Dr. Idriss Troussier MD. , French and Swiss medical doctor, a specialist in radiation oncology in Nice and hospital university of Geneva, author of many scientific papers concerning the researches in the field of oncology treatment options.
The fact number one is that prostate cancer is the most common men's cancer.
The most common risk factor is age. The older a man is, the greater the chance of getting prostate cancer. Some men are at increased risk for prostate cancer. You are at increased risk of getting or dying from prostate cancer if you have a family history of prostate cancer.
Fact number two. Prostate cancer has no symptoms or signs.
When prostate cancer does cause symptoms or signs, it is usually diagnosed in later stages. That is why there is a real necessity to get a PSA test regularly for 50 years old person.
Fact number three. The Gleason grading system is used to help evaluate the prognosis of prostate cancer using samples from a prostate biopsy.
We use this grading system to evaluate the Amico Risk Classification for Prostate Cancer. There are primary, secondary and tertiary grades. The primary grade does not require any treatment but active monitoring of the evolution of the tumor.
Fact number four. There are several treatment options, for example, surgery, radiation or even the High-intensity focused ultrasound.
The main problem of the HIFU is that we don't have enough information about the long-term results of the treatment. The surgery has several side effects that the patient may have even after a high-precision robotic prostatectomy. The major possible side effects of radical prostatectomy are urinary incontinence (being unable to control urine) and erectile dysfunction (impotence; problems getting or keeping erections).
Fact number five. Yes, you can avoid the surgery by using only radiation.
The new generation machines are very accurate and the rate of remission is near 98 percent. We call it radio stereotaxic surgery. You may have some slight side effects during the treatment but they will stay no longer the treatment is over. We consider that the most appropriate treatment for prostate cancer is a radio-surgery.
Bonus. Which machine is better if we compare the Cyberknife, True Beam, and Versa HD?
Paradoxically the Cyberknife is less comfortable for treatment than True Beam and Versa HD even if the marketing tricks make us think that Cyberknife is the most advanced option. The treatment and sessions are longer with Cyberknife (about 40 minutes comparing to Versa where a session is about 10 minutes for the same result). The longer session is the most important risk of unwanted movement. Another negative point of the Cyberknife is that sometimes we need to insert the metal spotting beads what means a kind of operation before the treatment on the other hand Versa HD has integrated screening tools so the patient can avoid the insertion of the metal spotting beads.
Then, if we compare True Beam and Versa HD both accelerators are very performant but Versa HD has more options and used with special software called Monte Carlo can be concerned as the most performing radiation tool ever.