Prescription Medications

Advance Prostate Cancer Slowed

Summary: Taxotere was found to prolong life in men with advanced prostate cancer whose tumors do not respond to hormone therapy. But Taxotere is not exactly a cure. The men who received it lived only two months longer than men who received standard chemotherapy.

Comments: The importance of this research is twofold. First, on a clinical level, it represents the first advance in treatment that prolongs survival, however modestly, for men with advanced prostate cancer that is unresponsive to hormone therapy. Second, it is a new approach to the treatment of prostate cancer. Taxotere is a drug that maintains the polymerization of microtubules. This disrupts the normal process of cell division and leads to the programmed death of the prostate cancer cell.

Barbara K. Hecht,Ph.D.
Frederick Hecht, M.D.
Medical Editors, MedicineNet.com

Related Links

• docetaxel (Taxotere) (drug information
• Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) Test
• Prostate Problem Warning Signs (Health e-Tool)
• Prostate Cancer (article)
• Focus Topics on Men's Health

New Drugs Slow Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Modest survival benefit in men whose disease has spread