Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer. In countries with advanced medicine the ten-year survival rate reaches 98-99%. Successful prostate cancer treatment with the use of the latest techniques is possible even in patients with the end-stage oncopathology. You can find comprehensive information about therapeutic options and the best hospitals for prostate cancer treatment on the Booking Health website.

Surgical treatment

For most patients, surgery to remove the prostate is sufficient to completely cure the disease.

In most countries, doctors perform an open prostatectomy through a large incision in the abdomen or perineum. It is very traumatic, so patients lose a lot of blood and recover long.

Nonetheless, modern clinics can remove a tumor using minimally invasive techniques. In developed countries, preference is given to laparoscopic prostatectomy, which is performed through several short incisions with thin long instruments. When performing such an operation, the surgeon’s hands are outside the patient’s body. The intervention is performed under the guidance of a miniature video camera.

Some medical centers perform robot-assisted prostatectomy using the da Vinci robotic system. The robot-assisted surgical procedure is even safer.

With locally advanced cancer, doctors use radio navigation and fluorescence diagnostics to visualize the tumor and metastatic foci. As a result, they can remove a tumor completely, along with all metastases, thereby reducing the risk of recurrence.

Radiation therapy

Tumor radiotherapy is non-traumatic and does not require recovery, as after surgery. Radiation is less likely to cause erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Like the operation, it is used as part of a radical treatment, which means that it aims to cure the patient of oncopathology.

Apart from its advantages, radiation therapy also has disadvantages, as compared to surgery. It does not cure concomitant prostatic hyperplasia and does not allow histological examination of the tumor and lymph nodes. The treatment takes longer: the course of radiation lasts about 1.5 months.

Nevertheless, the survival rates of patients after radiation therapy are the same as after surgery, so it is considered an equal alternative to surgery. The problem of long-term treatment in developed countries has been resolved: for non-aggressive tumors that account for most cases of prostate cancer, the required dose of radiation can be delivered in just a few sessions using high-precision equipment.

Brachytherapy is another type of radiation that can be used to cure cancer. This treatment is invasive: the radioactive seeds are delivered into the prostate using needles. Cancer can be cured quickly: 2-3 procedures are enough. Treatment is safer because radiation does not pass through healthy tissue on its way to the tumor.

Treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

Radical operations and radiation therapy are not used for the treatment of prostate cancer with bone metastases. The basis of treatment in this case is systemic methods:

• Chemotherapy

• Hormone (androgen deprivation) therapy

In developed countries, radionuclide treatment with drugs containing radioactive Lutetium-177 or Actinium-225 is also used. They are bound to a ligand that is able to accumulate in malignant tissue due to attachment to a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). These proteins are found only in cancer cells, so healthy tissues are not damaged as a result of the procedure. Radioligand therapy works even after the tumor has lost sensitivity to hormone therapy and chemotherapy.

You can undergo diagnostics and treatment of prostate cancer at one of the German cancer centers. You are welcome to use the Booking Health service to compare the prices for treatment in different clinics in Germany and book a medical care program at a favorable cost. We will organize your trip, and you will only have to focus on restoring your health.