Questions About Treatment for Prostate Cancer
There is more than one type of treatment for
prostate cancer. Your treatment will depend on you and
your doctor working together to look at your test results and symptoms and
deciding what to do.
Learning as much as you can about your cancer will help you make a
decision. Here are some questions to ask your doctor:
- How far, if at all, has my cancer spread?
(Surgery is the only way your doctor can know for sure, but often an educated
guess can be made based on test results.)
- How curable is my kind of
cancer?
- Is active surveillance-rather than surgery or radiation-a good
idea in my case? Why or why not?
- What are the pros and cons of
radiation?
- What are the pros and cons of surgery?
- If I
have surgery, how long will it take and how long will I be in the hospital?
What side effects will I have? Will they be permanent? Is there treatment for
them?
- How many of these operations have you done?
- If I have radiation, how many times will I have to have it
and how long will it take? What side effects will I have, and can they be
treated?
- Are there other treatment choices we should look
at?
- Is there any indication that I should have a bone scan?
ByHealthwise Staff
Primary Medical ReviewerE. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine
Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine
Specialist Medical ReviewerChristopher G. Wood, MD, FACS - Urology, Oncology
Current as of:
May 3, 2017