Sydney Prostate Centre
Chemotherapy for Prostate Cancer
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Until recently, there was no chemotherapy that improved survival, but with the use of taxity there is an improvement in survival1, 2.

So chemotherapy is used in some patients where the prostate cancer unfortunately becomes refractory to treatment1.

So that usually involves a consultation with the oncologist, who would normally supervise that.

There’s obviously side effects from chemotherapy and patients need to balance out the risks and benefits of chemotherapy3.

There are also a lot of emerging therapies that are coming out, such as growth factor inhibitors4, and I’m sure in the next few years there will be multiple other treatments that are going to be available for patients with prostate cancer.

References

  1. D.I. Quinn, H.M. Sandler, L.G. Horvath - The evolution of chemotherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer - Annals of Oncology Volume 28, Issue 11, November 2017, Pages 2658-2669 - https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdx348
  2. C M Canil and I F Tannock - Is there a role for chemotherapy in prostate cancer? - Br J Cancer. 2004 Sep 13; 91(6): 1005–1011 - doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601850
  3. Mohan Arianayagam - Chemotherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer, Is there a role? - Australian Family Physician Vol. 36, No. 9, September 2007 - https://www.racgp.org.au/getattachment/f5f62b8a-71bb-4cec-8d7c-4e0d0a2d4526/200709chang.pdf
  4. Jocelyn L. Wozney and Emmanuel S. Antonarakis - Growth factor and signaling pathways and their relevance to prostate cancer therapeutics - Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2014 Sep; 33(0): 581–594 - doi: 10.1007/s10555-013-9475-z