Prostate Cancer Radiation Treatment

In fact, depending on your age and health it may be years before radiation treatment becomes necessary. Radiation therapy is only one of the therapies you and your doctor will have to decide on.

These tips will give you an idea of which type of therapy or combination of therapy you should ask your doctor about.

First a note of caution: This article is not intended as medical advice, nor should it be taken as medical advice. It is for informational purposes only. As always with a physical illness you should consult your personal physician right away.

One of the first things you need to know is that a prostate malignancy is perhaps one of the slowest growing tumors of all the other cancers. Because it is so slow growing years may pass with out any noticeable growth of the tumor.

When this happens your doctor will generally tell you that you are in Stage One of the disease. This means your attending physician may well take a "wait and see" attitude, before he or she decides what course of action is to be taken.

You may even think the doctor is being a bit casual about the whole thing. Rest assured though your doctor is not being casual. He is doing what most practicing physicians will do when you are first diagnosed with prostrate cancer and making the decision if prostate cancer radiation treatment is needed.

During this "wait and see" period your doctor will monitor you closely. There are several tests your physician will use to do this.

Actually there is no one test which can determine on its own if you have prostate cancer. Perhaps the most common one is a test known as the Digital Rectal Examination. More than likely this is the test your doctor may have used to decide you may have a problem with your prostate.

This test is quite simple, but uncomfortable, and it requires the doctor to insert a gloved finger into the rectum. Doing so enables him to feel the prostate and tumors, thus enabling him to tell if there has been a change in the size of the tumor or additional tumors have formed.

There are other tests such as the PSA blood test. The PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) is a protein which is produced by (you guessed it) the prostate gland. Small amounts of the protein pass into the body through the blood. A normal PSA count, in the blood, is between zero and four. However, depending on your age it could be higher. Once it reaches a level of 10 or more it can indicate the possibility of prostate cancer.

The truth is other physical conditions could also have the level that high, that is why a PSA test is not the only test used to detect the malignancy. Additional blood and other tests are used to finalize the diagnoses and form a plan of attack on the disease. One form of attack may be the use of prostate cancer radiation treatment.

The Radiotherapy is when your doctor will use a high intensity x-ray to beam radiation directly onto the prostate. This is done in small doses of a few minutes duration at a time. In most cases you will be able to return home the same day. Normally this therapy will be recommended instead of surgery if the disease is localized. As you have read, there are many tests and other factors, which your doctor must consider, before deciding if prostate cancer radiation treatment should be your plan of attack.