Prostate Cancer
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The prostate gland is an organ located deep in the male pelvis. It is situated between the bladder and the rectum and wraps around the urethra, the tube through which urine passes.
Cancer of the prostate is an abnormal growth of cells that replaces normal tissues and inhibits normal function causing symptoms such as difficulty with urination and pain. Prostate cancer may spread through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
Fortunately, there is a screening tool to detect prostate cancer before symptoms occur. This screening tool is a blood test which detects prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by normal prostate tissues. When cell growth is increased, as in tumors, levels of PSA in the bloodstream rise. A high PSA level may indicate the presence of cancer of the prostate, although other conditions can also cause an elevation of PSA. The American Cancer Society recommends that men aged 50 or older receive a digital rectal exam (DRE) and a PSA blood test annually to screen for prostate cancer. Only a prostate biopsy can confirm the diagnosis.
Prostate Cancer Treatment
When detected early, prostate cancer can be treated by surgery or radiation therapy with similar success. Surgery consists of the removal of the prostate gland and surrounding tissues. Side effects of surgery may include urinary, gastrointestinal, and sexual dysfunction, in addition to the general risks of surgery such as infection.
For those patients who are not candidates for surgery, prefer non-surgical approaches, have advanced disease or residual disease after surgery, radiotherapy is used.
Conventional radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays to damage and kill cancer cells. These x-rays must travel through normal tissues and organs such as the bladder and rectum to reach the prostate. Radiation may cause damage to these normal tissues producing treatment side effects such as temporary or occasionally permanent urinary, gastrointestinal, or sexual dysfunction.
The two most common methods of delivering radiation are conventional external beam radiation therapy and prostate brachytherapy. Both methods use X-rays as a source of radiation. X-rays are very lightweight packets of energy that pass through tissue creating damage along their paths. A machine called a linear accelerator delivers a dose of radiation each day to the patient over several weeks. In prostate brachytherapy, radioactive seeds are implanted into the prostate gland in a single surgical procedure; the seeds release radiation into the prostate over the duration a few months.
Both methods are effective at killing cancer cells and curing patients, but treatment side effects occur and sometimes limit the dose needed for the best chance of cure. Protons, which are positively charged particles, can also be used to deliver radiation therapy. A cyclotron is used to accelerate the protons to the best energy for each patient. Protons deposit less energy to normal tissues than X-rays, and thus may cause fewer cancer treatment side effects.
Proton radiation therapy has been used to treat a few uncommon types of cancer for more than forty years in centers over the world. However, advances in imaging and computer technology now allow the efficient and safe application of proton therapy to a broad range of cancers. The University of Florida Department of Radiation Oncology has a history of more than 30 years of clinical treatment, research and outcomes reporting. At the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute we plan to combine our experience with proton therapy and other new technologies to improve cure rates and quality of life, by decreasing side effects caused by cancer treatment.
Prostate cancer is one of many types of cancer treated by proton therapy at Florida Proton.
