Prostate Cancer Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses anticancer drugs that kill the cancer cells. Chemotherapy is prescribed when prostate cancer has reached in its advanced stage. It is helpful when the cancer cannot be cured through the hormonal therapy, but this therapy is not used in the early stage of prostate cancer.

The chemotherapy treatment covers almost six month's period, which is usually followed by the recovery period also. The treatment period depends upon the prescribed medication for the therapy.

Chemotherapy drugs are usually given directly through the injections into the veins or orally. This makes the drugs enter into the bloodstream and reach to the distant organs of body where the cancer cells has affected. Chemotherapy is also very effective in treating the metastatic disease. Metastatic cancer may not be detected at early stage, but it can recur in the distant parts of body after a couple of months of initial treatment.

Chemotherapy Drugs

After recent research on chemotherapy drugs, it is proved that the combined use of steroid drug and docetaxel chemotherapy drug has reduced the symptoms of advanced prostate cancer and increased the life of patients. The chemotherapy drugs used for the treatment include-

However, chemotherapy does not kill all the cancer cells, but it definitely reduces the speed of cancer growth and the severity of symptoms.

Side Effects of Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is very effective to kill the cancer cells rapidly, but it also affects other cells that are beneficial to the body. These side effects may include- bone marrow, hair follicles and gastrointestinal tract. However, chemotherapy damages the healthy cells during the treatment, but these damaged healthy cells can be replaced very soon by other healthy cell. Hence, the side effects of chemotherapy remain for temporary period.

The chemotherapy treatment has some specific side effects depending upon the prescribed medication and the treatment period. These common side effects of chemotherapy are:

Some of the side effects can be cured though medications such as diarrhea, vomiting and nausea. On the other side, some side effects are temporary, so these side effects will automatically be cure after the treatment. The best way to control the chemotherapy side effects is to consult with the doctors for the proper medicines. You can also discuss the severe side effects that cannot be cured with medications.

Recently, the new developed drugs of chemotherapy are very helpful in reducing the growth of cancer cells. It has proved effective in putting the patients on the treatment tract of hormonal therapy. The early stage use of chemotherapy drugs has benefited the patients of prostate cancer.