Advanced Prostate Cancer Patients May Soon Be Able To Have A Short Chemotherapy Holiday



Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008

by
Help Me To Sleep

Where prostate cancer moves out of the prostate gland and reached into other parts of your body it is classed as advanced prostate cancer and treatment becomes far more difficult than when cancer is confined to the prostate.

Providing prostate cancer has not spread too widely and is not too aggressive it is possible not merely to treat the condition but in fact to cure it. In many cases however where cancer has spread widely, or is too aggressive, treatment becomes a case of merely holding back the progression of the disease and giving you the best quality of life possible.

At present one of the chief treatments for cases of advanced prostate cancer is intravenous chemotherapy often using a drug called docetaxal. This is a particularly effective drug treatment for a lot of patients and does indeed hold back the progression of prostate cancer and extend the life of a significant number of patients. However, it does have various side effects which include such things as nausea, hair loss, loss of appetite and a greater risk of infection. It is here therefore that we come across one of the biggest problems in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

Where you are treating a disease which cannot be cured and which will kill you sooner or later, then lengthening your life by holding back the progress of the disease is great providing that treatment gives you a reasonable quality of life and does not end up being worse than the cancer itself.

For a significant number of prostate cancer sufferers, who are generally in their 60s, 70s or even 80s, chemotherapy is hardly pleasant but is a price that is worth paying when they first start their course of treatment. But, as time goes by and the side effects start to come into play the picture often alters and a lot of patients start to ask whether it is all worth it. This of course is never an easy question to answer and must be the subject of a discussion between yourself, your family and your physician.

Most of us will be familiar with this scenario either as a result of our own experience of illness or through our experience of seeing family members of close friends in this situation and know well just how hard a time it can be.

Now, however, there may be a bit of light at the end of this tunnel as studies involving a sizeable group of patients with metastatic prostate cancer indicate that a lot of patients might be able to take a 'chemo holiday' without any significant detriment to their treatment. In other words, following several weeks of chemo, and at a time when the side effects are staring to get you down, you might be able to simply stop your treatment for a while and give your body a chance to recover a little before carrying on with your treatment.

It is of course early days yet and nobody is quite sure yet about precisely how long a 'chemo holidays' might be or how often you can take them, but for a significant number of advanced prostate cancer sufferers this seemingly minor advance in treatment might well make a world of difference.

ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on a wide variety of prostate problems including such things as the therapeutic use of prostate milking


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