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Page 344
| D1. Regional lymph node involvement. |
| D2. Distant metastatic involvement. 18 |
| Conventional Treatments |
| Current conventional treatment Options for prostate cancer are considered either curative (for cases within Stages A and B) or palliative (for cases within Stages C and D) and include the following. |
| Radical Prostatectomy |
| This procedure involves removal of the prostate gland, seminal vesicles, and a certain amount of surrounding tissue. It is usually performed on men under the age of sixty-five when the disease is local to the prostate gland. The risks are considerable; there is a 1 to 2 percent mortality rate and complications may include: |
| Loss of sexual function |
| Loss of bladder control |
| Scarring of the urethral channel |
| Blood clot formation |
| Bowel injury |
| I have concerns about the true curative effects of a prostatecomy, even when disease is totally confined to the prostate gland. Although physicians consider this procedure curative and able to reduce the risk of metastases, many men who do not elect surgery will have no further spread of cancer, while others who do elect this procedure may still experience spread of the disease at a later date. Although I support the treatment decisions made by my patients and offer them complementary natural protocols to help them heal, I believe that surgery is not the answer to preventing the spread of cancer. |
| Radiation |
| External beam radiation, an alternative to radical prostatectomy, is used in cases where the cancer is confined to the prostate gland and surrounding tis- |
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