When prostate cancer moves out of the prostate gland and reached into other parts of the body it is said to be advanced prostate cancer and treatment is far more difficult than when cancer is confined to the prostate.

If your cancer has not spread too far and is not particularly aggressive it is still possible not merely to treat the condition but in fact to cure it. But, in many cases where cancer has spread widely, or is too aggressive, treatment is a case of merely slowing the progress of the disease and giving you the best possible quality of life.

Nowadays one of the chief treatments for cases of advanced prostate cancer is intravenous chemotherapy often using a drug known as docetaxal. This is a very effective drug for a lot of patients and does indeed hold back the progress of advanced prostate cancer and extend the life of many patients. Nevertheless, it does have various side effects which include things like nausea, hair loss, loss of appetite and a heightened risk of infection. It is here therefore that we run into one of the biggest problems in advanced prostate cancer treatment.

Where you are treating a condition which cannot be cured and which will kill you sooner or later, then extending your life by holding back the progress of the cancer is great providing that treatment gives you an acceptable quality of life and does not end up being worse than the cancer itself.

For a lot of prostate cancer sufferers, who are normally in their 60s or older, chemotherapy is hardly pleasant but is a price worth paying when they first start their course of treatment. But, as time goes by and the side effects start to build up the picture often changes and a lot of patients begin to ask whether it is worth it. This of course is never an easy question to answer and needs to be the subject of a very personal discussion between the patient, his family and his physician.

Many of us will be familiar with this situation either as a result of our own personal experience with illness or from our experience of seeing family members of close friends in this situation and will know well just how difficult a time it can be.

There may however be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel as studies involving a group of patients with metastatic prostate cancer indicate that a lot of patients might be able to take a 'chemotherapy holiday' without any significant damage to their treatment. Put another way, after several weeks of chemotherapy, and at a time when the side effects are really staring to pull you down, you might be able to simply stop your chemotherapy for a time and let your body recover a little before going on with your treatment.

Now it is of course early days yet and nobody is quite sure yet about exactly how long your 'chemotherapy holidays' might be or how often you can take them, but for a lot of advanced prostate cancer sufferers this seemingly small advance in treatment might make a world of difference.