Remedy is used for patients with tumors spread outside the gland.
O 'cabazitaxel' reduces by 30% the risk of patient death.
Mario Barra
G1, Sao Paulo
begins to be sold in Brazil starting on Tuesday (17) a new drug for prostate cancer, the main form of malignancy and the second most lethal men around the world. The cabazitaxel, new type of chemotherapy, reduces by 30% the risk of patient death and extends life by an average of 15 months.
The drug is recommended when all other forms of treatment have failed. Still outside the Unified Health System (SUS), each cycle of the drug costs $ 14,000.
The prostate is a gland located below the bladder in men. When struck by cancer, the body size increases. The symptoms are barely perceptible, but patients tend to urinate more often and with pain.
Three quarters of cases occur after age 65, but monitoring with the urologist should begin after 40 years. The diagnosis is mainly done by digital rectal examination, in which the doctor can feel if the prostate is normal. Another option is the PSA test (abbreviation for prostate-specific antigen), a test that indicates the level of a protein in blood and indicates the presence of tumor.
According to estimates by the National Cancer Institute (Inca) - linked to the Ministry Health - were more than 52 000 new cases in Brazil in 2010. "Data from the Ministry of Health are underestimated," says Oren Smaletz, coordinator of clinical research in oncology at the Albert Einstein Hospital. Nationally, the tumor in the prostate cancer that is most affected men and the second most deadly.
Hormone Therapy
Up to 20% of patients discover the disease later, when the tumor has spread to other parts of the patient's body - a phenomenon known as metastasis. For these cases, the first treatment option indicated by the doctors is the "hormone therapy" technique that involves in reducing levels of testosterone in the patient's body. (See infographic above)
Research on hormone therapy to treat prostate cancer earned the Nobel Prize for Medicine Charles Brenton Huggins to the doctor, in 1966. The technique can be used together with radiotherapy and surgery.
To reduce the testosterone in the body, the patient may have both testicles removed as receiving drugs to reduce the production of the hormone. Surgical castration is most often used for cases of locally advanced prostate cancer - when the metastases are local, close to the prostate.
"When there are metastases in the whole body makes little sense to do the surgery, since the problem has become systemic," says Oren.
While useful for controlling the disease in 90% of cases, hormone therapy only lasts about two years. "It's like the fighter in MMA [mixed martial arts, synonymous with Valetudo] one hour the cell 'learns' the techniques and begin to resist the low testosterone level," explains Fernando Maluf, chief of medical oncology at the Hospital Beneficence Portuguese ( San Jose). The output is chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy
Currently, the most recommended drug for chemotherapy called docetaxel, the only option that can alleviate symptoms and prolong life for some months the patient.
"After the use of chemotherapeutic drug, it only takes days for the pain caused by bone metastases go away," says Antonio Buzaid, a former professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, center of studies on the disease linked to the University of Texas, in the USA.
A clinical phase 3 - the last stage of clinical trials necessary for approval of the boards of health surveillance regarding the marketing - was made for cabazitaxel, with 755 patients from 26 countries, 146 medical centers. All were with metastatic prostate cancer and had undergone hormonal treatment and chemotherapy with docetaxel.
The results showed a 30% reduction in the risk of patient death and the prolongation of life by an average of 15 months.
Source: G1
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