Combination and New Treatments
Usually, physicians will keep you on hormone therapy because it keeps the levels of testosterone in your body at a minimum. But, if the therapy isn’t working as well as it was previously, your doctor may suggest a combination treatment.
Anti-androgens are a type of hormone therapy that’s taken with your usual treatment to prevent the hormone from reaching the cancer cells.
Then, there are steroids, which can stop the production of testosterone in the adrenal glands while simultaneously treating symptom pains. There are new types of hormone therapies for advance prostate cancer, too, including Abiraterone and Enzalutamide – both for men whose cancer returned after chemotherapy or whose hormone therapy stopped before chemo.
Palliative Treatment
When the prostate cancer has advanced, this typically means it’s spread to the bones or other parts of the body, which can lead to more painful symptoms. To fight these specific pains, your physician may begin a palliative treatment such as prescribing a pain relief like ibuprofen or something much stronger, such as codeine or morphine.
There’s also the possibility of radiotherapy, if the cancer is spreading quickly. Radiotherapy can shrink the cancer that will, in turn, lessen the painful symptoms. Lastly, there are bisphosphonates, a drug that specifically treat bones problems that result from advanced prostate cancer.