Questions About Treatment for Prostate Cancer

There is more than one type of treatment for prostate cancer. Your treatment will depend on you and your doctor working together to look at your test results and symptoms and deciding what to do.

Learning as much as you can about your cancer will help you make a decision. Here are some questions to ask your doctor:

• How far, if at all, has my cancer spread? (Surgery is the only way your doctor can know for sure, but often an educated guess can be made based on test results.)
• How curable is my kind of cancer?
• Is active surveillance-rather than surgery or radiation-a good idea in my case? Why or why not?
• What are the pros and cons of radiation?
• What are the pros and cons of surgery?
• If I have surgery, how long will it take and how long will I be in the hospital? What side effects will I have? Will they be permanent? Is there treatment for them?
• How many of these operations have you done?
• If I have radiation, how many times will I have to have it and how long will it take? What side effects will I have, and can they be treated?
• Are there other treatment choices we should look at?
• Is there any indication that I should have a bone scan?