Prostate Cancer Treatment

Prostate cancer is a cancer that is being developed in a man’s prostate gland. This type of cancer can manifest symptoms, but most of the time, it does not show any symptoms at all until the cancer spreads in other parts of the body. Take note that the worst manifestation will be felt once the cancer cells invaded other parts of the body.

If the cancer cells did not leave the prostate yet, there is a very high percentage of survival since the cancer cells can be treated easily. There are actually a lot of ways on how we can treat prostate cancer. It may include surgery, and common types of therapy such as chemotherapy and radiation treatment. There are actually a lot of manifestations in these types of therapies and the risk that the patient is taking is too much.

This article will be dealing with the common therapies applied for prostate cancer patients.

Chemotherapy, as the term suggests is the application of chemicals to treat the cancer. it uses chemical injections that can freeze the cancer cells, prevent it from spreading, and eventually die. This type of therapy is very crucial because chemicals can cause harm in the body aside from the typical side effect of the cancer cells itself.

Patient who undergoes this type of therapy experiences hair loss, loss of appetite, and hormonal imbalance with ill health. The body’s resistance deplete until such time that the patient can no longer bear the pain. During chemotherapy, aside from targeting cancer cells, it is inevitable to damage healthy cells due to the over exposure of the cancer cells to chemical compounds. When this happens, the body suffers the consequences of the chemotherapy and the body totally surrenders.

Another type of prostate cancer therapy is through the use of radiation technology. During the process, radiation will be directed to the prostate gland, aim it to the cancer cells and eventually kill cancer little by little. In this type of treatment, the same thing happens. The radiation targets the cancer cells. At the same time, it is also inevitable that healthy cells are being affected, leaving them damage along the process.

The application of treatments and therapies will be dependent on the severity of the patient’s cancer. At the same time, the state of the patient’s physical and overall health is also considered. Sometimes, if the cancer cells have reached critical parts of the system, the body would eventually display symptoms that are severe as well like dark spots in the skull and other parts of the body. At some point, if the cancer is widespread and cannot be treated by a single treatment, the experts would resort to employing a mix of these therapies that can really be very painful and stressful.

It is very important that we discover prostate cancer at an early state so as not to complicate other body cells even more. When we do close monitoring of what we feel, it will help us more in getting the appropriate treatment and therapy with higher probability of survival.

Prostate cancer patients who had not been helped by standard care just received another option. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the usage of Jevtana and prednisone to treat these patients.

In a study conducted earlier this year, researchers treated prostate cancer patients with Jevtana, a chemotherapy medicine produced by Sanofi-Aventis, and investigated the results. The patients who received treatment that included the drug lived for approximately ten more weeks than those who only received standard care. Moreover, these Jevtana patients were more likely to have their tumors decrease in size. Unfortunately, none of the participants in the study experienced a complete remission of the disease.

The combination of Jevtana and prednisone is the first chemotherapeutic treatment that prolongs the survival of men who are no longer being helped by regular medical care. Often used in cancer treatment, prednisone is a synthetic steroid that prevents inflammation. However, both the drug and the steroid have negative side effects. Serious side effects of Jevtana include white blood cell reduction, blood platelet level decrease, and kidney failure. Using prednisone can result in weight gain, high blood pressure, and steroid-induced diabetes. Consequently, patients need to consult with their doctors before using this treatment.

The effects of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Jevtana are significant. “Patients have few therapeutic options in this disease setting,” Richard Pazdur, the director of the FDA’s Office of Oncology Drug Products, states. When standard hormone-deprivation treatments and docetaxel, the most commonly used drug to fight against prostate tumors, are not effective anymore, Jevtana gives prostate cancer patients an alternative.

Pulse of the Patient is a private next generation, social entrepreneurship startup company in the healthcare industry. By leveraging emerging technologies and web-based social media applications, Pulse aims to help patients manage their greatest challenge through harnessing the knowledge, intelligence and pulse of the people. We have devoted our professional and personal lives to improving cancer care through research, assisting patient foundations and volunteering with key cancer societies. We strive to enable cancer patients, their families, and friends to be better prepared to manage their disease and take back control of their life. Please visit our blog at: Our Blog.

Normally, human cells divide and increase permanently. This way our body is growing and inactive cells are replaced. That means a controlled process when the resulting cells are identically with their origin. Sometimes, from unknown reasons, the process gets out of control and the result of cells division is an abnormal growth called a tumour. When this tumour is malignant, its cells have the power to migrate nearby tissues and penetrate organs and bloodstream. This is cancer.

Chemotherapy is a treatment based on action of several agents such as: Mitoxantrone, Vinorelbine, Docetaxel, Estramustine or others. Basically, chemotherapy agents kill cancer cells that are actively multiplying.

The general disadvantage of chemotherapy, no matter of type of cancer, is the drugs cannot discriminate between fast-growing cells and kills all cells whether they are part of controlled or uncontrolled process. Acting that way, chemotherapy kills and ‘good cells’, including hair follicles, causing typical side effects such as hair loss and other.

The disadvantage in treating prostate cancer is related to the fact prostate cancer cells multiply relatively slowly. This is the reason for chemotherapy is mostly used in aggressive stages of prostate cancer, or when used in common stages, cancer cells need to receive a longer exposure time to the anticancer agent. To compensate the longer exposure a lower dose is prescribed, situation that requires a permanent adjustable schedule of administration and special computerized devices.

It is really up to the patient and his doctors to decide whether on balance the advantages outweigh the risks.