Where prostate cancer has moved out of the prostate gland and spread into other areas of your body it is said to be advanced prostate cancer and treatment is much more difficult than when cancer is limited to the prostate.
As long as prostate cancer has not spread too far and is not especially 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 particularly aggressive, treatment is a case of merely holding back the progression of the disease and providing you with the best possible quality of life.
Today one of the main treatments for cases of advanced prostate cancer is intravenous chemotherapy frequently using a drug known as docetaxal. This is a particularly effective drug for many patients and it does indeed slow the progression of prostate cancer and extend the life of many patients. However, it is not without some side effects which include such things as nausea, loss of appetite, hair loss and an increased risk of infection. As a result it is here that we come across one of the biggest difficulties in treating advanced prostate cancer.
When you are dealing with a condition which cannot be cured and which will kill you sooner or later, then extending your life by slowing down the progress of the cancer is fine providing that treatment gives you a reasonable quality of life and does not end up being worse than the disease itself.
For a lot of prostate cancer sufferers, who are generally in their 60s or older, chemotherapy is far from pleasant but it is a price that is worth paying when they first start their treatment. However, as the treatment progresses and the side effects start to come into play the picture frequently alters and many patients start to question whether it is worth it. Naturally this is never an easy question to answer and must be the subject of a very personal discussion between yourself, your family and your physician.
Most of us are familiar with this situation either as a result of our own personal experience of illness or from our experience of seeing a family member of close friend in this situation and will know only too well just how hard a time it can be.
There may however be a little light at the end of the tunnel as studies involving a sizeable group of patients with metastatic, androgen-independent prostate cancer show that many patients may be able to take a 'chemotherapy holiday' without any significant harm to their treatment. In other words, following a number of weeks of chemotherapy, and at a time when the side effects are really beginning to pull you down, you may be able to stop your chemotherapy for a while and give your body a chance to recover a little before going on with your treatment.
Now it is of course early days yet and no-one is quite sure yet about just how long a 'chemotherapy holidays' could be or how frequently you can take them, but for many advanced prostate cancer sufferers this seemingly minor advance in treatment may well make all the difference in the world.
Author Resource:-
ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on a wide variety of prostate problems including such things as the therapeutic use of prostate massage
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