What treatments are available when chemo-therapy has failed and hormonal therapy has become ineffective?

The important point is that with intermittent hormonal therapy, if the PSA level is maintained between zero and four, there is a very low likelihood that the cancer will have spread. Q: What treatments are available when chemo-therapy has failed and hormonal therapy has become ineffective? A: There are alternative chemotherapy treatments and there are "investigational treatments."

They are not at all standardized or proven to be safe and effective, and many of them will ultimately fall by the wayside. So, they are often a gamble. For patients with prostate cancer that is no longer responding to chemotherapy.

My research group is trying to obtain a blood sample for DNA testing in men with advanced prostate cancer. Q: My husband has an elevated PSA after surgery. The recommendation is for radiation with nothing being said about hormonal therapy.

Do you recommend radiation or is hormonal therapy just as effective as radiation? A: Both are effective. The advantage of radiation is that it is potentially curative if the remaining cancer cells are confined to the radiation fields.

In patients whose PSA remains elevated after surgery, there is a greater chance that the cancer has spread to other sites, and then hormonal therapy is needed. Q: I have a rising PSA after having a radical prostatecomy 16 months ago. I have decided to have salvage radiation.

Course of hormone therapy before the radiation. Do you recommend hormone + radiation therapy for a rising PSA after surgery? Radiation is beneficial, although there is no proof of this benefit for salvage radiation.

However, I frequently recommend it in patients with high Gleason grades (7 or higher).