Radiation Therapy May Prevent Prostate Cancer Recurrence in Santa Fe

Radiation Therapy :

In recent years, radiation therapy has been found to be an effective treatment method in preventing prostate cancer recurrence. New research shows that radiotherapy works especially well when combined with a drug called docetaxel. Although the combination of radiation and docetaxel isn’t new, the effectiveness of this treatment was previously unknown in cases of prostate cancer recurrence.

What is radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other particles to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. Radiation can be used to treat many different types of cancer and may be used along with surgery, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy. There are different types of radiation therapy, including external radiation (also called external beam radiation) and internal radiation (also called brachytherapy). For most people with prostate cancer who need radiation treatment, external beam radiation is used.

Why use radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy uses beams of energy to destroy cancer cells. When radiation therapy is used following surgery, it helps shrink prostate cancer tumors and prevent them from returning. A radiation oncologist can tailor a treatment plan for you if you are at high risk of recurrence. Radiation therapy is sometimes used as a part of combined hormone and radiation therapy (or HDR) to treat patients with localized prostate cancer that has not spread beyond their prostate gland.

How does it affect health?
Radiation therapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses ionizing radiation to treat and prevent cancer. Radiation therapy can be external (or exogenous) or internal (endogenous). In external radiation, high-energy rays are beamed from outside of your body, damaging cancer cells and disrupting their ability to replicate. Internal radiation uses radioactive particles that are implanted into or near tumors for targeted damage. This type may require repeated treatments over weeks, months, or even years.

How does radiation therapy work?
Radiation therapy is a noninvasive procedure that uses high-energy beams of radiation to treat prostate cancer. These rays pass through healthy tissue and find and destroy cancerous cells, which can remain even if a tumor has been removed surgically. The goal is to kill all cancer cells before they have an opportunity to metastasize, or travel elsewhere in your body and cause harm.

Who gets radiation therapy?
Doctors can use radiation therapy to treat cancer that has spread beyond a tumor’s original site. Radiation therapy destroys cancer cells by exposing them to high doses of radiation. Doctors are especially likely to recommend radiation if prostate cancer is detected early and it has already begun spreading throughout a patient’s body, or if it comes back after treatment.

What happens during treatment?
In radiation therapy, beams of ionizing radiation are aimed at cancer cells. The beams come from either a machine outside your body or a machine inside your body. The radiation kills any cancer cells it touches. Radiation is most often given five days per week for five to seven weeks.

A look at results from another study on men with metastatic prostate cancer
New results from a randomized trial show that a short course of radiation therapy may prevent tumor recurrence after surgery to remove prostate tumors. If these findings can be confirmed, radiation may become a treatment option for all patients with clinically localized prostate cancer who are at high risk of recurrence after surgery. To date, only half of the men who undergo radical prostatectomy are free from disease at 10 years, and 3% to 5% die each year from metastatic disease.