What to Know About Combination Therapy for Prostate Cancer

You may get more than one treatment for prostate cancer. If so, it’s called combination treatment. It’s also called multimodality treatment. To treat prostate cancer, you may have more than one of these treatments:

• Surgery

• Radiation treatment

• Hormone treatment

For example, if the cancer has spread just outside the prostate, your doctor may suggest you get radiation plus hormone treatment.

Sometimes, the order in which you get treatments has a specific name. For instance, you may have hormone treatment before radiation. If so, it's called neoadjuvant therapy. The treatment helps shrink the tumor, which may make the radiation more effective.

Or you may have treatment after surgery. This is called adjuvant treatment. For instance, you may have radiation or hormone treatment soon after surgery. The goal is to kill any cancer cells that are left. Even if there is no sign of cancer, your doctor may still suggest adjuvant treatment. Having it may reduce the risk that the cancer will come back or spread.