Prostate Cancer Treatment at UVA Health
What to Expect From Your Care
Kirstin Greene, MD, shares how we support patients through diagnosis, treatment, and beyond.
I'm Kirsten Greene. I am a urologist. I focus on urologic oncology and I practice at UVA and the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center. The prostate is a gland that is present only in men. It is between the bladder and the urethra, and its function is to produce the fluid that is in ejaculate. Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that occurs in the prostate gland. It arises from the prostate gland, so it's not a cancer that arises somewhere else and spreads to the prostate. Today, there are very few signs and symptoms of prostate cancer because we have a blood test called PSA. Sometimes a rectal exam is done as well. Sometimes people are uncomfortable having a rectal exam or they don't want prostate cancer testing because they're afraid of the rectal exam. And so it's important to know you can just have a blood test to look for prostate cancer.
Most people are diagnosed 10 to 15 years before they'd ever have a symptom. Over half of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have a type of cancer that's slow growing that may never need treatment in their lives. And so, the best thing to do in that case is called active surveillance. So for men with low risk prostate cancer, we watch it together closely, potentially for 10 or even 15 years. And if you need treatment at some point, we call that curative treatment. Then that curative treatment could be surgery to remove the entire prostate gland, or it could be radiation to kill the prostate cancer, but leave the prostate gland in the body. Or it could be other forms of therapy like focal therapy, which is when an energy source or a heat or a cold is applied to a certain part of the prostate to kill the cancer just in that part of the prostate.
Patients should come to UVA for their care because we are a comprehensive cancer center. What does that mean? It means we have experts who can help you in a multidisciplinary way. It means I, as a surgeon, can partner with a radiation oncologist and with a medical oncologist, and we can come together and come up with the best, most cutting edge treatment for your individual cancer. But it also means that we're thinking about you as a whole person. We're thinking about your quality of life as well. And so we have specialists to help with the psychological impact of cancer on you and on your partner and on your family. We have experts to help with recovery of function, things like sexual function, urinary function, health and wellbeing. And we have clinical trials. We have things other places don't, and we work together as a team to focus on you not only getting you cancer free, living your best life, and back to who you want to be and how you want to spend the rest of your life.
Why UVA Health for Prostate Cancer Care
Prostate cancer treatment isn't one-size-fits-all. To make choices about your treatment, you'll need information and answers you trust. At UVA Health, we have all the resources you need to feel confident in your decisions and care. Our experienced experts offer skilled support. And we have the latest high-tech tools that give you options. Make an appointment today.