 98% success rate for prostate cancer treatment.
CyberKnife kills tumors with targeted precision and accuracy, and it leaves healthy tissue unaffected.
“CyberKnife has few side effects. Its pinpoint radiation beams hit only the prostate, so we can give a much higher dose with a lot fewer treatments, leaving healthy surrounding tissue unharmed. There are over 20 years of published studies to support it,“says Dr. Mark Pomper, board-certified radiation oncologist and medical director of CyberKnife Miami.
Here are other advantages to CyberKnife:
- It’s noninvasive.
- There are no risks of infection or long periods of downtime like there are with surgery.
- CyberKnife’s treatments can be done in five therapy sessions over 10 days instead of 42 over three months with other types of radiation treatments.
- The CyberKnife radiation beams, which target and destroy the tumor cells, are exceedingly precise without destroying healthy surrounding tissue.
- There are less risks of side effects including impotence and incontinence.
- The CyberKnife beam moves with the patient’s prostate during treatment to make sure the tumor is the only thing targeted.
- According to Accuray, the maker of CyberKnife, there have been 20,000-plus patients treated over more than15 years and close to 100 peer-reviewed articles about CyberKnife treatment for prostate cancer.
If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, call CyberKnife Miami for a consultation or for a second opinion.
Your doctor may make a treatment recommendation but getting a second opinion and making an informed decision is every man’s right and responsibility.
CyberKnife Miami treats patients from across the country and right here at home in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties. Patients even travel from other countries and the Caribbean for treatment at our cancer facility.
We do everything we can to help them with travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, and setting up their treatment schedule, making it as easy as possible for them. We put patients first.
Our goal is to get you back to your life – cancer free as quickly as possible.
If you would like to find out more about prostate cancer treatment with CyberKnife, call us at 305-279-2900 or go to our prostate cancer website now for more information. www.prostatecancertreatmentmiami.com