Prostate Cancer

After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. That’s why we offer the most advanced treatments available for fighting the disease. In fact, as an accredited Comprehensive Community Cancer Program, we offer nearly all the same options and technology you’d find at an academic medical center, just close to home.

Our multidisciplinary care team will develop a treatment plan that’s personalized to you—designed around your specific condition, personal preferences and treatment goals. And we’ll treat your prostate cancer holistically, caring for not only your physical health, but your mental and emotional health, too.

Prostate Cancer Symptoms

Early prostate cancers typically don’t show any signs or symptoms. But once prostate cancer is advanced, it may cause:

• Blood in the urine or semen
• Erectile dysfunction
• Pain in the lower back or pelvis
• Trouble urinating
• Weakness/numbness in the legs or feet

Prostate Cancer Risk Factors

A risk factor is something that increases your risk for developing a certain type of cancer. Some, like those related to genetics, you can’t change. But others, like risk factors related to lifestyle, you can.

Common risk factors for prostate cancer include:

• Age, with risk increasing as you get older
• Family history
• Inherited genetic mutations, like BRCA1 and BRCA2

Prostate Cancer Types

Most prostate cancers are adenocarcinomas that develop in the gland cells that make prostate fluid.

Other, much rarer, types of prostate cancer include:

• Neuroendocrine tumors
• Sarcomas
• Small cell carcinomas
• Transitional cell carcinomas

Diagnosing Prostate Cancer

Thanks to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests, most prostate cancers are caught early. PSA is a protein made by cells in the prostate gland. It’s mostly in semen, but a small amount is also found in blood.

We use PSA blood tests to screen men for prostate cancer. If your PSA level is high, we may recommend further diagnostic tests to look for disease.

These may include:

• Biopsy: If we suspect cancer, we’ll likely recommend getting a tissue sample to confirm the presence of disease. In a prostate biopsy, we’ll remove small samples from the prostate to look at with a microscope. A biopsy is the only way to diagnose prostate cancer.
• Imaging Tests: Often, we’ll use a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) or an MRI to help guide a biopsy. We also may use a bone scan or positron emission tomography (PET) scan to help determine if cancer has spread.

Treating Prostate Cancer

Your prostate cancer care team may include medical, surgical and radiation oncologists, urologists, and supportive care clinicians, such as dietitians, counselors and nurse practitioners. The team will create a treatment plan for your individual case, based on the latest research, to help you achieve the best outcome.

In general, treatment for prostate cancer may include:

• Chemotherapy: If prostate cancer has spread outside the prostate gland and hormone therapy isn’t working, we may use chemotherapy to help treat the disease.
• Hormone Therapy: Hormone therapy can help reduce levels of male hormones, called androgens, in the body so they no longer fuel cancer cell growth. We may use it if surgery and radiation therapy aren’t options, or along with radiation therapy if you’re at a high risk of the cancer coming back after treatment.
• Immunotherapy: In certain cases, we may recommend a drug to help the immune system attack prostate cancer cells. This is often when prostate cancer has spread and is no longer responding to other treatments. We also may use checkpoint inhibitors to treat people whose prostate cancer cells test positive for specific gene changes.
• Radiation Therapy: Depending on the stage of the cancer, we may use radiation therapy in certain cases, such as to treat cancers that have grown outside the prostate gland and cancers that aren’t completely removed or come back. 
  • We offer one of the most advanced treatments available for fighting prostate cancer, a procedure called image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT). With this treatment, specialized computers are used to customize the size and intensity of the radiation beam to fit the shape of the tumor, reducing radiation to nearby healthy cells and the risk of side effects.
  • Another advanced radiation therapy treatment we use to treat prostate cancer is RapidArc® radiotherapy. RapidArc is an advanced form of IMRT that delivers precise radiation while rotating around a patient. This rotational treatment allows radiation beams to enter from many angles allowing for a high radiation dose to the target, while limiting radiation to healthy tissues.
  • In addition, we use hypofractionation in certain cases to reduce the number of treatments a patient needs. Hypofractionation delivers more doses of radiation per treatment, allowing patients to complete their course of radiation therapy faster.
  • When treating prostate cancer patients with radiation therapy, we may use SpaceOAR™ Hydrogel, a gel placed between the prostate and rectum to reduce the amount of radiation to the rectum.
• Surgery: If we don’t believe cancer has spread outside the prostate, we’ll commonly use surgery to remove some or all of the prostate gland and some of the tissue around it. You may be a candidate for robotic-assisted prostatectomy to remove part or all of the prostate, which we offer as a surgical option to help reduce pain, bleeding and complications.
• Watchful Waiting: Prostate cancer tends to grow very slowly. For that reason, your doctor may recommend not treating the disease unless it’s needed. We’ll likely order regular PSA blood tests and other tests to monitor your cancer.