• No treatment.
• Frequent check-ups to evaluate condition.
  

• Avoid the side effects of prostate cancer treatments.

• May reduce the chance of controlling the disease before it spreads.

Brachytherapy

• An outpatient procedure in which radioactive 'seeds' are carefully placed inside cancerous tissue and positioned to attack the cancer most effectively.

• Proven to be very effective and safe.
• Provides a good alternative to surgery while reducing the risk of long-term side effects.
• New technology has reduced radiation exposure hazards.
• The optimum way of tailoring radiotherapy to the tumor without harming surrounding normal tissue.
  

• Some soreness and swelling in the treatment area. It is usually mild and lasts for several days.
• May experience frequent, urgent or uncomfortable urination - symptoms that decrease in severity over time.
• A small chance of becoming incontinent or impotent.

Cryoablation

• An outpatient procedure that destroys cancer by freezing the tumor and a surrounding rim of health tissue.

• Recent studies show that 97% of cryosurgery patients are cancer-free at 1 year and 82% are cancer-free at 5 years following surgery.
• Cryosurgery usually can be repeated safely if cancer returns.
• A safe, effective procedure for patients who cannot tolerate surgery or radiation - and those who are elderly.
• One of the few potentially curative treatments that can be offered for localized prostate cancer recurrence after radiation therapy or brachytherapy.
• Most patients report very little discomfort and recover fully within days.
• The urethral warming device reduces incontinence or urethral obstruction to about 1% of patients.
  

• There is an 85% chance that nerve damage resulting from the freeze will cause impotence. However, nerve-sparing techniques are being developed to help reduce that risk.

• Removal of the prostate through an incision or incisions in the back or perineum.

• For patients in good health whose tumor is confined to the prostate.
• 10-year survival rate ranges from 75% to 97% for patients in good health.

• Possible complications include rectal injury, incontinence, impotence and heart failure.
• Dry orgasms result.
• Lower survival rate for patients with poorly differentiated cancers.

• High-powered linear accelerators send x-rays deep into the body to destroy tumor cells by damaging their DNA.

• Often effective for managing symptoms of cancer that has spread.
• Helpful in relieving pain related to cancer that has spread to the bones.
• A short course of no longer than two weeks is sufficient in most cases.

• Increased urinary frequency. Mild burning with urination.
• Mild diarrhea, gas, bowel urgency and tenderness.
• Bowel irritability including mild irritation of the skin around the rectum. About 20% of men experience more significant long-term bowel irritability.
• Red, dry, and tender skin in the treated area.
• Hair loss.
• May cause impotence.

• Radioactive drugs are injected intravenously and absorbed by the bones.

• For treatment of prostate cancer that has spread to the bones.

• Decreased white and red blood cells possible, also platelets.
• Increase in pain may occur in first days or week after treatment.

• Drugs and surgical procedures (including orchiectomy, or castration) to block the male hormones that prostate cancer cells need to grow.

• Prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body can usually be controlled for a period of time.

• Often causes impotence, hot flashes and loss of sexual desire.
• Can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and breast growth or tenderness.
• Can weaken bones in older men.
• May cause liver problems.

• An aggressive treatment using carefully controlled dosages of drugs to destroy cancer cells.

• Can improve symptoms and quality of life for men with advanced prostate cancer.

• Many side effects, including fatigue, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss and increased susceptibility to infection.
• Has not proven very effective against slow-growing cancer cells.