Determining the right Prostate Cancer Treatment Option for you is dependent on many factors. Below we have provided resources on several different treatment options that take into consideration: Risk Categories, T-Score, Cancer Growth, Gleason Score, and Grade.
Drugs
- ERLEADA® (apalumide) – Used when prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body but still responds to treatments that lower testosterone, or when the cancer has not spread but no longer responds to treatments that lower testosterone.
- Hormone Therapy (Androgen Deprivation Therapy) – Reduces the amount of androgen (male hormones) or completely blocks androgens to reduce/shrink the size of the prostate cancer tumours.
- PROVENGE® (sipuleuci-T) – Cell-based personalized immunotherapy for advanced prostate cancer patients.
- Xofigo Radium-223 – Used to treat prostate cancer that has spread to the bones and no longer responds to hormonal therapies.
- XTANDI® (enzalutamide) – Androgen receptor inhibitor (ARI) that decreases androgens’ connection with the androgen receptor.
- ZYTIGA® (abiraterone acetate) – Deprives tumours of testosterone (quite different from the usual hormone deprivation therapy).
Surgery
- Laparoscopic Radical Nephrectomy – The surgical removal of an entire kidney and surrounding tissue using minimally invasive techniques to ultimately remove the prostate cancer tissues.
- Radical Prostatectomy – The removal of the prostate gland and surrounding tissues, including the seminal vesicles (may also remove lymph nodes from the pelvic region).
- Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy (using da Vinci® Surgical System) -The removal of the prostate and surrounding tissues assisted with precise, robotic-assisted technology (supposedly less painful and blood loss than traditional, open surgery).
-
Robotic Nerve-Sparing Radical Prostatectomy (using CO2) – The removal of the prostate gland assisted with precise, robotic-assisted technology (this procedure attempts to preserve as much of the surrounding, prostate nerve structures).
Radiation
- Brachytherapy – Places a seed implant into the prostate cancer tumour (up to Gleason 7 in Ontario).
- CyberKnife® (Robotic EBRT) – Tracks the prostate in real-time to ensure precise and effective radiation treatment (available in Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montreal).
- External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) – The most common variation of radiation therapy where an external radiation beam targets the tumour in the prostate.
- High Dose-Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy – Internal radiation therapy where tubes are inserted into the prostate to destroy the prostate cancer cells.
- Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) – Uses high- or low-energy proton beams to target and destroy prostate cancer cells (available in France, Germany, Switzerland, USA, and Japan).
Other
- Active Surveillance – The prostate cancer is actively monitored by a healthcare team to determine treatment options (typically only recommended when it is localized prostate cancer).
- Cabazitaxel – A form of Chemotherapy (also known as Jevtana) that stops the prostate cancer cells from separating into more cancer cells.
- Chemotherapy – Cytotoxic (anti-cancer) drugs that are used to destroy prostate cancer cells.
- Clinical Trial: Focal Therapy (Laser ablation – MRI guided robotic).
- Clinical Trial: Immunotherapy – Uses either a vaccine such as Provenge® or some other drug to stimulate the body’s immune system to attack the cancer.
- Clinical Trial: Photodynamic Therapy injects a drug which seeks out the cancer and when irradiated with a laser or some form of light the drug then becomes activated to attack the cancer.
- Cryosurgery – A procedure where an extremely cold gas or liquid freezes the prostate cancer cells to destroy them.
- HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound) – A procedure that uses high-frequency sound waves to destroy prostate cancer cells (not covered by OHIP).
- Hyperthermia – Transurethral Hyperthermia (Available in Germany).
- Hyperthermia – Whole Body Version (Available in Germany).
