When you find out that you have been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and the cancer has metastasized into your bones, you may wonder what you can do to handle the situation and get the treatments you need to improve how you are feeling and help with your quality of life. Because you have metastases in your bones, many of your treatments will need to be a combinations of oncology and orthopedic services. Get to know some of the treatment options for your metastatic prostate cancer bone tumors, and get started in your treatment program as soon as possible.

Surgery

Depending on the location and size of the metastatic bone tumors that you have, surgery may be an option for you. The surgical removal of some of your bone tumors is usually performed if your tumors are causing you pain or discomfort.

Additionally, if the bone tumors are compromising the integrity of the bone in question, making it more likely that the bone will fracture or break, your doctors will likely recommend that you have surgery to remove all or part of the tumor. If removal is not an option, an orthopedic surgeon, like those at Ultimate Sports, may be able to place metal rods or perform other procedures to protect the bone from breaking.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a treatment that can help with metastatic prostate cancer and the accompanying bone tumors. Chemo is administered intravenously over the course of several intermittent sessions.

The chemotherapy drugs target rapidly growing and reproducing cells in the body (the types of cells in tumors and cancer) and seek to damage or destroy those cells. Because metastatic prostate cancer is an advanced cancer, chemotherapy is generally for maintenance and to prevent tumor growth throughout the body rather than as a cure. However, it can be quite effective.

Radiation Therapy

Chemotherapy is often paired with radiation therapy to provide the most aggressive form of treatment possible for metastatic prostate cancer. Radiation therapy targets specific tumors or clusters of cancerous cells and seeks to use concentrated x-ray energy to eradicate those tumors.

Radiation therapy is often administered in the hospital or doctors office and is beamed into the body externally. However, there is also internal radiation therapy in which small radioactive seeds are placed in specific areas of the body to release low levels of radiation continuously. Sometimes these are placed in the body during tumor removal surgery to prevent growth or to shrink the size of tumors that cannot be removed completely.

Now that you know some of the treatment options available for your metastatic prostate cancer bone tumors, you can contact your oncologist and orthopedist to get started.

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