How Effective Is Prostate Removal?

For men who have a prostatectomy to treat prostate enlargement, there is usually a substantial improvement in urine flow. About 90 percent of men with an enlarged prostate benefit significantly from the procedure.

Even if a man's bladder has been weakened because of the enlarged prostate, the urgency to urinate is reduced, although the frequency of urination might still remain high.

For further information about prostate enlargement, go to Prostate Enlargement.

When prostate cancer is the issue, there's still a question of which therapy is the most effective. In addition to prostatectomy, other ways of treating prostate cancer include:

• "Watchful waiting," in which the cancer is carefully monitored but not treated; the idea is that prostate cancer can be so slow-growing that a man may be more likely to die "with" the disease than "from" it

• Radiation therapy

• Chemotherapy

• Cryotherapy, in which cancerous tissues are frozen and destroyed with special equipment

• Hormone therapy, which seeks to reduce the level in the body of the male hormone testosterone, known to feed the spread of prostate cancer

• TURP (transurethral resection of the prostate), a procedure in which just a portion of the prostate is removed, with an instrument that is inserted through the urethra. The cancer is removed from the prostate by electricity that passes through the end of this special instrument.

For further information about prostate cancer, go to Prostate Cancer.