Other Factors Affecting Prostate Cancer Treatment Cost
Apart from the type of surgery or treatment and the choice of technology, the following are some of the factors that affect the overall prostate cancer treatment cost:
Type of Hospital
There are several hospitals around the world that provide world-class medical treatment to patients. The greater the number and quality of services offered by the hospital, the expensive is the treatment at the hospital.
Therefore, the total cost of prostate cancer treatment that you have to pay actually depends on the level of services that you expect from the hospital. To be able to receive five-star services from the hospital, you must be willing to pay lavishly for it.
Experience of the Surgeon
Expertise and skills of the treating doctor matter a lot when it comes to successful treatment of any cancer type. It takes a lot of patience, courage, and knowledge to treat a cancer patient and this is the reason why the most experienced surgeons tend to charge a greater fee for their services.
However, that does not mean that all the experienced and qualified surgeons charge fees that an average patient cannot afford. There are many highly educated and skilled doctors for prostate cancer treatment that offer their services with an equal compassion at a reasonable rate. Therefore, one must try to find a credible doctor with required credential who charges a fee that a patient can afford.
Length of Stay at the Hospital
Incidental Costs
Cost of Accommodation, Food, and Local Travel
| Cost per Day |
Prostate Surgery And Laser Prostate Surgery
Treatment to reduce an enlarged prostate that is causing problems.
We offer some of the latest techniques for prostate surgery to relieve urinary problems caused by an enlarged prostate gland in men.
Sometimes also called
- TURP procedure or TURP surgery
- Transurethral resection of the prostate
- Laser prostate surgery
- UroLift®
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General, spinal, epidural or local
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Available to self-pay?
- Fast access to treatment when you need it
- Internationally and nationally renowned consultants
- Clear, inclusive pricing
- 98% of our patients are likely to recommend us to their family and friends
Possible Risks And Side Effects Of Brachytherapy
Radiation precautions: If you get permanent brachytherapy, the seeds will give off small amounts of radiation for several weeks or months. Even though the radiation doesnt travel far, your doctor may advise you to stay away from pregnant women and small children during this time. If you plan on traveling, you might want to get a doctors note regarding your treatment, as low levels of radiation can sometimes be picked up by detection systems at airports.
There’s also a small risk that some of the seeds might move . You may be asked to strain your urine for the first week or so to catch any seeds that might come out. You may be asked to take other precautions as well, such as wearing a condom during sex. Be sure to follow any instructions your doctor gives you. There have also been reports of the seeds moving through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, such as the lungs. As far as doctors can tell, this is uncommon and doesnt seem to cause any ill effects.
These precautions arent needed after HDR brachytherapy, because the radiation doesnt stay in the body after treatment.
Bowel problems: Brachytherapy can sometimes irritate the rectum and cause a condition called radiation proctitis. Bowel problems such as rectal pain, burning, and/or diarrhea can occur, but serious long-term problems are uncommon.
To learn more, see the Radiation Therapy section of our website.
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Find Your Nearest Spire Hospital
Almost all of our hospitals offer private prostate surgery and have teams of urologists who specialise in this procedure.
There are several methods available for prostate surgery.
TURP
The standard method is transurethral resection of the prostate . During a TURP procedure, which is usually performed under general anaesthetic, your surgeon will:
- Insert a resectoscope through your penis into your urethra and bladder
- Pass a small, electrically-heated wire loop through the resectoscope
- Trim small central pieces of prostate tissue using the wire loop to create a channel where urine can easily pass through, and extract the pieces by suction
- Insert a thin tube called a catheter through your penis and into your urethra
- Use the catheter to flush out any blood clots, urine or remaining prostate tissue from your bladder using a saltwater solution
- The catheter will remain in place for around one to three days after the operation
TURP may also be performed to treat or prevent any further complications as a result of blocked urine flow, including recurring UTIs, kidney and bladder damage, bladder stones, blood in the urine and difficulties in urination.
Laser prostate surgery
With laser prostate surgery, your surgeon will follow the same steps as TURP, but instead of using a resectoscope with an electrically-heated wire to cut away your prostate, theyll use a scope which has a special laser . The laser generates precise and intense heat to cut away sections of your enlarged prostate.
Drawbacks Of Laser Therapy
Surgeons must have special training before they can do laser therapy and strict safety measures must be followed. Laser therapy is expensive and requires specialized equipment. Also, the effects of laser therapy may not last long, so doctors may have to repeat the treatment for you to get the full benefit.
Not every hospital or cancer center in the country has skilled doctors and the machines needed to use lasers in cancer treatment. Talk with your doctor or contact hospitals and cancer centers in your area to find out if they are using lasers.
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What Is Laser Enucleation
Laser enucleation is a common treatment option for BPE. The laser uses intensive light to cut the prostate tissue. At the same time, the heat from the laser is used to close blood vessels. This is why only a small amount of blood is lost during this type of surgery.
Laser enucleation can be done with different laser systems. The choice of the laser depends on the expertise of your doctor and what is available in your hospital.
Targeted Therapy For Prostate Cancer
Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to identify and attack cancer cells while doing little damage to normal cells. These therapies attack the cancer cells’ inner workings the programming that makes them different from normal, healthy cells. Each type of targeted therapy works differently, but they all change the way a cancer cell grows, divides, repairs itself, or interacts with other cells.
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Laser Treatment However Preserves Erectile And Urinary Functions
- Date:
- University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
- Summary:
- Researchers have shown that selectively destroying cancerous prostate tissue is as effective as complete prostate removal or radiation therapy while preserving more sexual and urinary function than the other treatments.
Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, led by prostate cancer treatment pioneer Dr. Eric Walser, have shown that selectively destroying cancerous prostate tissue is as effective as complete prostate removal or radiation therapy while preserving more sexual and urinary function than the other treatments. This study is currently available in Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
Prostate cancer the second most common form of cancer in men. In fact, 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed during his lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates 174,650 new cases and 31,620 deaths from prostate cancer in 2019.
With current screening techniques, prostate cancers are now often detected early enough so that with treatment, they stay within the prostate gland and don’t spread or cause harm to the patient. However, aggressive treatments such as removing the prostate or radiation therapy can result in difficulty with urinary and sexual functions.
In 120 men with low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer treated with FLA, 17 percent needed additional cancer treatment after one year with no noticeable change in quality of life or urinary function.
Story Source:
Focal Therapies Could Spare Side Effects Of Other Treatments
The research, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, found that only six per cent of patients treated with VTP required surgery or radiotherapy compared with 29 per cent of men on active surveillance. However, a third of men in the VTP group experienced serious side effects compared to only one in ten in the active surveillance group.
“In 1975 almost everyone with breast cancer was given a radical mastectomy,” says Professor Mark Emberton, who led the study. “But since then, treatments have steadily improved and we now rarely need to remove the whole breast. In prostate cancer we are still commonly removing or irradiating the whole prostate, so the success of this new tissue-preserving treatment is welcome news indeed.”
Dr Matthew Hobbs, Deputy Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Focal therapy treatments like this one have the potential to offer a middle-ground option for some men with cancer that has not spread outside the prostate. By treating the cancer directly, rather than the whole prostate, this type of therapy could spare some men the long-term side effects of other treatments.
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Laser Photodynamic Therapy Transforms Prostate Cancer Treatment
20 Dec 2016
Combination of near-infrared light and aquatic photosensitizer clears early-stage disease in half of men treated in major European trial.
A large clinical trial across 47 European hospitals has shown laser photodynamic therapy to be an effective treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, with no side effects.
Surgeons have just on more than 400 men in the journal Lancet Oncology. They found that, of the 206 patients to receive PDT, 101 had a negative biopsy result when tested two years after the treatment, while in 58 the disease had progressed.
At the same time, of the 207 men in the active surveillance group who did not receive PDT only 28 showed a negative biopsy at the two-year follow-up, while 120 tested positive for disease progression.
Destructive interactionSpeaking to the BBCs Today radio program the papers lead author Mark Pemberton, a professor at University College London, said: Interaction between the laser and photosensitizer destroys the cancer cells, and also importantly the blood vessels that supply the tumor.
Pemberton also highlighted how those treated with PDT were much less likely to require radical treatment after the two-year follow-up, and said that the lack of side effects was a key finding.
Weizmann licensed the drug to Steba via the Yeda Research and Development Company, the institutes technology transfer wing. Steba now manufactures a soluble version of Tookad.
Types Of Lasers Used In Cancer Treatment
Three types of lasers are used to treat cancer:
- carbon dioxide lasers
- argon lasers
- neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet lasers
CO2 and argon lasers can cut the skins surface without going into deeper layers. So, they can be used to remove cancers on the surface of the body, such as skin cancer.
The Nd:YAG laser is more often used through an endoscope to treat internal organs, such as the uterus, esophagus, and colon.
Nd:YAG laser light can also travel through optical fibers into specific areas of the body during LITT.
Argon lasers are often used in photodynamic therapy.
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What Is Prostate Laser Surgery
As the name implies, prostate laser surgery uses a scope that delivers a laser directly to the prostate. It is a procedure for patients with prostate enlargement. In most cases, it is used to relieve the urinary symptoms of an enlarged prostate. It is typically the last resource when oral medication and conservative treatment do not work.
During the procedure, your doctor will insert a scope through the urethra. It reaches the prostate just below the urinary bladder. Then, it delivers laser energy directly to the prostate, removing excess tissue and shrinking the gland. The laser works through heat generation, directing heat into a specific spot in the prostate gland. There is not only one type of prostate laser surgery.
There are a variety of other methods, including:
- Thulium Laser Vaporesection and Enucleation of the Prostate
- GreenLight Laser Vaporization , also known as photoselective vaporization, or greenlight laser prostatectomy.
- Diode Laser Vaporization and Enucleation
Other Treatment Options For Prostate Cancer
There are several other prostate cancer treatment options that are available for the patients. Chemotherapy is one of the other popular treatment modality that may be used after surgery for patients with the cancer of the prostate.
The following table highlights the average cost of chemotherapy for prostate in some of the top medical tourism destinations in the world:
| Countries |
- Hormone therapy
- External beam radiotherapy
Thus, the total cost of prostate cancer treatment varies greatly from one individual to another, depending on the individual medical case.
Explore Best Hospitals for Prostate Cancer Treatment
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Prostate Cancer Laser Treatment: What You Need To Know
When a space-age cure for cancer thats truly transformative and a huge leap forward hits the headlines, its going to catch peoples eyes.
And that was the case for one study published yesterday in the journal Lancet Oncology that received widespread media attention. The results came from a clinical trial testing an experimental laser treatment on men with prostate cancer. And the findings were positive: the therapy is safe to use in these patients.
Thats good news.
But what do the results really mean for men with prostate cancer? We spoke to an expert on prostate cancer, Professor Malcolm Mason, to find out.
The great thing is that this study showed the treatment is safe to give to patients, he says.
So this is a good study that we can now expand on with further research. But for new treatments, the most important thing is to show that they can save lives. This trial didnt show that.
Heres what it did show.
Phase I Clinical Trials
Very early literature on FLA for prostate cancer has shown promising results for the technique as a safe and viable alternative to whole-gland therapies. A case report by Lindner et al. described four patients who underwent FLA one week prior to radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. A random area of the prostate gland was targeted for ablation and was not specific to the location of the cancerous lesions. On microscopy, ablation zones were found to contain homogenous areas of coagulative necrosis without evidence of viable cells. Specifically, histopathological examination of the prostate specimens showed no cytokeratin 8 staining, a vital stain for prostate cancer, within the ablated areas of the gland. Lindner et al. also found the ablated volume measured on MRI correlated strongly with the ablation volume highlighted by vital staining but not with the volume traced on hematoxylin and eosin staining. This supported the previous findings in preclinical trials that MRI can be used to guide FLA procedures and verify ablation following treatment.
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Survival Rates By Stage
According to the National Cancer Institute, below are the survival rates based on the stages of cancer. Please note that the rates below are just estimates.
- Local stage: During this stage, there are no signs that cancer has spread outside the prostate gland. It is estimated that 4 out of 5 prostate cancers are found in this early stage. The relative 5-year survival rate for local stage prostate cancer is nearly 100%. 5-year survival rates are based on men diagnosed and first treated more than five years ago.
- Regional stage: During this stage, cancer has spread from the prostate to nearby areas. The relative 5-year survival rate for regional stage prostate cancer is nearly 100%.
- Distant stage: During this stage, cancer has spread to distant lymph nodes, bones, or other organs. The relative 5-year survival rate for distant-stage prostate cancer is about 29%.
Transurethral Resection Of The Prostate
This operation is more often used to treat men with non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate called benign prostatic hyperplasia . But it is also sometimes used in men with advanced prostate cancer to help relieve symptoms, such as trouble urinating.
During this operation, the surgeon removes the inner part of the prostate gland that surrounds the urethra . The skin is not cut with this surgery. An instrument called a resectoscope is passed through the tip of the penis into the urethra to the level of the prostate. Once it is in place, either electricity is passed through a wire to heat it or a laser is used to cut or vaporize the tissue. Spinal anesthesia or general anesthesia is used.
The operation usually takes about an hour. After surgery, a catheter is inserted through the penis and into the bladder. It remains in place for about a day to help urine drain while the prostate heals. You can usually leave the hospital after 1 to 2 days and return to normal activities in 1 to 2 weeks.
You will probably have some blood in your urine after surgery.
Other possible side effects from TURP include infection and any risks that come with the type of anesthesia used.
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How Does It Work
Hear Dr. Michael Bedecs FLA story
Sperling Diagnostic Group, in conjunction with Sperling Prostate Center has developed a simple, proprietary 4-step treatment protocol utilizing our advanced technological capabilities and expertise.