Treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

Metastatic prostate cancer refers to cancer that has metastasized to other parts of the body, typically bones and lymph nodes. We can now treat metastatic prostate cancer more effectively than ever before, even though it cannot be completely cured.

All modern treatment methods approved in Europe are available through our urologists and oncologists. Urologists and oncologists are jointly in charge of the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer at HUS.

Responsibility for care is usually transferred to an oncologist at the Comprehensive Cancer Center

• if, due to the widespread nature of the disease, you need chemotherapy already at the early stages of the disease
• if traditional hormonal therapy is no longer effective
• if symptom relief requires radiation therapy for advanced or symptomatic metastases.

At our research units, we can also offer new treatments that are still in the research phase. We provide treatment when circumstances permit. See our current cancer research projects.

Hormone therapies in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

Treatment of metastatic prostate cancer is based on inhibiting the action of male hormones either by inhibiting their excretion or by inhibiting their effect on the cancer foci. Hormone therapy may involve medication in the form of injections and/or tablets.

Hormone therapies can be combined with

• radiation therapy to relieve symptoms
• medication that protects the bones from metastases
• chemotherapies
• “injectable radiation therapy,” i.e., isotope therapy. 177-Lutetium-PSMA therapy and 223-Radium dichloride therapy have long been widely used at HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Symptom-alleviating radiation therapy in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

Radiation therapy is an effective method of alleviating symptoms caused by advanced prostate cancer. We can use it to treat, for example, bone pain or hematuria and symptoms of obstruction caused by local tumor growth. Radiation therapy can also help relieve any compression of the spinal cord or nerves caused by the disease. You will usually receive radiation therapy to relieve symptoms as a series of 1–10 sessions.

Chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

Chemotherapy, or cytostatic therapy, is a drug treatment used to treat cancer that prevents cancer cells from growing and dividing. Chemotherapy can also be given to patients whose prostate cancer has already at the time of diagnosis extensively spread to their bones, or metastases are found in their internal organs. We can also administer chemotherapy at a stage when conventional hormonal therapy has become ineffective.

In the early stages, we typically use chemotherapy as an adjunct to hormone therapy for a treatment cycle of 3 to 4 months. In the later stages of the disease, the role of chemotherapy is often emphasized.