Intermittent chemotherapy in metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer

Intermittent use of chemotherapy for androgen-independent prostate cancer ( AIPC) instead of treatment until disease progression may reduce toxicity. We prospectively tested this approach in eight AIPC patients responding to calcitriol plus docetaxel who reached a serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) <4 ng ml(-1). Chemotherapy was suspended until a rise in PSA ≥50% and 1 ng ml(-1). The median duration of treatment holiday was 20 weeks (13 - 43+ weeks) and all patients retained sensitivity to re-treatment. Chemotherapy holiday was associated with an improvement of fatigue ( P = 0.05). Intermittent chemotherapy for AIPC is feasible and deserves further study.