Nurse Teachings on Management Measure for Prostate Cancer
Nurse educated the patient and caregiver on management measures for prostate cancer as follows:
Management measure for prostate cancer which essentially depend upon various factors, such as, the type of cancer, how rapid the cancer is growing, extent of involvement, sites of cancer spread, individual’s age, other coexisting health conditions, and many others. Some of the common measures include:
Periodical evaluation:
- Low grade prostate cancers that are confined to a small portion of prostate and are asymptomatic could never be actively treated.
- Periodical evaluation with ultrasound, MRI, and biopsy, as needed could be recommended to watch for progression of cancer growth.
- If no gross changes are noted with regards to prostate cancer, no treatment could be recommended.
- If the cancer is actively growing and starts presenting with symptoms, treatment measures could be recommended.
Radiation therapy:
- This management measure for prostate cancer could be employed for actively growing cancers that could be either confined to the prostate or spread to distant sites.
- Radiation to the cancer could be provided through external beam, where high-powered radiation beams are delivered to the prostate or small seed sized radiation pellets are implanted into prostate gland and radiation is continuously released from the pellets into the cancerous prostate tissue.
- External beam could be used for cancers that are spread beyond prostate.
- Radiation pellets could be used for cancers that are confined to and involve only prostate tissue.
Chemotherapy:
- Chemotherapy medications could be employed for actively growing cancers that are spread far beyond prostate and involve many distal vital organs.
- Chemotherapy could also be employed as a management measure for prostate cancer that is poorly responsive to other treatment modalities.
Radical prostatectomy:
- Prostate cancers that are actively growing could be treated by radical prostatectomy. This method is usually employed for cancers that are actively growing, but the cancer is not spread beyond prostate.
- This management measure for prostate cancer involves surgical removal of the entire prostate tissue along with the involved lymph nodes.
Ablation treatment:
- Prostate cancers that are actively growing could be treated by ablation, involving exposure of cancerous prostate tissue to cold gas or high energy ultrasound, which help to kill the cancer.
- Ablation could also be performed through insertion of ablation needles into the prostate gland through the perineum (skin between the anus and scrotum in males) and the treatment is delivered through the needles.
- This method is usually employed for cancers that are actively growing, but the cancer is not spread beyond prostate.
Hormone treatment:
- Testosterone is a male sex hormone produced by the testicles. Testosterone is believed to feed the prostate cancer cells and help them grow.
- Medications could be prescribed either to reduce the availability of testosterone or block the actions of testosterone as a management measure for prostate cancer.
- This contributes to controlling growth of prostate cancer. Hormone therapy helps to shrink the tumor in size and is usually employed before radiation therapy for cancers that are actively growing, but the cancer is not spread beyond prostate.
- In severe cases, to help bring down the availability of testosterone abruptly, surgical removal of testicles could also be considered.
Immunotherapy:
- Immunity is body’s natural defense against anything foreign and so, the immune cells should be able to attack and kill the cancer cells in individuals with prostate cancer.
- But the cancer cells make some proteins that mask them from the body’s immune cells and thus are protected.
- Immunotherapy involves use of drugs that unmask the cancer cells and help the body’s immune cells identify the cancer cells easily. This unmasking of cancer cells makes them vulnerable to attack by the body’s immune cells and thus are killed.
- Immunotherapy could be employed for actively growing cancers that are spread far beyond prostate with involvement of other organs and for cancers that are poorly responsive to other treatment modalities.
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