Prostate Cancer Treatments

At RWJBarnabas Health, our oncologists have extensive experience in treating prostate cancer at our top-rated hospitals and health centers throughout NJ.

As a patient, you may have several options for prostate cancer treatment which can include:

• Active Surveillance: The goal of active surveillance is to watch a cancer that is growing very slowly and will not likely do any harm for a long time, if ever. If the cancer starts growing faster or begins to cause symptoms, treatment such as surgery or radiation therapy may be done at that point.
• Surgery: The main goal of surgery is to cure you of prostate cancer by removing the cancer cells. The surgery can remove the prostate as well as nearby tissues and lymph nodes. This surgery is known as a prostatectomy. If the cancer can’t be removed with a prostatectomy, your health care provider may advise another surgery or other prostate cancer treatment options to ease symptoms. One example is a transurethral resection of the prostate, or TURP.
• Radiation Therapy: This therapy uses radioactive beams to kill or shrink cancer cells. There are two ways to have radiation therapy; one way sends radiation to the cancer from a source outside your body. For this, a machine sends a beam of radiation to your prostate. This is called external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). The other type of radiation therapy sends radiation to the cancer from a source inside your body. For this, tiny radioactive metal seeds are placed into your prostate using thin, hollow needles. Internal radiation is also called brachytherapy. Early-stage prostate cancer treatment may include EBRT alone, brachytherapy alone, or the two of them together. If your cancer is high-risk and may have spread to areas near the prostate, you may also have hormone therapy along with the radiation.
• Cryotherapy: Also known as cryosurgery, this treatment freezes the cancer cells before they have a chance to spread. The health care provider freezes them by making a tiny incision and inserting a thin metal probe into the prostate. The probe sends liquid nitrogen into the prostate to freeze the cancer cells. This is not a common first treatment for prostate cancer.
• Hormone Therapy: Also known as androgen deprivation therapy, this hormone treatment aims to lower or block male hormones such as testosterone, which can cause the cancer to grow. This can be done through hormone shots or via surgery to remove the testicles so testosterone cannot be produced. Hormone therapy is not a common treatment for early-stage cancer. But hormone therapy is often used along with radiation therapy in cases where the cancer has grown outside the prostate but has not spread to other parts of the body or the cancer has a higher risk of coming back after treatment.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is the use of medicines to slow the growth of cancer and reduce symptoms and is most often used if cancer has stopped responding to hormone treatment. It might also be used along with hormone therapy as the first prostate cancer treatment. Chemotherapy does not cure the cancer. It can decrease the pain from with prostate cancer, shrink the tumor, lower the levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and may help you live longer.
• Vaccine Therapy: This treatment uses vaccines to boost the immune system and safeguard the body from infections. There is a vaccine (sipuleucel-T) that can be used to boost the immune system to help treat prostate cancer. It is used to treat late-stage prostate cancer that is no longer reacting to hormone therapy, but that is causing few or no symptoms. The vaccine does not cure prostate cancer. But it can often help men live longer.
• Bone-Directed Therapy: If prostate cancer spreads, it often goes to the bones first. This can cause pain and other symptoms. Different types of medicines can be used to help slow the growth of the cancer in bones and help relieve symptoms.

To contact one of New Jersey’s best prostate cancer specialists call
844-CANCERNJ or 844-226-2376.