How does chemo help

Hi H

I am no Chemo expert but if it has spread to the bones then Chemo is introduced to help keep things at bay especially if the HT  is no longer working.

So,  increasing life expectancy,  some of the newer Chemo drugs don't always produce too many  bad side effects and it does also vary person to person.

You could also look at clinical trials , go to cancerresearchuk.org and look under clinical trials.

best wishes

Steve

Also not an expert but I think Chemo stops cell division.  The problem is it doesn’t just target cancer cells but all cells and this is what leads to some of the side effects, especially cells that usually rapidly divide for instance hair.  Certainly the chemo I am having is palliative not curative and as said to buy time and symptom manage. 

M

"Chemotherapy works with the cell cycle Every time any new cell is formed, it goes through a usual process to become a fully functioning (or mature) cell. The process involves a series of phases and is called the cell cycle. Chemotherapy drugs target cells at different phases of the cell cycle."

As i understand it : targeting new cells it stops the cancer from progressing & old a lot of old cells will die off. This would coincide with a reduction in psa.

Hope this helps

My approach was to give this bl**dy cancer a good kicking whilst it was small.  The chemotherapy was not pleasant but the stampede trial suggests this is the best approach.

You see some excellent responses here, but let me add a few thoughts, if that is okay.

My first round of chemotherapy had times that were not so great with regard to adverse reaction by my system. But not so bad. Point is that first round your "strong OH" will undergo will probably not be so bad. I base that on a key word you used --- "strong".

In my case, I can offer the comparison to when I had a rather aggressive relapse that pretty much caught everyone off guard and that round had me in some nasty situations more than a few times, but eventually all turned out not so bad.

I'm presently on a third round using a special sort of chemical and this one seems to be doing what it is supposed to be doing and isn't so bad as for the adverse reactions, like I had during the second round.

All of that explanation is meant to offer the idea that your "strong OH" is very likely going to handle that chemotherapy treatment just fine.

But I'd like to offer another thought, and please excuse my being kind of blunt. You should not be getting it into your mind that chemotherapy is "evil". If they had chemotherapy 70 years ago like they have now, I would have been able to 'know' my mother.

Some rather smart folks over many years have worked at research to get that chemotherapy to work and it does. And I'll bet you have a fine medical professional or two helping you and your OH, so trust her/him/them. Don't be getting that thought about "evil" into your thinking about all this. Please. There was a movie once I saw and some reference to thinking "positive waves" and that should apply here. Think positively and you'll be a lot better for that style and it will be a lot more helpful for your OH.

Of course, that sort of comes across like I am preaching, so please excuse my not so nice style, but I think it is kind of true. You need to drop that vocabulary "evil" from your thinking. Please.

And please excuse my proving what an old man I am by posting such a long bunch of words. I think us old folks are known for that and I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone by being concise.

But "positive waves" is the key, please.