CHEMOTHERAPY HOLIDAY
Chemotherapy is often the last hope for thousands of patients with advanced prostate cancer, but chemo drugs come with debilitating side effects. A vacation from those drugs could be just what the doctor ordered.
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Joel Johnson
"Loss of hair has come back. Fingernails, toenails. That's back"
It's been seven months since Joel Johnson stopped the weekly treatments that keep his cancer in remission.
Joel Johnson
Has advanced prostate cancer
"Since I've been off, my strength has come back quite a bit."
The upset stomach is gone, and the shortness of breath. Until recently, doctors worried the so-called drug holidays would allow the cancer to become resistant.
Tom Beer, M.D.
Medical Oncologist
OHSU Cancer Institute
Portland, Oregon
"We really have not known whether it's safe to stop the treatment in patients in whom chemotherapy is working."
To find out, Doctor Beer allowed eight patients to take a break from chemotherapy.
Tom Beer, M.D.
"We monitored the PSA, which is a blood test we use to monitor prostate cancer. As soon as it began to go up, we restarted the treatment."
In every case, Doctor Beer says the cancer responded. The average break lasted 5 months, and now some of those patients have had three or four breaks.
Joel's cancer is starting to come back. Soon he'll go back on chemotherapy. That's OK he says. He's already looking forward to his next drug holiday.
All of the patients involved in the study had advanced prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of their bodies. A larger, Phase Three study is now underway.
BACKGROUND: Each year in the United States, more than 220,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for men and claims about 40,000 lives each year. Researchers say diagnosis and treatment methods have improved over recent years, but the number of men developing the disease continues to rise. Experts estimate the incidence of prostate cancer rose by more than 140 percent between 1973 and 1994 alone. According the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer's annual cost is nearly $15 billion. This type of cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed and is also one of the most treatable when detected early. Researchers say all men are at risk for developing prostate cancer and should be screened regularly. Some risk factors of the disease include being older than age 65, being black, and having a family member who has had prostate cancer.
TREATING THE DISEASE: Chemotherapy drugs are often the last hope for patients with late-stage prostate cancer, when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. However, according to the American Cancer Society, chemotherapy is not effective against early prostate cancer. This type of treatment involves using powerful, anti-cancer drugs to kill cancer cells. The anti-cancer drugs are given to patients either intravenously (injected into a vein), by mouth, or by injection. Many late-stage prostate cancer patients experience unwanted side effects with chemotherapy. Some common side-
effects include nausea and vomiting, hair loss, anemia, mouth sores, fatigue, and an increased likelihood of developing infections.
A CHEMO HOLIDAY: Researchers from OHSU say prostate cancer patients can avoid some of the side effects of chemotherapy by taking a "Chemo Holiday", or break, from treatment. Doctors say these breaks do not appear to affect disease control and allow the cancer to be treated as a chronic disease, rather than as an acute, or life-threatening disease. Participants in a recent study reported significant improvements in their quality of life as a result of chemotherapy holidays. Researchers allowed eight patients who were responding well to chemotherapy to take a break from their treatment. Investigators monitored patients' PSA levels. PSA is a protein in the blood that is made only by prostate cells and is used to monitor cancer activity. As soon as the patients' PSA levels began to rise, they resumed chemotherapy treatment. Researchers say, in all cases, PSA levels stabilized or dropped once chemotherapy resumed. Tom Beer, M.D., from the OHSU Cancer Institute, says, "Our data, while preliminary, suggest that intermittent chemotherapy is safe and that the cancer retains its sensitivity to treatment." Some of the patients who participated in the study have now had three or four breaks from the chemotherapy treatment. Dr. Beer is now conducting a larger, phase III trial.
Rachel MacKnight
Media Relations Coordinator
Oregon Health and Science University
(503) 494-8231
Copyright © 2004 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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