New Innovations In Prostate Cancer Treatment To Know About

When you find out that you have prostate cancer, it is understandable that you might feel upset and even confused. Getting a cancer diagnosis is never an easy thing, but it is important that you try to gather as much information as possible about treatments as soon as possible. Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among men, and because of how common it is, it is also the focal point of a vast amount of cancer research. This means that new and/or improved treatments are regularly becoming available for prostate cancer. Get to know more about some of the new innovations in prostate cancer treatment. Then, you can approach your treatment process knowing more about the options available to you.

Liquid Biopsy Screenings

One of the latest innovations in prostate cancer treatment is not a treatment in and of itself, but a means to improve on treatments for individual patients. Many men with prostate cancer have drug-resistant prostate cancer, meaning that the standard first line of defense against prostate cancer may not be effective for their particular case. However, until recently, these men have had to go through unsuccessful treatments rather than know upfront that certain treatments may not be as effective for them.

Once these standard treatments did not work, these men may then go through an invasive biopsy of the prostate tissue itself. Liquid biopsy techniques are different. A liquid biopsy for prostate cancer involves simply having your blood drawn. Then, the doctors in the lab will use specialized particles and techniques to isolate cancer cells in the blood and determine whether they are drug-resistant or not. 

This type of test can save months in the treatment process and can potentially improve overall outcomes of treatment. This biopsy technique is still in the clinical studies phases of development but looks highly promising as a way to speed up and individualize the prostate cancer treatment process. 

Healthy Cell Protection During Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is one of the many treatment options used to deal with prostate cancer. It can be highly effective at killing cancer cells. The problem is that it can also damage healthy cells surrounding the cancer cells. One of the ways that doctors try to counteract that with prostate cancer is by inserting a small balloon in between the rectum and the prostate to separate healthy cells from unhealthy ones. 

The problem with the balloon technique is that it needs to repeated every time a patient goes in for radiation therapy which can sometimes be daily for weeks on end. A new technique is to use a gel system. The gel is only injected into that space between the prostate and the rectum once and then will last for up to three months. This can help to alleviate some discomfort associated with getting radiation treatments and can streamline the process as well. 

Now that you know more about some of the newest innovations in prostate cancer treatment, you can be sure that you talk to your doctor about all of your options as you begin your fight against prostate cancer. 

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