Prostate cancer is a complex pathology that requires specialized care from experienced medical professionals. Choosing the clinic for prostate cancer treatment is crucial as it can significantly impact the outcome. Finding a hospital with a multidisciplinary team of prostate cancer specialists can make a significant difference in the success of treatment. In addition to the availability of modern therapeutic methods, one should pay attention to the experience of healthcare professionals, success rates, and prices.
Specialized Healthcare Facilities
There are many prostate cancer clinics all over the globe. Some of them are parts of University hospitals, others are municipal or private facilities. When choosing a clinic, you should consider doctors’ expertise, available treatment options, costs of medical services, and quality of follow-up care. Conduct thorough research and seek guidance from healthcare professionals to make an informed decision.
Here are several hospitals that admit patients from abroad and regularly demonstrate excellent results:
- Helios Hospital Berlin-Buch. The Department of Urology at this hospital is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Mark Schrader, a member of the Society of Urologic Oncology and the European Association of Urology. The department offers minimally invasive prostate cancer surgery, all types of drug therapy and injections of therapeutic radionuclides.
- University Hospital of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich includes the Prostate Cancer Center that is certified by the German Cancer Society. It specializes in interventions with the da Vinci X surgical system.
- Urology Clinic Munich-Planegg Munich is the specialized facility that is equipped with the very latest da Vinci XI HD system. It is the highly specialized Center for Benign and Malignant Prostate Diseases and the certified Prostate Cancer Center.
You will find information about the best hospitals for prostate cancer treatment on the Booking Health website.
Treatment Options for Prostate Tumors
Depending on the oncology stage, age of a patient and clinical peculiarities, doctors have a great variety of therapeutic options to choose from:
- Active surveillance is suitable for older men and men with life-threatening conditions. These include repeated PSA blood tests, digital rectal exams and biopsy. As a result, a part of men with prostate cancer will never start active treatment.
- Surgical methods include open, laparoscopic and robotic prostatectomy, cryosurgery, high-intensity focused ultrasound, and transurethral resection of the prostate. Surgery is successful in early oncology stages, when a tumor does not spread outside the prostate.
- Radiation therapy is carried out in men with low-risk cancer as monotherapy or in men with advanced cancer simultaneously with operation and systemic treatments. Prostate cancer radiation therapy includes brachytherapy, external-beam methods, IMRT, and proton therapy. One more innovative option is administration of Lutetium-177 and Actinium-225 in men with metastatic cancer.
- Androgen-deprivation therapy is aimed at lowering testosterone level, which suppresses tumor growth. Therapy is administered in all cancer stages, it may include bilateral orchiectomy or drug intake.
- Targeted therapy are medications that are aimed at particular genes, proteins, or the tissue environment that promote the development of cancer. In metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, targeted medications are used.
- Chemotherapy is not the first-line or stand-alone treatment. It usually enhances therapeutic regimen in men with different cancer stages and helps them live longer.
- Immunotherapy strengthens the immune system's ability to attack malignant cells and combat the disease. Sipuleucel-T vaccination is the most used type of immunotherapy for prostate cancer.
- Symptomatic therapies and bone-modifying drugs.
A multidisciplinary tumor board will assess all the risks and benefits in order to offer the best decision.
Undergoing Treatment Abroad
Many patients pick overseas medical facilities after searching for the best clinics specialized in prostate cancer treatment. This is reasonable, as European clinics demonstrate better statistics on survival rates and success rates of various treatments.
To check information about hospitals and schedule your treatment, visit the Booking Health website. This is the certified international medical tourism provider that for over 15 years has been helping men from 75 countries undergo successful prostate cancer treatment abroad.