Palliative Care for Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Symptom Relief and Support

Palliative Treatments for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

These are a few of the palliative treatments that doctors recommend for managing symptoms of advanced prostate cancer.

Anti-Nausea Medications

If those measures don’t work, your doctor can prescribe an antiemetic medication like ondansetron (Zofran). It works by blocking the chemical serotonin, which triggers nausea.

Exercise

Fatigue can be one of the most debilitating symptoms of advanced prostate cancer because it prevents you from doing the things you want to do. “I think graded exercise is probably the most effective treatment for fatigue,” Esch says. With this therapy, you start exercising slowly and gradually increase your effort over time.

“Try walking to the mailbox and do that a few days in a row,” he suggests. “Then see if you can walk to the mailbox twice. Then see if you can walk three or four houses down.” Keep a log to track your progress.

Pain Medications

For the type of shooting pain triggered by the tumor pressing on a nerve, drugs for nerve pain like gabapentin (Neurontin) or pregabalin (Lyrica) may be helpful. Muscle relaxants are good for easing muscle spasms. And lidocaine patches and creams or heating pads can be helpful for relaxing the muscles around the bone area.

Radiation

Radiation won’t cure metastatic prostate cancer, but it can shrink tumors enough to relieve bone pain. A type of radiation therapy called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), also known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), aims a very precise beam of radiation at specific areas of bone that contain cancer.

Another option is to take a radioactive drug like radium-223 (Xofigo) that works inside your body to shrink cancer in your bones. Dr. Morgans says radiation helps 70 to 80 percent of her patients and allows some of them to cut down on or avoid narcotic pain medications.

Relaxation Techniques

Surgery

Talk Therapy

Therapy can be a powerful tool for managing the stress of advanced prostate cancer. A social worker, therapist, or counselor from your palliative care team can offer advice and help you work through any issues you’re having. They can also help you deal with sexual health and intimacy issues that arise during prostate cancer treatment.