If you are not in the know, or that you want to know something about clinical trials for prostate cancer drugs, this article can be a source of enlightenment for you. Read on for more details on these trials.

 What is a clinical trial?

The meaning of clinical trial is simply a study which aims to test the effectiveness of a new drug to be introduced for use by patient suffering from a particular illness. This study or experiment is conducted under the supervision of an authorized health body. In the United States, most clinical trials for the development of new drugs are supervised and approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials

When a new drug for the treatment of prostate cancer is developed, the pharmaceutical company may carryout a clinical trial to determine the safety and effectiveness of the drug on patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. This type of cancer originates from the tissues of the prostate gland and could spread to other parts of the body slowly.

Volunteers (who are mostly patients of prostate cancer) are tested with new drug. The procedure applied in the trials is systematic and carefully applied to ensure the safety of the volunteers. In the course of the trial, evaluations and conclusions are reached on the safety and possible side effects of the new investigational drugs.

The importance of prostate cancer clinical trials

The importance of clinical trials for prostate cancer cannot be underestimated even though many patients are skeptical of volunteering for the trial. It is possible for patients to get treated effectively of their condition. More so, it provides them with opportunity of being the first partaker of the drug that could be very useful in the future. In addition, the treatment offered to most patients during clinical trials is more carefully done and could be more effective than those done ordinarily.

Finally, prostate cancer clinical trials in the United States are supervised by the FDA. So, if you have been reluctant about being a volunteer, then this news could be moral booster for you. Major pharmaceutical companies you can think of, at one time or the other, conducts these trials on new drugs they intend to offer to the public.  So, if you have the chance of participating in a clinical trial, go ahead.

Here are things you need to know about castration-resistant cancer.

Medications – Some of the best known treatments used to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) include Docetaxel and Cabazitaxel. These drugs have the approvals of the FDA, and have been known to improve the survival rate of the prostate cancer victim. These are often applied as part of the chemotherapy treatment.

Another effective drug for the management of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is the oral drug, Ketoconazole and a combination of other drugs like Thalidomide, Bevacizumab, and Prednisone. These have the capacity to manipulate the hormone causing castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). It has been shown that they have minimal side effects. Management of CRPC with these medications has shown to improve the survival rate of patients by more than 4 months.

Apart from some of the chemotherapy treatments mentioned above, immunotherapy treatments have equally shown to be effective in treating castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and other forms of metastatic prostate cancer. Sipuleucel-T and Abiraterone Acetate are FDA approved immunotherapy that can be applied to treat late stage or metastatic prostate cancer. These can be applied before chemotherapy treatment.

So, the above paragraphs highlight some of the best known treatments for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). This form of prostate cancer can be deadly and offers the victim little chance of survival. Thankfully, with thorough research efforts the use of drugs and other treatment options has been developed to help manage the symptoms of this condition. People that have been diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer have more to benefit with the treatments.

Conclusively, if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer and you have been diagnosed with CRPC, then your doctor can provide you details on how your treatment is going to look like. Consult with him to know the treatment options you have and the possible side effects. It is important to still have realistic expectations when it comes to the medications or management of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Despite the cause of the treatment procedure applied, one fact that will stick is that the high level of the hormone testosterone increases the ability of the cancer cells to grow. Since this hormone promotes cancer growth, most of the drugs produced now tend to inhibit the production of testosterone or androgen in the body. Thus, it is important you have an idea of these drugs and how they really work to frustrate and kill cancer of the prostate gland. The following paragraphs provide you with a list of the drugs that are used in the treatment of this male related cancer. Also, you get to have an idea of when they are may be administered.

List of approved prostate cancer drugs

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) of the United States has approved the use of certain drugs or medications for the treatment of cancer of the prostate. This list will help you get idea of what the doctor may recommend for you. The list includes drugs such as:Abiraterone Acetate, Lupron (Leuprolide Acetate),Cabazitaxel, Docetaxel, Prednisone, Sipuleucel-T, Taxotere (Docetaxel), Degarelix, Provenge (Sipuleucel-T), Zytiga (Abiraterone Acetate), and Viadur (Leuprolide Acetate),etc. There are other brands of drugs out there and the internet will help you get more facts about them.

When prostate cancer drugs can be used 

There are so many occasions when prostate cancer drugs can be applied. They can be used as independent medications of used in combinations with other treatments like radiation treatments, and surgery. Chemotherapy and hormonal treatments are two major treatment procedures that require the use of drugs solely to destroy or inhibit tumors on the cells.

As I started above, the objectives of most drugs is to reduce the effects that the testosterone hormone poses to increase prostate cancer. The drug will either cut out the production or reduce the quantity in the body. More so, some of the drugs act to get destroy the cancerous cells completely.

Conclusively, the effects of drugs or medications in prostate cancer have been successfully in many cases. They have helped to increase the survival rate of those diagnosed. Although a permanent cure for this second killer cancer for men has not been discovered, the effects of these drugs have provided relief and hope for victims and their loved ones. So, you can talk to a qualified doctor or visit the Internet for more details on drugs for prostate treatments.

These pills are meant to interfere with the body’s production of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which in some manner have been implicated as promoting the growth of the disease.

Pills in hormonal therapy include GnRH agonists and antagonists and drugs like toremifene, which has shown promise in early trials; and finasteride and dutasteride, which have been known to block the conversion of testosterone to DHT. And for prostate cancer cells that have proven resistant to hormonal therapies, another drug like abiratone acetate is currently in study, showing great promise in phase II trials, and looking for an early 2011 FDA approval.

According to writer Daniel Martin, British researchers made the dramatic breakthrough against lethal forms of prostate cancer in trials of the new pill that shrinks tumors in up to 80 per cent of cases. The excitement at the possibility of ending the need for damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy brings with it a heady feeling. Experts hail it as perhaps the biggest advance in prostate cancer research in decades, and team leader, Dr Johann de Bono, thinks patients can control the prostate cancer only four abiratone acetate pills a day, and very few side-effects.

Calcitriol, a pill made from a form of vitamin D, also appears to be doing wonders both in the treatment of prostate cancer, and as a preventive measure for the disease. Calcitriol, already approved as prescription medication, can be taken also without much fear for side effects because it is basically a natural supplement that the body is in need of.

A daily dose reduces PSA levels, an indicator or the severity of the disease, by as much as half in patients diagnosed with advanced stage disease. John Neate of the Prostate Cancer Charity however says that “the role of supplements in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer is an area which deserves a greater level of research attention.”

And there are drugs like flutamide and casodex, all forms of hormone treatments for prostate cancer, which have their side effects but which may also be used to treat the disease. These medications mostly can only be gotten with prescriptions, so the doctor will have to be handy.

A good example, one might suppose, is the higher incidence of prostate cancer in the industrialized nations of the West as against the incidence of the melanoma in Third World countries. For some reason, South America, Africa, and Asia do not suffer from prostate cancer as much as the United States, Canada, and certain parts of Europe do. Of course it is possible that there are various other environmental factors that might contribute to these statistics, but so far studies have strongly implicated treated foods and high calorie diets as contributory to the incidence of prostate cancer.

It is thereby no error of chance that diet is listed as a primary (casual) risk factor for prostate cancer; and in that light, you might want to pay attention to what the oncologist suggests and start to work on your diet. Better still, perhaps you should not wait until then before you get at it; instead you could begin right away and start to work on helping yourself live a longer healthier life in spite of your risk of prostate cancer, or diagnosis thereof.

First of all, you want to increase your intake of vitamin E, which is critical in forming red blood cells and muscles and tissues in your body. In addition, vitamin E has antioxidant properties that inhibit the dangerous oxidation of free radicals in your body that have been implicated as cancer causing agents. You will get your vitamin E abundant in vegetable oils, wheat germ, liver, and leafy green vegetables. You might also want to look around for sources of the mineral selenium, an element found in tiny amounts in plants and yeasts and associated with lowered risk of prostate cancer.

Lycopene is another dietary supplement that you should totally pick up because of its well known healing effects for prostate cancer patients. Also rich with antioxidant qualities, you will obtain it primarily from tomatoes, and you can also get lycopene from broccoli. You will need to work on your vitamin D sources as well, if you will hope to effectively cure yourself of prostate cancer. It is a mineral that essentially protects the body from the effects of low calcium intake and also lowers the risk of prostate cancer, while also lowering your PSA levels.

And while you are taking on all these new diet supplements for prostate cancer patient, you might want to do away with dairy, low-fat milk and other dairy products that have a vitamin A palmitate constituent. The substance has been shown to contribute to the risk of prostate cancer because it reacts with zinc and protein to form an unabsorbable complex. In the same breath, you want to do away with diets rich in animal fats, red meat, and high fat dairy products; what you need really is just a vegan diet, and some fish, and you will cure faster.

Prostatectomy is basically the surgical removal of the prostate or parts of it. It may be employed for various infections and disorders of the prostate, principally benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), but in the treatment of prostate cancer, it is often aimed toward curing the disease at its earliest stages before it gets a chance to spread. It is also considered for cancers that fail to respond to radiation therapy. The surgeon can do the operation by making an incision through the abdomen of the patient to remove the tumor, or by making the incision through the perineum – the skin between the scrotum and the anus.

A radical prostatectomy is often advised when the tumors have not spread beyond the prostate, and a laparoscopic prostatectomy, which assures a shorter stay in the hospital, smaller incisions, and faster recovery than traditional standard prostatectomies may be employed if the surgeon is indeed properly trained and has a surgical robot to boot. A transurethral resection works well for BPH, while cryosurgery is currently the acclaimed champion of prostate cancer surgeries (even though it is still in research) because it virtually guarantees less invasiveness, less requirement for general anesthesia, causes fewer problems with urinary control, and superior to radical prostatectomy for recurrent prostate cell malignancy following radiation therapy.

Howbeit, best surgery for prostate cancer included, these operations more often than not, tend to leave the patient impotent. They still feel sensations in the genital area, and they are still able to achieve orgasm, but the ability of the man to attain erection and to ejaculate at the climax of intercourse is often impaired by the time the prostate cancer surgery is over.

It is a fact that many men opt for surgery still even after they are informed that they could become impotent as a result to the treatment; but they are not necessarily excited about it, and if they can, they would love to do something about it. Thankfully, there are treatments that can aid with achieving erection, the most popular of which is Viagra. It does not work for every patient, but it is at least a lifeline that they can try out first. Even if the doctors are unable to guarantee the quality of sperm, at least the patient out to still be able to have intercourse.

Hormone treatment is a helpful technique for managing certain cancers because several of them, especially the cancers of the male and female reproductive systems, depend heavily on gender specific sex hormones to breed and propagate. By denying the tumors the critical hormones that are required to fuel their growth, physicians are able to starve the melanomas such that they lose momentum and are curtailed. Then other therapies may be employed to do away with them.

There are two ways in which hormonal therapy can be used manage prostate cancer. One way is by actually carrying out a surgery to extract the gland in the body that produces the implicated hormone, which would be the adrenal gland in the male system that secretes testosterone and dihydorepiandrosterone. The second approach is to find an alternative means to stop or counter the production of these hormones. The use of estrogen patches for prostate cancer treatment is one such alternative approach.

Estrogen therapy for prostate cancer treatment usually uses any of the group of female sex hormones that stimulate secondary female sex characteristics and control growth of the lining of the uterus during the first part of the menstrual cycle (estrone, ethinyl estradiol, and estriol, all produced primarily in the ovaries) in the male body to counter the effect or production of adrenal endocrines to arrest the growth of prostate tumors either in oral form or in form of the contraceptive patch. Synthetic forms of these estrogens also exist, namely Stilbestrol and ethinyl estradiol, five and ten times as potent as estrone, and used to treat advanced and disseminated cancer of the prostate gland in men.

Estradiol is a specific estrogen that has found great use in this regard. Beyond merely relieving the discomforts of menopause, it also helps in treating breast and prostate cancer. The estradiol contraceptive patch is a small, plastic skin patch that women usually use to release low doses of female sex hormones into their system to prevent pregnancy. But more than that, it also helps to prevent the secretion of the adrenal hormones in the male reproductive system, so that the cancers of the prostate can be starved as required.

The application of this medication should however never be attempted without the guide of a certified doctor because they can advice best what doses of the patch is required to limit the side effects. You should be advised that hormonal treatment doesn’t exactly cure prostate cancer; it merely makes it easier to be treated by other therapies like surgery and radiation.

You see, it’s worth repeating that this type of cancer can be effectively treated and even cured using various ways. One of the ways includes the use of anti-depressant drugs. These drugs are found to be effective medication against prostate cancer. Anti-depressant are the drugs used for the treatment of depressions. Since prostate cancer causes hot flashes in hormone therapy, anti-depressants can be helpful.

One of the anti-depressant drugs is called celexa. It has a generic name of citopram. The celexa or citopram belongs to the anti-depressants class called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The celexa is said to be effective in the condition.

A recent study undertaken by the sample of 18 patients of prostate cancer within 5 weeks shows that the compound called Paxil or paroxetine, which is present in celexa, is responsible for reducing the hot flashes cause by hormone therapy of prostate cancer.  This shows that celexa can be a solution to this type of cancer, if used properly.

Megace can also be used to treat prostate cancer. Most a times, patients undergoing hormone treatment take megace with Lupron or Zoladex and this help to eradicate prostate cancer to a certain degree. The prove shows that megace medication is effective. However, a specific study indicates that some patients who used this medication still develop cancer cells instead of having the cells destroyed. Thus, it can be said that megace medication works in some people while in some it doesn’t work. So, if you are taking megace, make sure it works in your body system to avoid progressive cancer cell development.

Anti- depressants drugs can indeed help with prostate cancer. You can use celexa or megace medication to deal with the cancerous-cells in your prostate. However, you should consult your doctor before going for any medication. No matter what you have read here or anywhere, it’s a good idea to confirm things with your doctor before you decide on what to do. Most of what you read online should serve as informational materials that must be confirmed with your doctor before taking action upon them, especially when it comes to your health.

Finasteride is used both to treat BPH – benign prostatic hyperplasia ? (in low doses), and for intervention with prostate cancer in higher doses. In May 2008, it was confirmed by a certain study that finasteride actually reduces the rate of occurrence of prostate cancer by as much as 30%. Adding that to the fact that it is also used in the treatment of male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia), one can suddenly see that the product has many health benefits.

Flutamide is also an antiandrogen, which is nonsteroidal in action and can be administered orally. It is a drug that is used to treat prostate cancer by competing with testosterone and DHT for binding to androgen receptors in the prostate gland. In this manner, flutamide prevents the two hormones from stimulating prostate cancer cells to grow, thence causing the carcinoma to shrink. Flutamide does have side effects that have resulted in improvements being made on the drug and it being rereleased as bicalutamide, due to a better side-effect profile.

When an experiment was carried out to determine which had better merits between a combined low-dose flutamide and finasteride therapy for recurrent prostate cancer, and a simple low-dose flutamide monotherapy, it was discovered that the “therapeutic value of low-dose flutamide alone or combined with finasteride as first-line agents in a possible graduated approach for treating PSA-only recurrent prostate cancer.”

Stated simply, this translates into the fact that there were no clear results observed. In any case, this was a comparative analysis of two phase II trials of the therapeutic concept with the intention of a long-term follow-up. There were some “unwanted metabolic effects” that were observed during the tests which are generally associated with traditional hormonal agents, but which also determined that phase III trials comparing both regimens with current therapies will be warranted.

The drugs work, but using them together has not been proven yet to be a better therapeutic approach than using then individually.

One of the biggest merits of chemotherapy is that it does not have to be restricted to one specific area of the patient’s body. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to administer the drugs that way. The medicines have to travel the extent of the patient’s body, killing every rapidly dividing cell in its path. This makes chemotherapy ideal for the treatment of metastatic cancers that are no longer situated at their organs of origin.

In the treatment of prostate cancer though, this big quality might be considered something of a handicap because this malignancy of the cells of the prostate gland is essentially a slow growing adenocarcinoma, in which the cells, although mutating and dividing more rapidly than they should, they are not too distinct from normal cells themselves. This is partly why there are no early symptoms for prostate type of cancer, but this is also why chemotherapy may not be applied in the early stages of the disease.

In prostate cancer treatment then, chemo is relegated to some kind of salvage therapy in which intervention is brought in when the cancerous cells have hit the patient’s bloodstream and started to metastasize to other parts of the body. Metastatic prostate carcinoma hits the lymphatic system first, causing swelling of the lymph nodes; and then it hits the pelvis, causing excruciating bone pain; and then it moves further out to the bones of the spinal column, the femur, the ribs, and maybe even the skull. But when that happens, chemotherapy can come to the rescue.

There is another problem here: late stage or advanced prostate cancer of this nature is not really considered be a curable condition, which is why this type of chemo is usually some kind of palliative measure, aimed more at extending the life of the patient and relieving the symptoms of metastatic disease. Even though chemo has the potential to cure the disease, and actually may do so in some extreme cases, doctors are never optimistic about such, and they make it clear in their weak prognosis.

Chemotherapy does have its side effects too, which result from the fact that the treatment generally affects rapidly dividing cells in the body. That is why several sufferers of prostate kind of cancer have to endure hair loss as well as a number of other symptoms when they undergo chemotherapy. But it is a small price to pay if the treatment can add another couple of lives for the patient to live.