Forsyth Medical Center 
Cancer Treatments
Prostate Surgery
| There are several different surgical treatments for prostate cancer. It is important that you talk to your physician about which surgery is right for you. |
Radical prostatectomy, surgical removal of the entire prostate, is one of the most common prostate cancer surgeries performed today. There are two ways to remove the prostate gland for cancer, the retropubic and perineal approaches.
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Do you have specific questions about prostate cancer? Visit our Health Library for answers. |
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Retropubic Prostatectomy
Ther prostate and nearby lymph nodes are removed through an incision in the abdomen. At this point, the lymph nodes are given to the pathologist for analysis. If cancer is found in several nodes then it has usually spread to other parts of the body, and it is probably not useful to remove the prostate gland. If only one or two nodes are cancerous, then the surgeon will decide whether it will be effective to remove the prostate.
Perineal Prostatectomy
The prostate is removed through an incision between the legs, just behind the scrotum. The disadvantage of this approach is that the lymph nodes cannot be removed for examination first. With a low prostate specific antigen (PSA), this may be reasonable since the nodes will probably be normal.
