Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of locally advanced ...

Psychosocial Referring to the emotional, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of
human life.
Quality of life (QOL) A person’s overall appraisal of his or her situation and wellbeing.
Radiation oncologist A specialist in the treatment of cancer using x-ray techniques.
Radical prostatectomy An operation which removes the prostate and the seminal vesicles. This
is usually done through a cut in the lower abdomen.
Radiotherapy The use of radiation as x-rays or electrons to kill tumour cells.
Rectum The last part of the bowel, leading to the anus, and through which stools
pass.
Recurrence The re-occurrence of cancer some time after it was first treated.
Reliability (of a test) The ability to measure something in a reproducible and consistent
fashion.
Response A change in the size or extent of disease due to treatment.
Retrograde ejaculation Also called reverse ejaculation. This may occur after surgery for benign
conditions of the prostate. The ejaculate travels back into the bladder
instead of exiting out through the penis. This means a man is usually
infertile (cannot produce offspring in the conventional way), but he can
still achieve orgasm.
Scrotum A pouch of skin which contains the testicles and some other parts of the
male reproductive system. It hangs outside the body and below the penis.
Secondary tumour Spread of cancer from where it began to another part of the body. The
secondary cancerous growths are known as metastases or ‘secondaries’.
The process of spread is known as metastasis.
Seminal vesicles Glands that lie very close to the prostate and produce secretions which
form part of the ejaculate.
Staging The process of determining the extent of the disease. A system for
describing how far the cancer has spread. The most common is the TNM
system described in Appendix 3.
A second and older system sometimes referred to, is the Jewett system:
Stage A—Prostate cancer that began and is found in the prostate only.
Divided into two stages.
Stage B—Prostate cancer began in the prostate and is more advanced
than Stage A.
Stage C—Prostate cancer that began in the prostate, has grown beyond
the outer layer of the prostate to nearby tissues, and may be found in
seminal vesicles (glands that help produce semen).
Stage D—Prostate cancer that began in the prostate and has spread to
lymph nodes or far from the prostate, or to other parts of the body, often
to the bones.
Clinical practice guidelines for the management of locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer
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