OHSU Cancer Institute research gives hope for chemo holidays for men with advanced prostate cancer (EurekAlert!)

Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers, in a first-of-its-kind study, have found that even men with advanced prostate cancer can take a much-needed safe break, or holiday, from chemotherapy. Bagby Endowed Chair for Cancer Research, director of the OHSU Cancer Institute Prostate Cancer Program, and associate professor of medicine (hematology/medical oncology), OHSU School of Medicine. Beer and his team wanted to know if men with metastatic, androgen-independent prostate cancer cancer that has spread from the prostate and is not affected by the male hormone, androgen could take a break from docetaxel, an intravenous chemotherapy delivery drug that is the gold standard treatment for androgen-independent prostate cancer. Prostate-specific antigen is a protein produced by the cells of the prostate gland and is present in small quantities in the serum of healthy men, and it often elevates when prostate cancer is present. read more

Tags: prostate cancer, men, beer, chemotherapy, cancer, prostate, study