What should you know about prostate cancer do they remove the prostate?

Prostate removal surgery, also called prostatectomy, removes the prostate and usually nearby structures involved in the operation. The choice depends on whether the cancer is confined to the prostate, its grade and extent, your age, other health conditions and personal priorities. Surgery can affect urine control and erections, and the surgeon will explain how nerves and the bladder outlet may be managed. Removing the prostate is not the only route to treatment.

Ask a urologist and oncology team to compare surgery with radiotherapy, brachytherapy, active monitoring or other suitable care. Discuss the chance of needing additional treatment, hospital stay, catheter use, rehabilitation, fertility and sexual function. Robotic surgery uses instruments controlled through small incisions, but the key issue is whether the approach fits your cancer and priorities, not the equipment alone.

Contact the care team promptly after surgery for fever, worsening pain, heavy bleeding, a blocked catheter or inability to pass urine. Seek urgent help for severe weakness, breathing difficulty or sudden confusion. Before treatment, report troublesome urinary symptoms so obstruction and infection can be assessed rather than attributed automatically to cancer.

Ask whether the cancer is localised, what benefit surgery is intended to provide, which structures may be preserved, and how urinary and sexual side effects are managed. Ask how surgery compares with radiotherapy for your case, what follow-up involves, and what happens if the cancer returns or remains detectable.