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  • Current Treatment Options
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Current Treatment Options

Early detection of prostate cancer leaves several treatment options.

Approximately 50% of diagnosed men elect to have surgery with or without external beam radiation, and the other half elect to have seed therapy (brachytherapy) with or without external beam radiation. Approximately 30% of patients fail primary therapy over a 5-year period and subsequently receive hormone therapy. Hormone therapy slows the tumor growth by stopping or blocking testosterone from entering the cancer cells. Prostate cancer cells are typically dependent on testosterone or other androgens as growth factors.

Hormonal therapy can be effective for long periods of time, reducing tumor progression and relieving pain as well as other symptoms. Eventually, however, all men will progress into later stage disease as the cancer becomes castration-resistant.

Rising PSA blood levels while on hormonal therapy identifies the next stage of prostate cancer called castration-resistant prostate cancer. Some men move into this stage with identified metastatic lesions either in the bone or in lymph nodes, while the majority of men have only rising PSA blood values.

Chemotherapy is mainly used to treat advanced prostate cancer that is no longer being controlled by hormonal therapy. It is used in an attempt to shrink and control the cancer and relieve symptoms with the aim of prolonging life. Chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer is very limited; only one product, with a survival benefit of ~ 2-3 months, is approved, and treatment is complicated by toxic side effects.

Despite chemotherapy forming current standard first-line regimen for castration-resistant prostate cancer, this therapy is not appropriate for at least 25% of patients for various reasons, including old age, poor performance status, or toxicity concerns. This indicates a potential opportunity for drug developers, as there is a high unmet need for a more tolerable agent in patients who may be too ill to undergo chemotherapy or unwilling to put up with the severe side effects.