THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK

Contents of This Section

• In the beginning …
• Staging and grading (with video presentation)
  • Clinical staging (with video presentation)
  • Pathological staging
  • Gleason grading (with video presentation)
    • Gleason grades 1 and 2
    • Gleason grade 3
    • Gleason grade 4
    • Gleason grade 5
  • The Gleason score
  • Misstaging and misgrading: it’s a problem
• Treatment: the absolute basics
• The natural history of conservatively treated prostate cancer
• First-line treatments for early stage (localized) disease
• What! You mean I’m going to have to CHOOSE?
• Comparative data on the various options for treatment of early stage (localized) prostate cancer
  • Watchful waiting vs. radical prostatectomy: the Scandinavian trial
  • LRP vs. RRP: the Memorial Sloan-Kettering data
• Active surveillance and watchful waiting (with two video presentations)
• The downsides of conservative management
• Established surgical treatments
  • Radical prostatectomy: a brief historical note
  • Open radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP)
  • Open radical perineal prostatectomy (RPP)
  • Minimally invasive (laparoscopic) radical prostatectomy (LRP)
    • Who needs a robot — and why?
• Established radiotherapeutic treatments
  • External (photon) beam radiation therapy (EBRT)
  • Proton beam radiation therapy (PBRT)
  • Permanent implant (low-dose-rate or LDR) brachytherapy
  • Temporary implant (high-dose-rate or HDR) brachytherapy
  • Brachytherapy and external beam combination therapies
• Newer forms of radiation therapy
  • Stereotactic body radiation therapy (the CyberKnife and RapidArc procedures)
• Other forms of first-line treatment
  • Cryotherapy
  • High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
  • Hormone therapy
  • Focal therapy for localized prostate cancer: a treatment “in puberty”
• Side effects and complications of first-line therapy: an overview
  • The “Quality of Life and Satisfaction with Outcome” study
  • Erectile dysfunction (risk, natural history, and management)
  • Urinary incontinence
  • Painful defecation
• When first-line treatment fails the patient with early stage disease
  • Establishing risk and prognosis
  • Expectant management (e.g., watchful waiting and active surveillance)
  • The role of salvage surgery
  • The role of salvage radiation therapy
  • The role(s) of hormone therapy
  • Investigational forms of salvage therapy
• First-line treatment for non-localized disease
  • Active surveillance/watchful waiting
  • The role of surgery (surgical debulking)
  • External beam radiotherapy
  • Hormonal therapies
  • Investigational therapies
• Treatment for advanced (non-metastatic) disease
  • Hormonal therapies
  • Investigational therapies
• The treatment of metastatic disease (and video presentation)
  • Watchful waiting
  • Hormonal therapies
    • Orchiectomy
    • Luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists
    • Luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) antagonists
    • Nonsteroidal antiandrogens
  • Investigational therapies
• The treatment of hormone-refractory disease
  • Anti-androgen withdrawal
  • Chemotherapy
• Palliative treatment in late-stage disease
  • Management of severe bone pain
  • Management of fractures and other complications
• Monitoring treatment: an overview
  • The role of PSA tests
  • The role of bone scans
  • The roles of other tests
• Alternative and complementary medicines
• Side effects and complications of hormonal therapies
  • Gynecomastia (swelling and tenderness of the breast)
  • Bone loss
  • Hot flashes
  • Mood changes and depression
• Living with prostate cancer
  • Introduction to integrative oncology, by Barrie Cassileth, MS, PhD
  • Exercise, wellness, and response to prostate cancer treatment

Summary Overview

The management of prostate cancer is complicated. We do not have all of the answers to all the questions that need answers.

In this section of The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink, our goal is to complete and maintain a set of information dealing with:

• Treatment for early stage disease (i.e., prostate cancer that is, or at least seems to be, confined to the prostate)
• Treatment for non-localized disease (i.e., prostate cancer that has, or at least seems to have, escaped from the prostate itself into the nearby tissues)
• Treatment for advanced disease (including non-metastatic advanced disease, metastatic disease, and hormone-refractory disease)
• Management of prostate cancer-related complications (such as impotence and the side effects of hormone therapy)

You may also find it useful to surf other areas of this site for things like “Finding the cancer specialist who is right for YOU” or “How to pick a prostate cancer surgeon.” Last but by no means least, you may be interested in an article called ‘Views from the “other side”,’ written by two leading specialists in the management of prostate cancer, in which they write very personally about their own experiences of diagnosis and treatment for this disease.

Content on this page last reviewed and updated March 2, 2016.