A new approach to prostate cancer treatment may increase the life expectancy of patients, reveals a new study.
Chemotherapy for treating prostate cancer is given to men if the hormone treatment is not slowing the spread of cancer cells. Many patients do not opt for chemotherapy due to the side effects involved.
However, researchers from the Warwick and Cardiff universities suggest that a new type of chemotherapy, which is called docetaxel, prolongs the life span of men as soon as it is given to patients with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Professor Malcolm Mason of Cardiff University, School of Medicine suggests that docetaxel, is already being used by the National Health Service (NHS) for treating several types of cancers for many years.
"In prostate cancer it has been used at a much more advanced stage of the illness, for some years - now we know that this chemotherapy should be added earlier, in fact as soon as hormone therapy starts," says Professor Mason.
The researchers suggest that the treatment may be costly but it can benefit and prolong the life of a prostate cancer patient.
The study involved a trial of the new approach on about 3,000 men suffering with prostate cancer in the U.K. and in Switzerland. The study found that overall, patients who received docetaxel lived 10 months longer. Moreover, in patients where cancer cells had spread to areas beyond the pelvis, the life expectancy was increased by 22 months.
Researchers suggest that life-expectancy of patients may increase even further if the treatment is started early.
"To see a 22-month survival advantage off six lots of treatment given several years earlier is a very big benefit. We are very pleased by it," says Professor Nicholas James at the Warwick University, who is also one of the researchers of the study.
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in U.K. and U.S. men. Most prostate cancer cases develop in men over 50 years. About 40,000 patients are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 11,000 people die of the cancer each year in the U.K.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also reveals that in 2011 about 210,000 men in the U.S. were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 27,000 from the cancer.
A new approach for treating prostate cancer can increase the life expectancy of patients and save the lives of thousands of people each year.
Photo: Lucas Hayas | Flickr
