One of the scariest aspects of prostate cancer isn’t the cancer itself, but the side effects from cancer treatment. However, there are ways to mitigate or solve some of the problems that men encounter.
Cancer Treatment Pain
The pain from surgery can be controlled with simple medications. Don’t hesitate to tell your doctor if you need pain relief, and don’t worry about becoming addicted. Your doctor will taper you off of strong pain medications gradually, allowing your body to adjust. Toughing it out will only cause your body additional stress, decreasing its ability to heal.
Bone Pain
Prostate cancer spreads most commonly to the bones (bone metastases), weakening them. Hormone therapy can also make bones prone to fractures. Biophosphates, most recently Zometa, can prevent the development and retard the progression of bone metastases. To prevent and treat osteoporosis caused by testosterone suppression, Fosamax and Actonel can be prescribed. Be sure you are getting enough calcium and vitamin D in your diet, as well as starting or continuing weight-bearing exercise such as walking or weight training. Decreasing alcohol consumption and quitting smoking are also beneficial.
Urinary Dysfunction
Flomax and Hytrin are commonly used to prevent irritative symptoms caused by radiation therapy. The drugs are gradually decreased as urinary dysfunction symptoms improve. When leakage continues, it’s possible to inject collagen into the urethra to constrict flow and improve control. However, the effects are short-lived.
Surgical procedures produce longer-lasting results. In one, a support made from silicone is attached to muscle or bone, forming a sling that supports the urethra, alleviating pressure from a filling bladder.
Bowel Dysfunction
Effects such as diarrhea, the inability to control bowel movements and rectal bleeding are most commonly seen following external beam radiotherapy. The only option currently is treating the individual symptoms and modifying the diet to eliminate irritating foods. Men are cautioned not to forego fiber, however, as doing so can lead to constipation.
Erectile Dysfunction
Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are viable options for men following prostatectomy if both nerve bundles still function after surgery, or when more precise forms of radiation have been used.
A tiny medicated pellet, MUSE, can be inserted into the urethra through the opening in the penis with a disposable plastic injector. Caverject uses the same drug but a different delivery system, being injected directly into the penis. A man or his partner can usually learn to administer the shots in one or two visits to the doctor.
If a man cannot use erectile dysfunction medication, there are still choices among mechanical devices. A vacuum pump can be used to create an erection, which is then maintained by a rubber ring. Although it must be inserted under general anesthesia, the majority of men are satisfied with the performance of a penile implant, which consists of a plastic tube attached to a balloon-like sac, with a release button at the testicle.
Tips for Prostate Cancer Treatment
Cancer Hormone Therapy
It’s important to know that intermittent hormone therapy may maintain the effectiveness, but limit the downside, of a traditional hormone regimen. With intermittent therapy, anti-androgen agents are given for six to twelve months until prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels drop. The patient receives no more hormone therapy until the PSA levels rise to a pre-determined point.
This “drug break” enables testosterone levels to rise to nearly normal levels, enabling some sexual desire and function to return between treatment cycles. It may also slow the development of hormone-refractory prostate cancer, which develops from a resistance of the cancer cells to continuous cancer treatment.
Prostate Cancer Chemotherapy
It’s hard to predict how any individual’s prostate cancer symptoms will react to chemotherapy drugs on the market today. They each work in a slightly different way. For that reason, it’s important to take with a grain of salt what someone else may tell you about their experience. He may have had a different drug, a smaller or greater dose, a different drug combination, or his body may have reacted differently to the same drug.
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