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Prostate disease and the pharmaceutical industry
Prostate Cancer
Medicines for pain control
One of the problems in the later stage of prostate cancer
is its tendency to spread to the bones, especially in the
spine, ribs and shoulder. These metastases are often debilitating
and can be very painful, but several strategies are available
to manage the pain.
Fortunately, treatment with a LHRH agonist inhibits hormone-sensitive
metastases from growing and, by lowering the bulk of the tumour,
has a significant benefit on bone pain. For example, leuprorelin
(Wyeth) reduced the incidence of bone pain by 57 per cent
and 77 per cent after three and six months’ therapy, greatly
improving the quality of life. Fosfesterol tetrasodium (Asta
Medica), which is converted into diethylstilbestrol in the
tumour, has a similar effect.
Some people benefit from other approaches, including radiotherapy.
Nycomed Amersham has developed a radioisotope of strontium
called Metastron, which concentrates in bone metastases after
being given by injection. It can provide significant pain
relief for up to six months.
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