Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the delivery of powerful drugs either intravenously, orally, or in combination, to kill or reduce prostate cancer cells. Chemotherapy is not used as an initial treatment because no chemotherapy drug has been shown to completely eliminate prostate cancer cells. Various drugs may improve symptoms, reduce PSA levels, and/or decrease prostate cancer cells.

Chemotherapy may be an option for patients whose hormone therapy has come to the end of its effectiveness or whose prostate cancer has recurred after surgery.

Docetaxel

Docetaxel (trade name Taxotere®) injection is used alone or in combination with other medications to treat certain types of breast, lung, prostate, stomach, and head and neck cancers. Docetaxel injection is in a class of medications called taxanes. It works by stopping the growth and spread of cancer cells. Docetaxel was approved by the FDA in 2004 and was the first treatment proven to prolong survival in castrate resistant prostate cancer patients.

Mitoxantrone

Mitoxantrone is used to treat leukemia and prostate cancer, and as well as other conditions. Mitoxantrone is part of a general group of chemotherapy drugs known as antibiotics. It stops the growth of cancer cells, which are then destroyed. The combination of mitoxantrone and prednisone is approved as a second-line treatment for metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Mixoxantrone is also used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).

Cabazitaxel (Jevtana®)

JEVTANA is a prescription anti-cancer medicine used with the steroid medicine prednisone. It is used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer that has worsened (progressed) after treatment with other anti-cancer medicines, including docetaxel. JEVTANA may work in tumors that have become resistant to docetaxel. That means JEVTANA may be an option for patients if docetaxel is no longer working.