Treating Pain and Other Symptoms

If prostate cancer or its therapy is causing pain, there's no need to suffer in silence. Effective treatments are available.

Pain Medicines
Pain medicines work very well. When the drugs are being used as directed to treat cancer pain, you do not need to worry about addiction or dependence. You may have symptoms like tiredness and itching, but these usually go away after you get used to the medicine. Constipation is the most common problem, but there are things you can do to prevent this. Side effects can often be managed by changing the dosage or by adding other medicines.

Bisphosphonates
This is a group of drugs that can help relieve bone pain caused by cancer that has spread to the bones. They may also slow the growth of the cancer cells and strengthen bones in men who are getting hormone treatment.

Bisphosphonates can cause side effects, such as flu-like symptoms and bone pain. Some men have had a very rare, but distressing side effect from these drugs. They have pain in the jaw and their doctors find that part of the jaw bone has died. This can lead to loss of teeth or infections of the jaw bone. Doctors don't know why some people develop these jaw problems or how to prevent them. So far, the only treatment has been to stop the bisphosphonate treatment. Some cancer doctors recommend that patients have a dental check-up and have any tooth or jaw problems treated before they start taking bisphosphonates.

Steroids
Steroids can relieve bone pain and increase appetite for some men.

Radiation Therapy
While radiation therapy can be used as the main treatment for prostate cancer, it can also be used to treat bone pain caused by cancer that has spread to the bone.

Drugs called radiopharmaceuticals are also used for this purpose. This is a group of drugs that have radioactive elements. They are given into a vein. They settle in areas of bones that contain cancer and the radioactive part kills the cancer cells there. About 8 out of 10 prostate cancer patients with bone pain are helped by this treatment. The main side effect is a lowering of blood cell counts. This could increase your risk of getting an infection or bleeding easily.