Chemo

I've been reading success stories about the use of chemo for metastatic PCa. I also know that chemo is used as an initial primary treatment for other cancers. Does anyone know if some of the newer chemo drugs have been trailed for initial primary treatment of PCa?

It seems that if such a drug could be found it might be a good alternative to surgery and radiation.

The evidence so far is that chemo is only effective for metastatic PC. It was tried in a clinical trial of high risk patients as an initial therapy combined with radiation treatment, but the impact was small compared to radiation alone -- probably not worth the toxicity risk. The same was true when chemo was added to RP.

That said, there may be certain very high risk groups (e.g., "very high risk", high risk African-Americans, those with certain biochemical markers) that may benefit.

- Allen