Side Effects of Treatment

Well, when you talk about complications of prostate cancer, prostate cancer in and of itself does not have complications. When disease is progressed or when it's advanced, you can suffer some of the side effects of advanced disease, like blood in the urine or difficulty with urination or pain from chronic or aggressive disease. But complications of prostate cancer are typically associated with the treatment that is potentially offered.

So the two treatments that are available for prostate cancer are radiation and surgery. Surgery, the common or the more classic complications that gentlemen come to us and discuss with are incontinence or erectile dysfunction and impotence. Nowadays, with newer technology, newer surgical techniques-- robotics is a perfect example of that-- we are able to maintain both potency and urinary control post-operatively. So we're very happy with that.

In regards to radiation therapy, what we've found is that men may not suffer the side effects immediately. But the effects of radiation therapy, we found, are somewhat more delayed.