Hormone Suppression Therapy Good For Prostate Cancer Treatment
About 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during lifetime. For those men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a very early stage, they might not require to undergo any kind of treatment. However, aggressive therapy becomes an absolute must for those who are diagnosed late or by that time their cancer has begun to spread beyond the prostrate.
According to a recent research program, men that have been diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer can live for a considerable long period of time if they undertake recurrent sessions of hormone suppression therapy. In this case, the drug hormones are known to block the male hormones, testosterone, which is known to aid the cancer in spreading over several regions.
The research program which was carried out in the France subcontinent studied the case history of as many as 970 patients who were exposed to hormone-suppression therapy along with radiation for a span stretching from six months to three years. Result from the study had shown that men who were assigned to the therapy for a shorter span were more likely to die within a five year span.
However, many experts also hold the view that hormone suppression drugs comes with a lot of side-effects, which include reduced sex drive, insomnia, and hot flashes. Moreover, patients having small tumor in their prostate region may not need to undergo extensive sessions of hormone suppression. Last but not the least; men must consult with their doctors about the potential benefits and risks involved in hormone-suppression therapy before opt for an individualized treatment that will benefit them the most.
Note : Prostate Cancer Key Statistics
1) Prostate Cancer is the second most common cancer in American men.
2) About 1 in 6 men will be will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
3) It is estimated that around one hundred and ninety thousand prostate cancer cases will be diagnosed in US alone in 2009.
4) Only 1 in 35 men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die of the disease. Currently there are more than 2 million men in US diagnosed with prostate cancer and are still alive.