HOUSTON — Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Although no one wants to get the diagnosis, doctors say treatment options have come a long way in recent years.
Morton McPhail was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011. He is currently living in the Hill Country with his wife, but he was living in Houston at the time. He's undergone treatment twice.
“I have had very few side effects," McPhail said. "I’m four weeks out and basically I’m doing anything I want to do. I worked out this morning. I lifted weights."
His experience is the perfect example of the paradigm shift already underway in prostate cancer treatment.
His doctor, Stephen Canfield, who is a urologist with UTHealth Houston, says radiation or radical surgery used to be the norm.
“No matter how well you do it, it is always going to impact those major quality of life effects that cause men to avoid seeking diagnosis and treatment," Canfield said. "We deserve better. Men deserve better. It’s time for new treatments."
He says minimally invasive treatments have been available in different cancers, but now prostate cancer is catching up. Focal therapy only targets cancerous tissues, while sparing healthy tissue. As a result, patients are often able to avoid common side effects with urinary functions and sexuality.
“Something really new and innovative is using no heat at all," Canfield said. "That’s nice, because it can still kill the tissue really effectively without damaging the surrounding structures."
Less invasive procedures aren’t an option for all patients, especially those with more advanced stages of cancer.
McPhail is so grateful for how far treatment options have come in the decade since he was first diagnosed.
First, he underwent a focal therapy treatment as part of a clinical trial. The procedure uses gold nanoparticles to seek out and clump around cancerous tissues, then a laser destroys the cancer. It was successful, but his cancer returned two years later. This year, he elected to undergo treatment using the NanoKnife System to place electrodes that destroy the targeted tissue with electrical pulses.
“I’m extraordinarily pleased that my life has not been disrupted by what could be a fairly negative diagnosis,” he said.
Doctors say prostate cancer is more common among older men, Black men, and people with a family history of prostate cancer. For those at higher risk, experts recommend getting screened starting at 50 years old.