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Patients who want to pursue chemotherapy
as a prostate
cancer treatment should know that chemotherapy is
usually only used for patients who exhibit these characteristics:
The severe and possibly dangerous
side effects associated with use of chemotherapy outweigh
the possible benefits. In more recent cases, however,
some doctors have used chemotherapy with positive benefits
before their patients reach these stages. Prostate cancer
patients who are interested in pursuing chemotherapy
should speak with their doctors.
Chemotherapy and Early Prostate
Cancer
In many cases prostate cancer grows usually very slowly.
The slow growth of prostate cancer cells is uncommon
in the world of cancers, and the slow cell division
leaves prostate cancer unharmed during the introduction
of chemotherapy drugs. Chemotherapy works by targeting
cells that grow much more quickly, such as the ones
in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and in hair
follicles. Patients undergoing chemotherapy for another
type of cancer will often lose their hair and experience
side effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation,
or diarrhea. Cells that do not reproduce quickly are
able to repair the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy
before cell division.
Chemotherapy and Advanced
Prostate Cancer
As a prostate cancer treatment, chemotherapy is used
more for those who are in advanced stages of prostate
cancer with distant bone metastasis. Once prostate cancer
metastasizes to the bones, the cancerous cells divide
more quickly and can be very painful. Chemotherapy,
especially when used in conjunction with drugs such
a prednisone,
is capable of relieving this pain. Chemotherapy is usually
the last salvage treatment doctors are willing to consider
for their patients.
Chemotherapy, however, can be a
useful drug in extending the life and the quality of
life for prostate cancer patients. For patients who
have long been diagnosed with prostatic
adenocarcinoma, should not look at
chemotherapy as their last chance, but another way to
slow the growth of prostate cancer. The severe side
effects are usually the reason doctors hold off chemotherapy
for their patients as long as possible. Other treatments
such as brachytherapy have been proven more effective
and less damaging to the healthy tissues of the human
body.
Hormone Refractory Prostate
Cancer
When a primary treatment fails to eliminate prostate
cancer, the next step will usually be hormone therapy
before chemotherapy. Hormone therapy does not cure prostate
cancer; hormones or lack of hormones will not ablate
the cancerous cells. Removing the androgen
or the body’s ability to use androgen slows the
growth of the prostate cells. Eventually, however, patients
will develop an anti - androgen resistance and the cells
begin to grow again. Sometimes, removing a patient from
an anti-androgen and re-flooding the body with testosterone
will, for reasons that remain a mystery, slow the growth
again. When this form of hormone therapy fails, it is
called hormone refractory prostate cancer. Chemotherapy
will then be the next step to try and to control the
growth of the disease. Remember, salvage therapy is
used for cases of recurrent prostate cancer, and in
many cases prostate cancer will recur. Once a patient
has left the earlier T1 and T2 stages of the disease,
it is very unlikely that one single therapy can cure
them.
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