To treat prostate cancer, there are more options than ever

An estimated one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, often after 65. And as terrifying as that number is, a diagnosis isn't always quite what it seems. Today, the vast majority of patients will survive the disease and a growing number of men are living out their lives without ever undergoing treatment.

- David Dodge

Since the late 1980s, doctors have been able to detect most prostate cancers using a simple and inexpensive blood test, called PSA, that identifies proteins called prostate-specific antigens. The test revolutionised how prostate cancer is diagnosed, allowing doctors to spot it when it is most treatable. By 2021, nearly 98 per cent of prostate cancer patients were still alive at least five years after diagnosis.

Traditional treatments for prostate cancer, including radiation therapy and a surgery to remove the entire gland - have long been effective but often come with life-altering costs.

Today, however, new technologies and treatment methods are expanding men's options. Here's what you should know about your choices for prostate cancer care:

Surgery and radiation

For patients with large, fast-growing tumours that have not yet spread beyond the prostate, surgery and radiation remain the best frontline treatments and both are effective at eradicating the disease.

What these patients choose, then, is “not so much the efficacy of the treatment, but the side effects they are prepared to put up with,” said Dr Freddie Hamdy, the head of the department of surgical sciences at the University of Oxford.

Most men who have a prostatectomy experience some degree of erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, particularly in the immediate aftermath of surgery. (New surgical techniques, however, are helping minimise this.) Men who undergo radiation are somewhat less likely to experience erectile or urinary issues, but slightly more likely to develop bowel problems or other types of cancer.