Interventions for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is regarded as the most common cancer among men and contributes to annual deaths of approximately 29,000 people in the United States. Actually, it is estimated that close to 60% of elderly men in the United States are suffering from prostate cancer though most of them do not know it. However, many older men are learning about their conditions through new screening tests that have become prevalent in the country.

The severity of prostate cancer among many elderly men is attributed to the fact that it generates other conditions that worsens a patient's health. It is estimated that nearly 20% of men with this condition have metastatic disease while others develop metastases regardless of treatment with radiotherapy or surgical procedures. Most of the elderly men who suffer from prostate cancer have had to make decisions regarding treatment options together with their doctors while facing huge uncertainty about the natural history of the disease and effectiveness of therapy.

The current treatment options are based on the available general information concerning the prognosis of localized cancer. The best indicator of the spread of the disease and ultimate cancer-related death is the histologic characteristics of a tumor or tumor grade. In addition to minimal information about prostate cancer, there is little information available regarding the impact of the existing treatment options such as radiation, radical prostatectomy, and watchful waiting that is accompanied with active treatment in case the cancer spreads to an extent it exceeds prostate.

Given the availability of different kinds of treatment for prostate cancer, the patient and his doctor have the responsibility to choosing the most suitable and effective treatment method. The most commonly used treatment methods include active surveillance, radiation therapy, surgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, biological therapy, cryotherapy, and high-intensity focused ultrasound ("How is Prostate Cancer Treated?" 2014). However, the selection of the most suitable treatment is a relatively difficult process that requires knowledge of the available treatment options as well as the information about the kind and stage of the condition.

The complexity of this process is attributed to the benefits and side effects of each treatment option. Clinical trials for prostate cancer utilize new treatment options to examine their safety and effectiveness. This is mainly because randomized clinical trials are the gold standardized measures for evaluating hypotheses regarding treatment effects. These randomized clinical trials tend to be effective in lessening the risk through randomly allocating patients to treatment. Nonetheless, only one clinical trial has been carried out comparing surgical treatment with watchful waiting, which demonstrated no difference in results.

The benefit of the treatment option and process is differs among treatment groups based on crucial factors like age and grade and stage of tumor. There is need for more information about the history of prostate cancer in order to understand and develop the most suitable treatment option based on the grade and stage of tumor. While some treatment options have been controversial, these alternatives have proven to be effective in certain cases and ineffective in others.

Healthcare professionals and practitioners should work towards generating more information about the presently available alternative treatment options in attempts to enhance effectiveness of treatment of prostate cancer. The identification and/or development of new treatment alternative that is effective will help in lessening the effect of the disease among elderly men. The prevalence of the disease in this population necessitates the need for effective treatment and health practices that will help lessen the risks and effect of prostate cancer.

This process requires an evaluation of each of the available treatments with regards to its effectiveness. Solution/Intervention Cytotoxic chemotherapy has proven to be an effective solution or intervention that prolongs the survival of elderly men with hormone-refractory prostate unlike radical surgery, radiation therapy, or watchful waiting (Hricak, 2014). Radical surgery, radiation surgery, and watchful waiting are newly available alternative treatments. Clinicians who support the use of these alternative treatments face significant challenges and poor foundations for their arguments because of the availability of little information about them (Wasson et.

al., 2009, p.493). These treatments can only be supported after various improvements are carried out in treatment of prostate cancer. One of the areas that require improvement to enhance effectiveness of currently available alternative treatments is the lack of standard reporting. In essence, factors with inherent obvious potential to bias or confusing interpretation of studies should be reported in standard ways, especially in relation to age, grade, stage, and comorbidity. Secondly, these treatments would benefit from change in patient function or health because of its significance from the patient's perspective.

Third, the effectiveness of these treatment alternatives can be ascertained after conducting clinical trials and patient series by standard reporting techniques. As previously mentioned, there are various interventions that a patient can choose after consultations with his doctor. One of these options is hormonal therapy, which tends to prolong the suppression of basic tumor through radiotherapy (Bolla et. al., 1997).

However, this treatment option has been characterized by concerns on whether it should be reserved for relapse or utilized during early stages in patients with locally progressed illness who are obtaining external radiation treatment. According to the findings of three controlled clinical trials, there is relatively no value of prophylactic therapy with orchiectomy, diethylstilbestrol, or both for patients undergoing external radiotherapy. Cytotoxic therapy has proven to be the most effective intervention for patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer by significantly prolonging survival (Tannock et. al., 2004).

Generally, chemotherapy has the ability to decrease serum PSA levels in hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients and reduces pain in some patients. While tolerability is a major issue surrounding the use of this treatment option, it has proven to relieve pain and enhance quality of life based on the findings of a randomized clinical trial. Moreover, the analysis demonstrated that docetaxel with prednisone is the most preferred alternative for many patients suffering from hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Chemotherapy can basically be considered as the use of special drugs to kill or contract the cancer. The drugs range from pills to medicines that are administered through the patients' veins or a combination of those drugs. Unlike other treatment alternatives, chemotherapy seems to be most effective option that relieves pain and enhances quality of life by contracting or killing the cancer. The use of cytotoxic chemotherapy on patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer is based on the premise that treatment of this condition is palliative.