Take Care Of Yourself Too
Taking good care of a loved one also entails caring for yourself, Ruckle says. “You can’t be a good caregiver unless you are healthy and rested.”
As the loved one of someone with prostate cancer, you may experience significant stress when aspects of your lifestyle shift the accommodate the illness. Therefore, Ruckle advises caregivers to express their needs honestly and stay receptive to new forms of support. Performing self-care by relaxing the mind and body with activities like reading or mindfulness can help you recharge physically, emotionally, and mentally. Faith-based activities like worship or prayer can provide spiritual strength and support for some. Engaging in forms of talk therapy with someone you trust or a professional who is not integrated into your immediate social network can also be relieving.
Experts at Loma Linda University Health are committed to providing compassionate, comprehensive, and personalized care along every step of your prostate cancer journey. Learn more about prostate cancer screening and treatment options online or call .
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Study Settings Instruments And Subjects
The study was conducted in the Ashanti Region of Ghana because the region is endowed with a major public cancer management centre that serves several regions in the country. The study sites include a public hospital, a private hospital, ten private community pharmacies, and four private laboratories. Three data collection instruments were employed in the study: Additional files , and . Additional file : The diagnostic cost sheet, which focused on the cost components of the various laboratory workouts in the diagnosis of PCa Additional file : The stage-specific management cost sheet, focused on the cost of the available management approaches and Additional file : The availability and prices of PCa drugs, focused on the availability and the prices of selected PCa management medications. The participants of the study were recruited from these sixteen facilities. The participants responded to the questionnaires after the study had been explained, and informed consent was duly obtained.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
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How Is Prostate Cancer Diagnosed
If your healthcare provider thinks you might have prostate cancer, certain exams and tests will be needed to be sure. Your healthcare provider will ask you about your health history, your symptoms, risk factors, and family history of disease. A physical exam will be done. You will also have a biopsy.
A biopsy is the only way to know for sure that you have cancer. Small pieces of tissue are taken out from your prostate and tested for cancer cells. Your results will come back in about 1 week.
After a diagnosis of prostate cancer, youll need more tests. They’re used to find out the stage of the cancer. The stage is how much cancer there is and how far it has spread in your body. It’s 1 of the most important things to know when deciding how to treat the cancer.
The grade is used as part of staging. It gives you an idea of how fast the cancer will grow and spread.
Once your cancer is staged, your healthcare provider will talk with you about what this means for your treatment. Ask your healthcare provider to explain the details of your cancer to you in a way you can understand.
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How Prostate Cancer Therapies Compare By Cost And Effectiveness
Surgery Ranks as the Most Cost-Effective Type of Treatment, According to UCSF-Led Study
The most comprehensive retrospective study ever conducted comparing how the major types of prostate cancer treatments stack up to each other in terms of saving lives and cost effectiveness is reported this week by a team of researchers at UCSF.
Appearing in the British Journal of Urology International, the work analyzed 232 papers published in the last decade that report results from clinical studies following patients with low-, intermediate- and high-risk forms of prostate cancer who were treated with one or more of the standard treatments radiation therapy, surgery, hormone therapies and brachytherapy.
The analysis shows that for people with low-risk prostate cancer, the various forms of treatment vary only slightly in terms of survival the odds of which are quite good for men with this type of cancer, with a 5-year cancer-specific survival rate of nearly 100 percent. But the cost of radiation therapy is significantly more expensive than surgery for low-risk prostate cancer, they found.
For intermediate- and high-risk cancers, both survival and cost generally favored surgery over other forms of treatment although combination external-beam radiation and brachytherapy together were comparable in terms of quality of life-adjusted survival for high-risk prostate cancer.
Do We Know Which Treatment Is Best For Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy Or External Beam Radiation
Its not a question of which type of radiation therapy is best in general, but rather which therapy is best for the patients specific disease and quality-of-life concerns. We want to use the most tailored, pinpointed radiation to treat the prostate tumor effectively while minimizing side effects. This can depend on the tumors size and stage as well as other patient characteristics and even a patients individual preferences.
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Evaluating Your Risk Of Prostate & Testicular Disorders
Loma Linda University Health’s Urology Department and Cancer Center evaluate prostate and testicular disorder risk by:
- Asking patients about their lifestyle and dietary habits
- Gathering a complete history of the conditions a man has suffered or currently lives with
- Listing prostate disorders that have affected other men in the patient’s family
- Noting any medications patients have taken and are currently on particularly if they have been or are on testosterone therapy
What Is Proton Therapy
Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy that sends apowerful beam of protons to the precise site of a tumor. Once the protonbeam reaches the tumor, it conforms to its shape and depth, and onlythen releases its full energy. It then stops, sparing surrounding tissue.
Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy that sends apowerful beam of protons to the precise site of a tumor. Once the protonbeam reaches the tumor, it conforms to its shape and depth, and onlythen releases its full energy. It then stops, sparing surrounding tissue.
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Radiation Therapy And Private Health Insurance
Radiation therapy is usually an outpatient treatment and as such is not covered by private health insurance, regardless of the level of coverage.
Some private health insurance products will cover radiation therapy if you are being treated as an inpatient. You should speak to your health insurance provider to clarify coverage.
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California Protons Cancer Therapy Center: Advanced Prostate Cancer Treatment Allows Men To Live An Active Life
As Published in the UT Community Press, May 7, 2020
As a pioneer in the treatment of prostate cancer with proton radiation, world renowned oncologist Carl Rossi, M.D., has seen numerous developments and advancements since he chose radiation oncology as his specialty in 1988.
Dr. Rossi, the Medical Director of California Protons Cancer Therapy Center, has simple advice for recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients.
Upon hearing a diagnosis of prostate cancer, realize there are options for treatment. It is OK to take the time to research the various treatment options available to you and to give yourself a couple of weeks to make a decision, he said. Think about those options and allow yourself to look thoroughly at them and to consider each of them.
One option is proton radiation therapy in lieu of surgery or standard radiation.
Protons are useful forms of radiation because they stop at the target they dont treat what is beyond the cancer or tumor, he said. The cure rate with proton radiation is the same as with standard radiation and surgery, but the side effects can be significantly less.
Dr. Rossi has spent most of his medical career researching proton therapy and treating patients with this innovative treatment. He has treated nearly 12,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Typically, he treats 300 to 350 men per year.
Pencil beam scanning is the most advanced form of proton radiation and is far superior than earlier versions of the therapy.
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Loma Linda University Cancer Center
Our Address
New Visitor Restrictions
To help reduce potential spread of coronavirus, we are restricting the number of visitors to our hospitals and clinics.
Loma Linda University Cancer Center provides compassionate, world-class cancer care. As our patient, your treatment is overseen by an expert team that includes every specialist you need. Our commitment to whole person care ensures that the entire cancer treatment process is individualized and focused on treating your physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
Look For These Symptoms
We encourage all our male patients, particularly those over the age of 50, to be aware of potential dysfunction of their prostate gland. Be aware of:
- trouble urinating
- general pain in the lower back, hips or thighs
- pain when urinating
- pain when ejaculating
If you should experience any of these, you should schedule an appointment with one of our practitioners immediately.
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Limitations Of The Studys Design
The study leaders and other experts noted several limitations to the studys design.
For instance, this observational study cant establish a cause-and-effect relationship between proton therapy and fewer side effects. In addition, all of the study participants were treated at a single institution, which can make it difficult to generalize the findings to a larger population.
Those are very significant limitations that shouldnt be understated, Dr. Buchsbaum emphasized.
Although single-institution studies have inherent limitations, Dr. Baumann noted, all patients in this study received high-quality treatment at a large academic medical center, regardless of whether it was proton or traditional radiation therapy, which suggests that the benefit of proton therapy that we saw is meaningful.
Also, because patients were not randomly assigned to treatment groups, there were differences between patients who got proton and traditional radiation, and that may have skewed the results.
For instance, patients who received proton therapy were, on average, older and had more health issues.
The proton therapy group may also have included more patients from privileged backgrounds, Drs. Park and Yu noted. Socioeconomic status and social support can affect treatment outcomes, they wrote.
In addition, fewer people with head and neck cancerwho are more likely to suffer from radiation-associated side effectswere included in the proton therapy group, the editorialists added.
Treating Prostate And Testicular Conditions
At Loma Linda University Health, our highly trained urological staff is committed to:
- Detecting prostate and testicular conditions in their early stages
- Providing compassionate care and cutting-edge urological treatments
- Educating men about how to maintain prostate and testicular health
- Conducting ongoing research and clinical trials to find new diagnostic methods and treatments for prostate and testicular conditions
Loma Linda University Health’s Urology Department and Cancer Center regularly treat prostate and testicular conditions, including, but not limited to, benign prostatic hyperplasia , prostate cancer, prostatitis, epididymitis, hypogonadism, testicular cancer, testicular trauma and testicular torsion.
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Safety And Efficacy Of Proton Therapy
Many people with locally advanced cancers are treated with a combination of chemotherapy and either traditional or proton radiation. For patients getting chemotherapy and radiation at the same time, finding ways to limit side effects without making the treatment less effective is a high priority, Dr. Baumann said.
He and his colleagues analyzed data from nearly 1,500 adults with 11 different types of cancer. All participants had received simultaneous chemotherapy plus radiation at the University of Pennsylvania Health System between 2011 and 2016 and had been followed to track side effects and cancer outcomes, including survival. Almost 400 had received proton therapy and the rest received traditional radiation.
Those who received proton therapy experienced far fewer serious side effects than those who received traditional radiation, the researchers found. Within 90 days of starting treatment, 45 patients in the proton therapy group and 301 patients in the traditional radiation group experienced a severe side effectthat is, an effect severe enough to warrant hospitalization.
In addition, proton therapy didnt affect peoples abilities to perform routine activities like housework as much as traditional radiation. Over the course of treatment, performance status scores were half as likely to decline for patients treated with proton therapy as for those who received traditional radiation.
Loma Linda Proton Treatment Center Announces Multiple Clinical Trials Open To Patients
June 5, 2013 Loma Linda University Medical Center currently has openings in eight clinical trials for patients with certain types of cancers of the breast, prostate, liver, esophagus and pancreas as well as those with soft-tissue sarcoma. All of the trials involve the use of proton therapy and are approved by the Institutional Review Board, the independent national committee that oversees such trials.
The use of proton beam radiation as a cancer treatment was developed and brought to use by scientists at LLUMC more than 20 years ago. Since that time Loma Lindas Proton Treatment and Research Center has cared for more than 15,000 cancer patients, making it the most dynamic proton treatment center in the world.
The ongoing study of proton therapy helps to enhance patient care and furthers the technology as the premiere radiation treatment modality for cancer and other diseases, said Jerry D. Slater, M.D., chairman of the LLUMC Proton Treatment and Research Center. Our clinical research studies provide us with the platforms to improve existing cancer treatment protocols and develop new protocols to treat other diseases.
Current trials to which qualified patients can join include:
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Other Treatment Options For Prostate Cancer
There are several other prostate cancer treatment options that are available for the patients. Chemotherapy is one of the other popular treatment modality that may be used after surgery for patients with the cancer of the prostate.
The following table highlights the average cost of chemotherapy for prostate in some of the top medical tourism destinations in the world:
| Countries |
- Hormone therapy
- External beam radiotherapy
Thus, the total cost of prostate cancer treatment varies greatly from one individual to another, depending on the individual medical case.
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Radiation Therapy For Prostate Cancer
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to kill cancer cells. Depending on the stage of the prostate cancer and other factors, radiation therapy might be used:
- As the first treatment for cancer that is still just in the prostate gland and is low grade. Cure rates for men with these types of cancers are about the same as those for men treated with radical prostatectomy.
- As part of the first treatment for cancers that have grown outside the prostate gland and into nearby tissues.
- If the cancer is not removed completely or comes back in the area of the prostate after surgery.
- If the cancer is advanced, to help keep the cancer under control for as long as possible and to help prevent or relieve symptoms.
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Featured Patient Testimonial: Dr Terry Higgins
After receiving a prostate cancer diagnosis, Dr. Terry Higgins urologist warned him of the risk of side effects of standard-of-care prostate cancer treatments like a radical prostatectomy, which carries a 50% chance of causing erectile dysfunction, and a 25% chance of causing incontinence.
At just 53-years-old, those were odds that Dr. Higgins was not willing to accept. Dr. Higgins urologist then told him about laser focal therapy, a minimally invasive prostate cancer treatment pioneered by HALO Diagnostics.
Now a few years in remission, Dr. Higgins shared his story.
When To See A Doctor
To maintain optimal prostate health, it’s vital that men get regular prostate exams from their doctors. If men develop the following symptoms, they should seek immediate medical attention to determine whether they are developing some type of prostate disorder:
- Discomfort in the pelvic region
- Inflamed scrotum and / or testicle pain
- Interrupted urination and / or weakened urine stream
- Recurring bone pain
Over 30 million men currently suffer from prostate and testicular problems that significantly impair their quality of life. And while more than 7,000 new cases of testicular cancer were diagnosed in 2008, nearly 200,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer that same year. Despite the prevalence of these prostate and testicular conditions, the good news is that prostate and testicular conditions are relatively easy to prevent, detect and treat.
To take action to promote optimal prostate and testicular health, men of all ages should:
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet
- Exercise regularly
- Perform self-checkups on a regular basis
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The Initial Causes Loma Linda Proton Therapy Prostate
One of the first symptoms of prostate issues is pain or tenderness in the groin or lower back. This can be the result of a noncancerous condition called enlarged prostatic tissue, or it could be an infection of the bladder. In either case, its important to see a doctor as soon as possible. If youre suffering from prostate pain, you may want to consider reducing your caffeine intake.
Another symptom of a potentially enlarged prostate is difficulty starting a stream of urine, leaking, or dribbling. These symptoms are not serious, but theyre still alarming. Most men put up with an enlarged prostate for years before seeking medical attention, but they typically seek treatment as soon as they notice symptoms. Even if you dont have symptoms, its worth getting checked to determine if you have any prostate issues.
If you experience nightly bathroom runs, you may be experiencing an enlarged prostate. You may be having difficulty starting a stream of urine, or you may even be dribbling or leaking during the day. These problems arent life-threatening, but can become a nuisance. You should not ignore these signs and seek treatment as soon as you notice them. If you feel any of these symptoms, you should consult a doctor.