Doing some research for my Dad.

My father has stage 4 metastatic hormone resistant prostate cancer.

He had been looking into a trial involving Docetaxel and an experimental drug, but is reconsidering since it seems that the gains in life expectancy may not outweigh the loss of quality of life from the chemo and frequent invasive tests for the study.

I'm getting the information second hand from him, and I'm not sure he always gets it right, but i can't be there with him (Hopefully he can arrange it so that my brother and I can talk to his doctors directly, but he needs to sign something for that to happen)

Has anyone here been on Docetaxel (Taxotere)? What are the side effects like? I've looked up studies online that give an overall survival (OS) as anywhere from 12-24months. Does that mean that the average Docetaxel patient is dead within two years of beginning the treatment or is that 12-24 months past expectations without treatment?

His PSA has been rising dramatically, but I've been reading that in the absence of other symptoms PSA is not a great predictor of mortality? He also recently had a serious urinary tract blockage caused by his prostate, could that be artificially elevating his PSA?

Is there anything that could be added to the Docetaxel to improve is chances that is not a trial? I've heard about Calcitrol being added and having significant effects, anything else?

Thank you for any information you're able to pass on,
-B

Hi B.

Sorry to hear about your Dad. You may want to see if you can get him in the trial being conducted by Cougar Pharmaceuticals or perhaps get a compassionate use of the medication. The medication is Aberitarone (Sp?). In stage two trials the drug was shown to be effective in substantially reducing the effects of the disease. I do not recall the statistics on improvement to survival.

Again, very sorry to hear about your Dad. I wish both you and he well.

Take care,

Don

Purgatory,
He's 71, his general health is not great. He is fairly overweight and not physically active, he's been using a cane or walker for a few years now and doesn't get much exercise. Recently, his prostate blocked off his urinary tract which resulted in some pretty serious kidney problems, but after a simple procedure they seem to be doing fine.

His oncologist for some reason didn't believe the his prostate could have enlarged to cause the problem since it had been essentially killed by the hormone treatments, but according to both urologists he saw, and the hospitalist, it was very clearly the problem. I'm wondering if it might have somehow artificially elevated his PSA and his oncologist was too stubborn to look at that possibility.

He has no active tumors, but an older one in his skull has done some damage to his balance and ability to speak and swallow.