Metastatic Prostate Cancer Treatment

A treatment that removes or blocks the action of testosterone and male hormones, which can cause prostate cancer to grow. When testosterone production is blocked, prostate cancer goes into remission. Hormone therapy is the standard of care for metastatic prostate cancer. Although long remissions can be achieved with hormone therapy, cancer cells can eventually resist the treatment and learn to grow. This is called castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). There are newer, highly potent hormonal therapies to combat CRPC. Our expert medical oncologists are pioneering the use of these novel hormonal therapies and are at the leading edge of clinical research focused on improving these therapies.

Chemotherapy, alone and in combination with other medications, is sometimes recommended for hormone-resistant prostate cancer. Most commonly given intravenously, chemotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer can reduce bone pain and lengthen survival. Highly experienced oncology nurses administer chemotherapy in our patient-centered IV therapy suite located in the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) on our main campus and at off-site locations in New Lenox and Orland Park.

Also called biologic therapy, immunotherapy uses the patient’s own immune system to boost and direct the body’s natural defenses to fight cancer. Some immunotherapies have FDA-approval, while others are available through clinical trials. Sipuleucel-T is an FDA-approved immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic CRPC. It involves extracting immune cells — which are primed to fight prostate cancer — from the patient, and then returning them to the patient as white blood cell transfusions. UChicago Medicine's prostate cancer program is the only one in the Midwest providing the entire process of this intricate therapy from start to finish within one location — the IV therapy apheresis suite.

Lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan PSMA therapy (also known as Lu-177 or Pluvicto) is a new theranostic medicine for advanced metastatic prostate cancer. It’s a type of radiation that specifically targets a molecule on the surface of prostate cancer cells called PSMA. This therapy is used with the companion diagnostic gallium-68 gozetotide (Locametz), which is more commonly known as a PSMA PET scan. Learn more about lutetium-177 PSMA therapy for metastatic prostate cancer.

UChicago Medicine is one of just a few hospitals in the Chicago area that offers a special version of radiation called radium-223 dichloride. It is prescribed by our prostate cancer medical oncologists and administered by our nuclear medicine physicians. Given intravenously every month for six months, the radiation spreads throughout the bloodstream to selectively target the bones. The radium-223 then attacks the tumor with radiation, destroying cancer cells in proximity. This FDA-approved intravenous therapy is known to prolong life, reduce pain and improve the quality of life for patients with metastatic prostate cancer within the bones.