Treating over 2,500 prostate cancer patients each year, Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center is ready to quickly treat your unique cancer with the highest standard of care. Our team is dedicated to finding the best care path for each patient, without delay, using the latest diagnostic and treatment tools. We provide a comprehensive full range of prostate cancer therapies, along with promising new treatments through clinical trials, many of which are available at our institution.
A fundamental principle of treatment is multi-disciplinary care, bringing together surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists who meet with you to integrate all treatment options. With the results of your diagnostic tests and assigned cancer stage, our specialists from both Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s will work closely together to develop a unique treatment plan that works best for your prostate cancer. We will ensure coordinated care, carefully monitoring and treating your cancer as well as helping to provide relief for your symptoms. Your care team will work together to organize your individualized health care plan to achieve the best possible outcomes for your cancer and maintain your quality of life.
We want you to feel like you are an active participant in your care. Please talk to your care team about your treatment goals. Learn treatment-related questions to ask during your healthcare appointments. Our team works at the Dana-Farber and Brigham campuses in Boston, as well as locations in the surrounding community, and your appointments may be at one of these locations depending on the purpose of your visit.
Treatment options and the length of treatment vary from patient to patient. Treatment options are based on various factors, including your age, overall health, stage of cancer, disease aggressiveness, potential side effects and your personal preferences.
Prostate cancer is more treatable today thanks to the most advanced surgical techniques, chemotherapies and targeted therapies. Our center is equipped with the latest tools, research and expertise. Our surgeons perform more than 500 prostate cancer surgeries each year. All prostate surgical operations are available at both Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, including the full range of minimally invasive robotic surgeries.
Depending on your specific cancer and how much it has spread, surgery may be recommended, particularly for those with low-risk or intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Our surgical oncologists offer extensive expertise in the most advanced, minimally invasive procedures for prostate cancer. They use evidence-based guidelines to minimize your hospital stay, recovery time and complications while improving outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Learn more about our surgical treatment options for prostate cancer.
For patients with low-risk or slow-growing prostate cancers, your care team will likely recommend active surveillance, or “watchful waiting.” Cancer treatment is not provided during active surveillance, which means you will not receive medications, surgery or radiation. However, your physicians will actively monitor your cancer through imaging tests, like MRI, to make sure the cancer isn’t growing.
Active surveillance is recommended for patients whose cancer is small, expected to grow very slowly, is not causing symptoms and is confined to one area of the prostate. The reason it is recommended is because low-risk prostate cancers grow very slowly and some may never cause symptoms. Many patients who choose this live out their normal life spans before the cancer ever grows large enough to need treatment.
Focal therapy is a less intensive treatment than surgery for patients with lower risk prostate cancer who aren’t suitable for (or are unwilling to pursue) active surveillance. It can also be used for patients with recurrent cancer after radiation. Through advanced imaging, such as ultrasound or MRI, focal therapy uses different types of energy sources to help target and kill the cancer cells. This minimizes the impact of treatment on healthy surrounding tissue, making it less likely to cause erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence and bowel problems. However, because focal therapy does not treat the entire prostate, there is a chance that cancer may be left behind or may return. It is important to have regular follow-up appointments with your physician to monitor possible cancer recurrence.
We are a leading treatment center for radiation therapy, using the most advanced treatment platforms. Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells and keep them from growing. External-beam radiation therapy, also known as Intense Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), uses a computer to send precise radiation doses to specific areas. This therapy often provides the best chance for a cure for patients diagnosed with early-stage, localized prostate cancer. Internal radiation, also called implant therapy, imbeds radioactive seeds that emit small amounts of radiation over a period of weeks or months. High-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is an advanced type of internal radiation therapy that provides a higher total dose of radiation over a shorter time than is possible with external beam radiation therapy.
Other treatment options for aggressive prostate cancer include hormone therapy (androgen deprivation therapy), clinical trials and chemotherapy, as well as treatments for any symptoms you may have. Your care team will work to control the spread of your cancer and manage your symptoms.
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