Radiation therapy may be used alone or combined with hormonal treatment or surgery to treat prostate cancer. Like surgery, it is most effective in treating cancer that has not spread outside the prostate. When combined with surgery, radiation is used to destroy any cancer cells that might be left behind and to relieve pain when the cancer has spread.

Other Treatment Choices

There are two main types of radiation treatment for prostate cancer:

• External beam radiation, in which a machine aims high-energy X-rays at the cancer from outside the body.
• Brachytherapy, in which tiny seeds containing radioactive material are injected directly into or near the cancer and left there. In time, the material loses its radioactivity and the seeds can remain where they are.

What To Think About

Radiation treatment may cause erection problems and bladder problems. It sometimes causes diarrhea. The ability to have an erection sometimes returns or at least improves over time. So does the ability to control urination.

Clinical trials are going on to find ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat prostate cancer. For example, researchers are studying whether vitamin E and selenium, which is a mineral found in certain foods, can prevent prostate cancer.

Researchers also are testing many new ways to treat prostate cancer using the body's immune system to destroy the cancer cells. This type of treatment is called immunotherapy. Much has been learned in the past 20 years about the body's ability to attack prostate cancer cells with help from the outside, and research is still being done in this area. This type of treatment either stimulates your immune system or adds to it, for example, by giving you immune cells from another person.