Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer When cancer spreads beyond the prostate, it often goes into the bones, causing pain and fractures. Pain killers may alleviate some of the symptoms, and radiation therapy may control the growth of the cancer cells. But since radiation also kills surrounding healthy cells, there are limits to how much can be given. So the treatment is usually only a temporary relief from symptoms. At the Center for Molecular Medicine in Garden City, New York, doctors are using a new technique for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones.
First patients get external beam radiation.
The isotope concentrates in the bone metastases, giving off lethal doses of radiation. The direct radiation kills more cancer cells without affecting healthy tissue elsewhere in the body. Over time, the isotopes lose their effectiveness. But patients can get more injections as they're needed. The combination of external radiation and radioactive isotope injection appear to have a particularly strong effect on the cancer cells.