Monday, August 17, 2009

New Prostate Cancer Drug Ipilimumab's Amazing Results

By Laura Kelsey

Prostate cancer drug types and therapies vary enormously. All men are not created equal, and every individual is unique in this world. The treatment for prostate cancer also varies very widely with different types of patients, depending on age, lifestyle and body mechanism. A combination of treatment regimens - like surgery followed by radiation or radiation in conjunction with hormone therapy is found to be effective.

Hormone therapy's basic philosophy is based on the following principle. Testosterone, the male sex hormone has been found aiding and abetting the cancer cells to grow inside the body. In order to stop the cancer cells from growing, somehow the help and support it is receiving from the body has to be stopped.

So the cancer cells do not find their shelter inside the body and perish. In some cases, hormone therapy is used in combination with radiation therapy to clear up any residual cancer cells. The drugs used for this are LH-RH agonists which set up a chemical blockade preventing the testicles from testosterone producing messages.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Centre have found that certain prostate cancer drugs, instead of wiping out the cancer can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. This is due to the fact that hormonal therapy which suppresses for a certain period, fails in patients whose disease spreads

So this has made some medical practitioners to switch over to a six month on and six months off program for drug administration. This on-off theory of hormonal therapy drugs has found a lot of followers.

Duke Prostate Center researchers have concluded that restricting the carbohydrates - even though with weight loss slows down the growth of prostate tumor. So far, however, mice only have been tested and now the experimentation on human beings are on progress.

Duke University Medical center at Durham, N.C., has done extensive research in diet for prostate tumor patients. They concluded that a diet rich in flaxseeds curbs the prostate cancer growth, irrespective of their low fat diets.

A baldness curing drug Proscar is found to lower the PSA levels, hence useful as a prostrate cancer drug. Its lower dosage version Propecia was administered to over 350 men in the 40-60 age group whose PSA levels dropped by 40-50%, which is very useful in Cancer reduction. It is a well established phenomenon that reducing the PSA levels always brings down the severity of cancer.

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