Botsford Offers New Treatment for Advanced Prostate Cancer

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Botsford Cancer Center in Farmington Hills is offering a new treatment option for men with advanced prostate cancer. Xofigo — FDA approved only a few months ago — improves the survival rate of patients with prostate cancer that has spread to the bone.

Delivered on a monthly basis for six months, an injection of Xofigo travels through a patient’s blood and goes straight to his bones. It acts like calcium, only targeting tumor cells on the bone tissue. 

“It’s exciting to have this new tool to use in treating our patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which is relatively difficult to treat,” says Dr. James Fontanesi, a radiation oncologist at the Botsford Cancer Center. “The treatment can increase a patient’s survival rate and decrease his pain.”

The treatment, announced Wednesday, has fewer major side effects than traditional chemotherapy medications, Botsford reports. The most common side effects of treating prostate cancer are low blood counts, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and swelling. 

The state of Michigan amended Botsford Cancer Center’s radioactive materials license this month, authorizing it to administer Xofigo to patients. 

In related news, Botsford Hospital was one of 32 hospitals in Michigan to receive an “A” grade in the recent update of the Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score. Overall, Michigan ranked 10th in the nation for the highest percentage of “A” hospitals. To see a detailed explanation of hospital scores — which takes into account 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data — visit hospitalsafetyscore.org.