Treatment choices

Your treatment options will depend on whether your cancer is contained within the prostate gland (localised), has spread just outside of the prostate (locally advanced) or had spread to other parts of the body (advanced).

You may have a choice of treatments. Your doctor or specialist nurse will explain all your treatment options, and help you to choose the right treatment for you.

The first treatment you have may affect which treatments you can have in the future, if you need further treatment. Speak to your doctor or nurse about this.

Select the stage of your cancer below to see which treatments may be available to you.

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Watchful waiting

Watchful waiting is a way of monitoring prostate cancer that is not causing any symptoms or problems. The aim is to monitor the cancer over the long term because prostate cancer often grows slowly and may not cause you any symptoms or problems in your lifetime.

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy helps control prostate cancer by stopping the hormone testosterone from reaching the prostate cancer cells. It does not cure cancer but can keep it under control for many months or years. It can also help to manage symptoms. You might have hormone therapy on its own, or with other treatments such as radiotherapy or brachytherapy.

Second line hormone therapy and further treatment options

Hormone therapy can keep prostate cancer under control for months or years. But over time, cancer may start to grow again. If this happens, there are further treatments available. This may include other types of hormone therapy, chemotherapy or a new treatment as part of a clinical trial.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to kill cancer cells. It doesn’t cure prostate cancer but can help to control symptoms. It may also help some men to live longer. You may have chemotherapy alongside other treatments such as palliative radiotherapy, bisphosphonates, pain-relieving drugs, and steroids.

Abiraterone

Abiraterone (Zytiga®) is a new type of hormone therapy for men whose prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body (advanced prostate cancer) and has stopped responding to other hormone therapy treatments. It is used to help control symptoms and not to cure prostate cancer.

New treatments

You may hear stories in the news about new treatments for prostate cancer that has spread outside of the prostate gland (advanced prostate cancer). For example, you might have heard about a new type of chemotherapy called cabazitaxel (Jetvana®).

Clinical trials

A clinical trial is a type of medical research study that aims to find new and improved ways of preventing, diagnosing, treating and controlling illnesses, such as prostate cancer. Clinical trials involve testing new medicines and procedures on people in a controlled and carefully planned way. This is the best way of finding out whether a new treatment is better than the current standard treatment.

Radiotherapy for advanced prostate cancer

Men with advanced prostate cancer may have radiotherapy to help relieve pain and other symptoms. You may hear this called palliative radiotherapy. Radiotherapy for advanced prostate cancer does not aim to get rid of your cancer but it can help to slow down its growth. You might have external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or internal radiotherapy (radioisotopes).

Bisphosphonates

Bisphosphonates are drugs that can be used to treat men whose prostate cancer has spread to the bones and is no longer responding to hormone therapy. They do not treat the cancer itself but they can help to relieve bone pain. Bisphosphonates may also help to prevent and slow down the breakdown of bone.