Advantages

• Treatment may improve your quality of life by controlling symptoms such as pain.
• It may shrink or slow the growth of your cancer.
• There is no need to stay overnight in hospital. You will usually visit as a day patient.

Disadvantages

• You will need regular hospital visits.
• There is no guarantee that it will help control the cancer or its symptoms.
• Chemotherapy treatment can cause side effects

Most chemotherapy drugs are given as a course of up to ten sessions (cycles) of treatment. You will have treatment every three or four weeks.

Before each treatment session, you will have a blood test to check your blood count. You may have other tests too, for example, blood tests to check how well your liver and kidneys are working.

At each treatment session, a liquid containing the drug will be passed through a fine tube (cannula) into a vein in your arm.

While you are having chemotherapy, it is perfectly safe to be around other people, including children and pregnant women. You will need to avoid contact with people who have infections, and you should not have any immunisations with live vaccines during treatment or for six months after.

You will have regular follow-up appointments after treatment to check your PSA level and discuss any other symptoms you might have. If treatment has been successful, your PSA level will usually drop and/or your symptoms will improve.

If the cancer starts to grow again after you finish your treatment, you may be offered a different type of treatment.

You can read more about what treatment involves in our chemotherapy fact sheet.

The most common side effects of chemotherapy are:

• Being more at risk of getting an infection
• Bruising and bleeding more easily
• Feeling breathless and tired.
• Hair loss
• Sore mouth
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling and being sick
• Feeling a bit down

Each individual chemotherapy drug may also have its own particular side effects. Ask your specialist about the specific side effects you can expect from the individual drugs that you are having.

People react in different ways to chemotherapy. Some men may get a lot of side effects whilst others will only have a few. Most of the side effects are temporary and your body will recover once the treatment finishes.

You can read more about side effects in our chemotherapy fact sheet.

• What is the aim of this treatment?
• Which drugs would be most suitable for me?
• How long will the treatment last? How many cycles will I need?
• What are the possible side effects of the drugs, and how long will they last?
• What happens if the chemotherapy drugs don't work? Are there other treatments I can have?
• Are there any clinical trials I can take part in?
• Are there any other treatment options available to me?
• Who should I contact if I have any questions at any point during my treatment? How do I contact them?
• Who will follow up my care after my treatment finishes?

You can find a list of references used to produce this page in our online fact sheet.