Treatment for prostate cancer is highly individual. It should reflect not only the diagnosis, but your health, lifestyle and values. At the Abramson Cancer Center, our prostate cancer experts help you sort through it all.
In our high-volume prostate cancer program, we treat many individuals using both standard therapies and cutting-edge technologies. Those numbers translate into the experience and expertise needed to deliver better outcomes and a more comfortable patient experience.
Prostate Cancer Treatment: Why Choose the Abramson Cancer Center?
Our comprehensive prostate cancer program provides the latest and most effective treatments available. From minimally invasive surgeries to therapies that target each cancer’s DNA, you have access to treatments that cure cancer and improve quality of life. Your care also features:
- Subspecialized doctors: Because our cancer program is so large, you have the rare opportunity to be treated by cancer specialists who only focus on prostate cancer. This subspecialization means that your radiation oncologist or cancer surgeon is a prostate cancer expert. Their experience and knowledge, which includes expertise in the latest care advances, leads to better outcomes.
- Safer treatments: Research shows that high-dose radiation (dose-escalated) therapy can improve outcomes. But more radiation increases the risk that healthy tissues and organs will be exposed. We are one of the few health systems using SpaceOAR Hydrogel, a hydrogel spacer. The SpaceOAR procedure protects the rectum from radiation by using gel to create a space between the prostate and rectum.
- Advanced technology: The prostate can be hard to see clearly without the right imaging technology. That’s why our radiation oncologists use an MR simulator for prostate cancer treatment planning. The MR simulator takes images of you in the treatment position, making radiation treatments safer and more effective.
- Comprehensive salvage therapy options: Sometimes prostate cancer returns (recurs) or is not completely cured after initial treatment. When this happens, salvage therapy for recurrent cancer can be helpful. We offer these lifesaving options, including salvage cryotherapy and salvage prostatectomy. Learn more about our salvage therapies.
- At-home hormone therapy: For your convenience and safety, we now offer hormone therapy treatments in the comfort of your own home. A nurse visits you where you live and administers the treatment.
- 24/7 care for treatment side effects: While lifesaving, some prostate cancer treatments may cause side effects including incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Our doctors specialize in managing these issues to improve your quality of life during and after treatment. We also provide urgent care for any problems you experience while in treatment. Just call your Abramson Cancer Center doctor’s office during regular business hours or send a message via MyChart by myPennMedicine. Read more about managing cancer treatment side effects.
- Support: Your care involves physical, financial and emotional support. You can also join a monthly, online prostate cancer support group for patients and caregivers. See more of our cancer support services.
Types of Prostate Cancer Treatments
Treatment at the Abramson Cancer Center considers every part of you and your life. We offer the full range of prostate cancer therapies, along with promising new treatments through clinical trials.
Our prostate cancer treatment options include:
Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer
Some prostate cancers grow very slowly and don’t cause any symptoms or harm during your life. For these cancers, active surveillance can be an effective treatment option.
Active surveillance uses certain exams and tests, including biopsies, to closely watch the cancer for changes. You only receive treatment if you need it.
Active surveillance can help you avoid more invasive treatments, such as surgery and radiation, and their side effects. At the Abramson Cancer Center, we use advanced imaging technologies to make personalized surveillance plans. Learn more about prostate cancer active surveillance.
Surgery
Surgery is an essential part of treatment for many males with prostate cancer. It may involve removing the prostate gland (radical prostatectomy).
At the Abramson Cancer Center, we are national leaders in the surgical treatment of prostate cancer. Our surgeons are at the forefront of developing and using new minimally invasive surgical techniques, including robotic prostatectomy. People who undergo these procedures experience significantly less pain, less scarring and a faster return to normal activities.
Read more about prostate cancer surgery.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy kills cancer cells with high-energy X-rays. It’s an option for patients who can’t have prostate cancer surgery or who prefer a less invasive treatment.
As one of the largest radiation therapy programs in the U.S., we offer new and advanced radiation treatments, including proton therapy for prostate cancer. Proton therapy uses positively charged atoms (protons) to destroy tumors.
Proton therapy targets tumors precisely, which increases treatment success while protecting healthy tissues. It effectively destroys the cancer while minimizing short-term side effects.
Read more about our radiation therapy options, including image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and Cyberknife®.
Brachytherapy
Also known as internal radiation therapy, brachytherapy involves permanently or temporarily placing radiation sources directly into or near the tumor inside the body. At Penn Medicine, we offer high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR), in which catheters are placed into the prostate, and a radioactive source delivers treatment directly to the tumor. This allows for a high dose of radiation to be delivered to a smaller area than possible with external beam radiation therapy. Following the treatment, the radioactive source and catheters are removed.
Any patient with prostate cancer and an intact prostate gland can be considered a candidate for brachytherapy. Brachytherapy may not be a viable treatment option for patients with significant baseline lower urinary tract symptoms, a history of complex pelvic surgeries, or those unable to receive general anesthesia.
Brachytherapy has many advantages, including shorter treatment periods, fewer and milder side effects, no downtime and more. Read more about the treatment process.
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a state-of-the-art procedure that uses precise ultrasound waves to target and destroy cancer cells in the prostate. HIFU works by directing high-intensity sound waves to a specific area of the prostate gland where cancer cells are located. These sound waves generate heat, which destroys the cancer cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue, preserving urinary and sexual function. This procedure is typically performed under anesthesia and is completed in one to two hours. Because it’s a non-invasive outpatient procedure, it results in a faster recovery with fewer side effects and complications.
Hormone Therapy (Androgen Deprivation Therapy)
Prostate cancer needs male sex hormones (androgens) like testosterone to grow. Androgen deprivation therapy keeps cancer cells from receiving the hormones they need to grow and spread by removing testosterone or blocking its production or effects. The cancer then shrinks and grows at a slower rate.
Hormone therapy may include the use of drugs that change how testosterone works. Or it may involve surgery to remove the testicles to stop hormone production. Find out more about hormone therapy.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapies use your own immune system to fight cancer. We offer the latest immunotherapies to treat prostate cancer, including CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T) cell therapy.
Eligible patients have access to CAR-T cell therapy through our genitourinary cancer clinical trials. Our researchers helped develop this new treatment, which trains powerful immune cells (T cells) to find and destroy cancer cells. Learn more about CAR-T cell therapy.
Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy matches powerful drugs to specific cancers. These drugs target and treat the genetic changes (molecular targets) that make prostate cancer cells grow out of control. You usually take them as a pill.
Prostate biopsies are the standard way doctors identify if you have molecular targets. At the Abramson Cancer Center, our experts developed a simple blood test to see if you have tumor targets.
This blood test is called liquid biopsy, or analysis of circulating tumor DNA. It is not only less invasive than a regular biopsy, it gets you answers sooner. Learn more about targeted molecular therapy.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs that circulate throughout the entire body. You may receive chemo:
- To treat metastatic prostate cancer (prostate cancer that has spread) or recurrence
- If hormone therapy doesn’t work
- Rarely, before or after surgery
Our medical oncologists offer special expertise in the use of chemotherapy to treat cancer, including metastatic prostate cancer. Read more about chemotherapy at the Abramson Cancer Center.
Salvage Therapies
When surgery or radiation does not cure cancer or cancer returns, our prostate cancer specialists are skilled in salvage therapy options. These treatments include:
- Salvage and adjuvant radiation therapy: You receive radiation therapy after surgery to destroy any remaining cancer cells.
- Salvage prostatectomy: After initial radiation therapy treatments, surgeons remove your prostate and any remaining cancer.
- Salvage cryotherapy: Cryotherapy is a minimally invasive treatment that uses extreme cold to kill cancer. It can offer you a second chance for a cure if the cancer returns after radiation therapy.
Bill’s Prostate Cancer Story: Proton Therapy Kept Him Biking
When avid cyclist Bill was diagnosed with prostate cancer, his biggest concern was how long he’d be off his bike after treatment. So Bill did his homework, which led him to the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. The day after he completed his proton therapy for prostate cancer, he rode 20 miles. Watch Bill’s story.
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