For many people suffering from advanced prostate cancer chemotherapy can be worse than the condition itself. Now however studies have shown that it might be possible to enjoy a brief chemotherapy holiday.
Once prostate cancer has moved out of the prostate and spread into other parts of the body it is classed as advanced prostate cancer and treatment is much more difficult than when the disease is confined to the prostate gland.
Where your cancer has not spread too far and is not particularly aggressive it is possible not merely to treat the condition but in fact to cure it.
However, in many cases where the disease is widespread, or is especially aggressive, treatment is a matter of simply holding back the progress of the disease and providing you with the best possible quality of life. Nowadays one of the chief amongst various treatments for advanced prostate cancer is chemotherapy frequently using a drug called docetaxal. Docetaxal is a particularly effective drug for a lot of patients and it does indeed slow the progress of prostate cancer and extend life for a significant number of patients. But, it is not without its side effects that include things like 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 advanced prostate cancer treatment.
When you are treating a condition that cannot be cured and that will kill you sooner or later, then extending your life by holding back the progress of the cancer is fine provided that treatment gives you a reasonable quality of life and does not end up being worse than the cancer itself. For a lot of prostate cancer patients, who are often in their 60s, 70s or even 80s, chemotherapy is not exactly pleasant but it is a price that is worth paying when they first start their course of treatment. However, as the treatment progresses and the side effects start to come into play the picture frequently alters and a lot of patients begin to ask whether it is worth it. Naturally this is never an easy question to answer and must be the subject of a discussion between yourself, your family and your physician.
A lot of us are familiar with this picture either through our own experience with illness or as a result of our experience of seeing family members of close friends in this situation and will know well just how hard a time it can be. Now, however, there may be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel as studies involving a sizeable group of patients with metastatic, androgen-independent prostate cancer show that a lot of patients may be able to take a ‘chemo holiday’ without any significant damage to their treatment.
Put another way, after a number of weeks of chemo, and when the side effects are really staring to pull you down, you may be able to simply stop your chemotherapy for a while and let your body recover a little before carrying on with your treatment. And this would be a good point to boost your immune system with good dietary supplements.
It is of course early days yet and no-one is exactly certain yet precisely how long a ‘chemo holidays’ could be or how frequently you can take them, but for many advanced prostate cancer patients this apparently minor advance in treatment may well make all the difference in the world.
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ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on a wide variety of prostate problems including such things as the therapeutic use of prostate milking.
