Improving Prostate Cancer Radiation

Doctors looking for new ways to reduce the dangerous effects of prostate cancer treatment may have a new option. Calcitriol, an active metabolite of vitamin D, when combined with radiation, could reduce some of the side effects.

Prostate cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer in men in the United States. For those with the disease contained in the prostate, radiation appears to be an effective treatment. The most common complications involve the bowel and bladder. Therefore, researchers are continually searching for improved treatments that do not carry as many side effects.

Doctors from Wake Forest University School of Medicine conducted all of their work in the laboratory environment. The doctors report calcitriol, combined with Zemplar and radiation, works to stop the growth of prostate cancer cells in the laboratory. Both drugs are currently under study as single treatments for prostate cancer. They say the combination appears to help reduce the negative effects associated With the combination approach, the authors of the study write, “If these findings extend to in vivo models, they would suggest that careful dosage and patient monitoring must be employed if a combination like this one ,,, with IR is administered clinically.

SOURCE: British Journal of Cancer, 2003;0:0-0