What You Should Know When Dealing with Prostate Cancer

When you are dealing with the news that you have prostate cancer, your mind might be focused more on the bad news than on what you can do to deal with this bad news. Prostate cancer, while a serious diagnosis, is not something impossible to manage or overcome. Instead of focusing on the possible negative consequences of a cancer diagnosis, it is important to think about the treatments and steps that you can take to manage your prostate cancer. Learn more about the treatment options available to you, as well as lifestyle changes that you can make to improve your chances of making a full recovery from prostate cancer. Then, you can start taking steps to deal with your prostate cancer head-on as soon as possible.

Keep a Healthy and Balanced Diet

One of the ways that you can improve your prostate cancer treatment outcomes is to start keeping a healthier and more balanced diet. When you go through treatments for prostate cancer, you could be dealing with a variety of issues that affect your overall health as well. 

Some cancer medications can suppress your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness. Others can cause significant weight loss and other health problems. Switching over to a healthy and balanced diet can help support your immune system function. It will also give you the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy weight while going through cancer treatments. While diet alone will not cure cancer, it can help you remain as healthy as possible in spite of your prostate cancer. 

Prostate Removal

Oftentimes, the first medical treatment offered for prostate cancer is the removal of all or part of the prostate. Prostate cancer that is localized to the prostate and has not spread could potentially be eradicated by surgery alone. Even if the cancer is not completely removed with surgery, the bulk of and source of the cancerous cells will be out of the picture so other areas of cancer can be addressed directly. 

Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy

Because doctors cannot always be certain if a man's prostate cancer is gone with surgery alone, they will often advise their patient to also do radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or both. Radiation therapy is a targeted therapy that addresses the remaining tissue in or around the prostate. Chemotherapy is usually a more systemic treatment, meaning the chemotherapy drugs are administered via a pill or IV infusion and will circulate throughout the entire body. These treatments are highly effective at getting rid of any cancer cells that were not detectable or removed in surgery. 

Hormone Therapy

Some men also go through prostate cancer hormone therapy as a way to prevent the growth and spread of cancer cells. Hormone therapy, also known as androgen deprivation therapy, is designed to reduce the amount of testosterone and other androgens (male sex hormones) in the body of a man with prostate cancer. In some cases of prostate cancer, androgens have been found to encourage and contribute to the growth and spread of the cancer. Hormone therapy can help doctors to get better control over the rate at which that cancer is growing, which allows other treatments to be more effective. 

Knowing these steps can allow you to focus on getting well and improving your chances of making a full and lasting recovery.