Being diagnosed with prostate cancer nowadays is by no means a death sentence however it is imperative that you get treatment without delay. There are a number of prostate cancer treatment options available and the best one for you will depend on your individual case. You need to speak with your oncologist and decide what you want to achieve from your prostate cancer treatment so that the right course of treatment can be selected for you.

You might want to consider taking a family member with you to your consultation so that they can ask any questions that you might forget because of the stress associated with the situation.

Ask your oncologist if he/she has any leaflets about the various prostate cancer treatments because as you go back over your conversation at a later date you will undoubtedly forget important aspects that require consideration. Also ask your oncologist to explain the different prostate cancer treatment options to you in easy terms. Medical jargon can be overwhelming and confusing to a stressed mind so try to make things as easy as possible.

Simply put there are three major forms of prostate cancer treatment; surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Hormone therapy is also often used as a complimentary therapy and any combination of the three main treatments can be used together or in conjunction with hormone therapy. The type of prostate cancer treatment that you receive will depend to a large extent on the cancer itself and how far it has progressed.

When the initial cancer spreads to the surrounding tissues and then to other sites in the body, the type of prostate cancer treatment used will become more palliative than curative i.e. the treatment will slow down the growth of the cancer and help control the side effects rather than actually curing the disease.

In addition factors such as your age, general health and what you want to achieve from the treatment will also be taken into consideration. The elderly may suffer from surgery much more than they would suffer with prostate cancer and so they may choose to do nothing except slow down the growth and spread of the disease. Younger men however may want to get rid of the cancer entirely and so opt for surgery and then probably radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancerous cells.

There are a lot of things to consider when you choose your form of prostate cancer treatment and the decision should not be rushed. Prostate cancer is one of the slow growing cancers and so a few weeks of deliberation will, in most cases, have no major effect on the size of your cancer or the symptoms experienced.

New Prostate Cancer Treatment Options
The most common therapies for prostate cancer are surgical removal of the entire prostate gland, radiation treatment, and hormonal therapy. All of these are highly effective, however, they can often lead to serious side effects that can downgrade quality of life by making erections difficult to achieve and causing loss of nightly urinary control. Fortunately, there are a few new treatments in the works that show promise.

One is an actual cancer vaccine called Provenge, which has shown an increase in survival times of men with prostate cancer as compared to a placebo in controlled studies. The company that makes it, Dendreon, has sought FDA approval, and although the FDA has agreed that it appears to be a safe and effective drug, they have taken a long time in approving it, asking for more clinical trials.

The drug aims to teach the body's immune system how to find and fight cancer cells without hurting normal cells, and so far appears to do just that. If and when Provenge is approved it could be an excellent treatment option for all prostate cancer patients.

Another treatment in the works is a gene therapy called Ad5-TRAIL, which is a deactivated human cold virus (called an adenovirus) that carries the gene treatment to the area of the prostate cancer. The third new treatment in the works is a form of cryosurgery colloquially known as "male lumpectomy" but officially called focal cryosurgery. Cryosurgery has been around for awhile, and consists of the surgeon injecting cold argon into the prostate gland destroying the cells. It has always had a better recovery rate than surgeries involving cutting, and less side effects as well.

The new focal version of cryotherapy adds new accuracy with even less chance of such side effects as impotence and urinary incontinence. The procedure has successfully treated 95% of those with prostate cancer in trials, and 80% walk away with no impotence or incontinence, a blessing for those faced with prostate cancer. The treatment is also outpatient, so patients don't have to face an extended hospital stay, however, it is generally only aimed at early stage prostate cancer as it consists of destroying only a small tumor confined to the prostate gland.

This treatment is currently only performed at a few places outside of research centers, such as Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. While current prostate cancer treatment is effective and many illnesses are caught on time and treated successfully, there is room for improvement due to the serious side effects of erectile dysfunction and bladder control problems that are so common. Fortunately, some of these new therapies show hopeful promise for those with prostate cancer.

Breast cancer treatment options are now more advanced. Constant research has definitely helped a lot in giving cancer patients another life to live. Some of the treatments today include chemotherapy, hormonal treatment (anti-estrogen), radiation, and surgery. These treatments are usually used together depending on the extent of the disease. It can be very confusing on your part to choose the best treatment option to cure your cancer and it would be best if you have a little knowledge about some of these procedures.

The treatments are categorized as follows:
1. Regional or local treatment – this treatment is only limited to the area where the tumor was found. It also included treating local or adjacent lymphatics.
2. Alternative treatments – there is still no proof that alternative treatments can cure cancer but many people are choosing this option. This usually includes holistic therapies and the use of natural medicines.
3. Systematic treatments – these treatments are focused in preventing metastases or if it has already occurred, the treatments are aimed at eliminating the spread.

Over the years, surgery has been the most popular treatment for cancer. Radical mastectomy left patients with deformed breasts but today’s mastectomy is not as drastic and is very much different. Lumpectomy is a therapy which conserves the most part of the breast which is not infected. In this method, only the tumor is removed. Radiation treatments are given afterwards to eliminate and cleanse the remaining tissues. The radiation can prevent recurrence.

In radiation therapy, gamma rays are used to target the cancerous cells. This method is often used after surgery because its main function is to prevent recurrence of breast cancer.
Another method is hormone therapy. Certain cancers develop when there is presence of estrogen. This therapy uses anti-estrogen hormones to lower the estrogen levels and prevent cancer cells from developing. Tamoxifen is the most common anti-estrogen drug used in the therapy. Chemotherapy is also another method to treat breast cancer. Cancer varies from one individual to another. This method is given to patients with high grade, great tumor size, and affected lymph nodes. However, chemo is usually given together with surgery, radiation, and surgery.

These are the breast cancer treatment options available to patients. These conventional treatments are often lengthy and expensive. When undergoing a series of treatments, the individual can also undergo psychological therapy so that they can have a better outlook in life.

Breast cancer patients often find it hard to cope with their situation because they are dealing with a dreadful disease. To be able to choose the best breast cancer treatment options, you have to know the differences between these treatments and the risks involved. The treatments work effectively when the cancer is detected immediately but advanced stages can still be cured although the survival rate is only 20%. By thorough examination, breast cancer can be detected early; after that, the right treatment can now be employed to get rid of the cancer cells.

Traditional And Natural Cancer Treatment Options
While there's a whole gamut of cancer treatment options available; which is the best one to use depends upon the type of cancer as well the stage that the cancer has reached. Though the prevailing trend is to resort to more traditional cancer treatment options, cancer patients are not restricted to them. There are a variety of alternative and natural options (some new, some old) for treating cancer.

Traditional Cancer Treatment Options
Traditional cancer treatment options are often referred to as cut, poison and burn (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation).

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy, which involves the use of chemical agents or drugs to destroy cancerous cells, forms the core treatment of malignancies. These drugs work by targeting fast-growing cells and the type and combination of drugs depends upon the type of cancer. Though chemotherapy has been proven to be effective, it can give rise to a host of side-effects including hair loss, fatigue, diarrhea, loss of appetite, anemia or low red blood cell count, neutropenia or low white blood cell count, mouth sores and shortness of breath.

Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy involves the use of high-energy ionizing radiation from varied sources including x-rays, gamma rays, protons and neutrons to shrink tumors and kill cancerous cells. It is used almost half of all cancer patients; either by itself or in combination with other cancer treatments. External-beam radiation therapy, which involves using radiation that is emitted from a machine outside the body is more common than internal radiation therapy, in which a radioactive material is implanted in the body near the tumor or cancer cells.

Surgery
Surgery often entails a biopsy, which is done for diagnostic purposes. The kind of surgery depends on which part of the body has been affected by cancer as well as the extent of the cancer. In breast cancer patients the options could include lumpectomy, in which only the lump is removed; segmentectomy, in which part of the breast is removed or mastectomy, in which the entire breast is removed.

Alternative Cancer Treatment Options
Traditional cancer treatment options form only art of the story. An increasing number of health professionals are now exploring alternative cancer treatment options that encompass the whole individual.

Nutrition Therapy
Maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet that includes foods rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene, is the best way to provide your body with the nourishment it needs to fight cancer. Proper nutrition helps minimize nausea and fatigue that are the main side-effects of traditional cancer treatments and are a critical component of the healing process.

Buah Merah or Red fruit, found primarily in the Indonesian island of Papua, has very high levels of anti-oxidants, beta-carotene and tocopherol and offers hope to all cancer patients. Beta-carotene and tocopherol have strong anti-carcinogenic properties and help by boosting the immune system and retarding the growth of cancer-causing cells. Buah Merah also contains Omega 3 and Omega 9 as well as linolenat, oleat, dekanoat and linoleat acids; all of which act as active medicinal compounds and also help in the prevention of diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

Naturopathy
Naturopathy is a system of treatment that focuses exclusively on using the healing powers of nature such as sunlight, water and air. Naturopathy is by and large a holistic kind of treatment and includes homoeopathy, ayurveda, therapeutic nutrition, hydrotherapy or botanical medicine.

Pain Control
Though, to a certain extent medication can be used to manage pain, Acupuncture is gaining popularity as a means to control the pain experienced by cancer sufferers. The pain could be brought on by the cancer itself or as a side-effect to the cancer treatment. Prevalence and severity of pain depend on the extent, location and type of cancer as well as pain threshold of the person afflicted by cancer.