Casodex (bicalutamide) is a drug that is prescribed by doctors to treat metastatic prostate cancer in advanced form, when cancer had extended to other parts of body.
This medicine usually goes together with some other medication against prostate cancer to decrease the amount of testosterone in the organism.
Some clinical studies showed that Casodex can work like another medicine flutamide (Eulexin) that is used to cure advanced prostate cancer. The studies were also made to compare the action of both medicines. So, 47,3% of patients that took Casodex, kept on living for 160 weeks after they took a medicine, when people that were alive after taking flutamide were 42.5%. These amounts of percent are pretty close, but still they show the superiority of one medicine comparing to the other. The progression of cancer had almost the same numbers for both medicines after 160 weeks.
IPR Pharmaceuticals Inc. is manufacturing Casodex for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. Different manufacturers produce the generic version of this drug. The drug is available only in pills of Casodex of 50mg. tablets. It is also sold in generic form.
Casodex or bicalutamide is a medicine that doctors prescribe as a part of combined treatment for patients that have an advanced prostate cancer. This medicine is used with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist or LH-RH, occasionally it is named gonadotropin-releasing hormone or GnRH, which consists of:
Leuprolide acetate such as Lupron Depot, Eligard or Lupron
Acetate implant of Histrelin or Vantas
Trelstar or Triptorelin
Acetate implant of Goserelin or Zoladex
The most usual cancer that happens to men is the cancer of prostate. The process of cancer begins when abnormal cells start to increase in size in the prostate gland's tissues.
When the doctor makes diagnosis of your body, he will settle the stage of your cancer by knowing how far it had progressed. The stage of prostate cancer depends on the dimensions of tumor and on the spreading area of cancer. Actually, prostate cancer has 4 stages. The advance of cancer increases as the number goes up from one to four.
Chemotherapy
The latest stage and the most advanced is the fourth stage of prostate cancer. It happens when the cells of cancer extent through other organs of the organism. It reaches rectum, bones, bladder or lymph nodes. The fourth stage of cancer can not be treated by making a surgery, because the cells of cancer had spread very widely. At this case, the following options of treatment can be applied:
Chemo
Therapy using hormones
Radiation
Casodex is one of the hormone therapies to cure prostate cancer. We mentioned above that this medicine should be used together with some other options of hormone treatment.
Can older adults use it?
Usually older men use Casodex to treat prostate cancer. The dose of medicine does not depend on the age of a patient that is taking it.
Off-Label uses
Sometimes, doctors prescribe this medicine to cure some other conditions except the ones that we described in our article. An "off-label" use is how they call it. If a patient has an early stage of cancer of prostate and he is prescribed to take Casodex, than it is considered as an off-label treatment.
Can children use it?
18 year old people and older are approved to take Casodex because there were not many studies made in this group of age. Boys that had puberty earlier than the others normal boys were studied to take a low dose of Casodex. These studies didn't show any dangerous side effects, but they should do more researches concerning the effectiveness of medication.
Doctors recommend for patients that have advanced prostate cancer to take Casodex one time a day, with a dosage of 50 mg. They usually prescribe it with GnRH, which is a ganadotropin-releasing hormone and a medicament that they usually name an agonist of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone. It can be:
Trelstar or Triptorelin
Acetate of leuprolide which is also Lupron Depot, Eligard or Lupron
Vantas or histrelin acetate implant
Zoladex or Goserelin acetate implant
Some information that you need to know on how to take Casodex
The following points you should know in time you take Casodex:
They sell this medication in pills. Patients take it one time a day by mouth.
It doesn't matter when you take your dose of Casodex, in the evening or in the morning. The medicine is needed to be taken every day only at one time you will appoint. The level of medicine in your blood should be even.
There is no difference on how you take Casodex, during nourishing or after. We advise you to take it during nourishing, or it might irritate your stomach.
Patients are prescribed to take Casodex with another medicine for prostate cancer. You should start taking these two medicines at one day. Read the instruction on how to take the other medicine and try to follow them.
You should follow the instructions properly when taking the medicine. When you experienced the improvement of your condition, it is forbidden to stop the treatment.
If you hesitate about the dosage of Casodex, your nurse, doctor or pharmacist can advise you.
If you have following conditions, you should tell about them to your doctor:
You are feeding a baby with your breast
You want to get regnant or you are pregnant
It is necessary that your doctor knows about all the drugs that you use at the moment. It doesn't matter if it is an over the counter or prescription medicine, nutritional supplement or vitamins.
Particular warnings and precautions
You should consider the following precautions and warnings before you take this drug:
LHRH
Usually patients take this medicine to treat prostate cancer and it goes in combination with agonist medication of GnRH or ganadotropin-releasing hormone, which people call sometimes agonist of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone or LHRH. You should pay attention at taking it, according how your doctor told you. Stopping the usage of one of these medications should be consulted only by your doctor.
There are some cases when Casodex made people sleepy. You should better stay away from driving a car or maintaining powerful machines. You should also stay away from doing something dangerous before you find out how the drug can affect you.
It was reported that some people that took Casodex had problems with their liver. Some time before the beginning of treatment, your doctor will take some blood tests and try to monitor the function of your liver. When you started to feel some pain or discomfort about your liver, the doctor should be notified immediately. It is very bad, if you don't have appetite, have pain, you are tired all the time, you have yellow eyes and skin and you experience nausea.
Doctors put Casodex as a medicine of Category X for pregnancy. Those women that want to get pregnant or who are already pregnant are forbidden to take this drug.
If you take Casodex together with agonist of GnRH, it is important to know that they can develop diabetes or make your blood sugar level more increased. The doctor should control you for not having diabetes. If you have this disease it is recommended to check the level of you blood glucose as often as possible.
There are cases when patient that were taking Casodex had an increasing of prostate cancer. It is very important to follow your condition closely when you take the medicine. It will include the monitoring of levels of PSA or prostate-specific antigen. You might be recommended to stop taking Casodex if your doctor sees that you have a progress in cancer considering the increasing of your PSA.
The drug can come into reaction with the list of other drugs.
During clinical trials it was noticed that the drug can go into the breast milk. You should discuss this treatment with your healthcare provider when you want to breastfeed or you are intended to do it.
Who should not take Casodex?
It is forbidden to take Casodex for those, who are:
Not a man
Have an allergy to this medicine, to bicalutamide or other components that are active and are taking part in making this drug. All these ingredients can be shifted to you by your medical care or pharmacist
You are going to have a baby or you are already pregnant
The medicine can affect you when you are intended to make a baby. It will be useful to talk about this to your doctor
The level of blood could increase when you do tests concerning the function of your liver. They will become stable after you finish the treatment
We didn't put above all the side effects. Some of those that are not listed here could happen to less than 10% of people that are taking Casodex. You still need to consult your healthcare provider when you think that you have some unusual symptoms.
Casodex is an androgen receptor inhibitor without steroids. It is strong enough to stop androgens' actions. It links to the receptors of cytosol androgens in the aimed tissue. They found out, that prostatic carcinoma is very sensitive to androgen. It can only be cured by some substance that will object androgen's effect or remove its source.
In fact, it will be less effective to combine Casodex with LHRH or luteinizing hormone releasing hormone, because the inhibition of serum testosterone gets induced after the action of LHRH. During clinical testing, they noticed the rise of estradiol and serum testosterone when Casodex was used as single medicine against cancer of prostate.
Some patients that were using LHRH agonist and Casodex and those that stopped taking Casodex after they noticed that their prostate cancer had progressively increased, were observed to have clinical improvement and a decrease of their PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen.
IPR Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is making Casodex for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. You can find them on a market in one singe form and strength. They are Bicalutamide 50mg tablets.
A generic form of Casodex is produced by the following different manufacturers:
Sun Pharmaceutical Global, Inc.
Mylan
Actavis, Inc.
Sandoz
Accord Healthcare, Inc.
Sun Pharmaceutical Global, Inc.
Zydus Pharmaceuticals
Teva Pharmaceuticals
These generic forms of medicine go through specific tests in order to be compared to the medications of trade name. After that, American FDA observes the results of tests and decides if this medicine is equal to the medications of trade name and they appoint an assessment to each of the drug.
If a generic medication has assessment or rating "AB", than it means that American Food and Drugs Administration think that this drug has the same quality as trade name drug. At the moment, all the generic versions of Casodex have a rating "AB". It means that they all have the same level of quality as Casodex.
Sometimes it is allowed when generic version of medication has inactive ingredients that differ from the trade name drug. They can be colors, fillers or some ingredients that could harm people that are too sensitive or have allergies.
Casodex hasn't been fully studied in regard to consequences of overdose. Individual perception of exceeding dosage is suggested to correlate with a set of factors, including combination of drugs it is taken along with.
There are no registered Casodex overdose cases to date. When the drug had been tested, dosage of roughly 200 mg daily was perceived by testers without showing considerable symptoms of exceeded dose. Note that dosages over 200 mg haven't been tested. Consequences of taking such doses are still unknown.
Casodex interactions with other drugs, in particular, calcium channel blockers, buspirone and others are potentially unfavorable. Such unfavorable interactions can cause side effects to occur, or render the medicine ineffective. When required to combine Casodex with those medicines, patients are advised to stay under doctor's monitoring.
The medicine's potentially unfavorable reactions can be revealed in combinations with other medicine as well, among which are:
Budesonide
This medicine combined with Casodex is reported to cause budesonide accumulation in your body, thus bringing up the risk of unintended effects. However, inhaled budesonide is less dangerous in combination with the medicine. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, consult with your doctor and stay under monitoring.
Buspirone
This medicine combined with Casodex is reported to cause buspirone accumulation in your body, thus bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, consult with your doctor and observe his recommendation.
Calcium channel blockers
This medicine combined with Casodex is reported to cause calcium channel blockers accumulation in your body, thus bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, consult with your doctor and observe his recommendation. Also, you may have to stay in hospital for monitoring.
Carbamazepine
When combined with this medicine, it is reported to cause Carbamazepine accumulation in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, consult with your doctor and observe his recommendation.
Certain antidepressants
When combined with this medicine, certain antidepressants tend to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, and side effects bother you, consult with your doctor and take a lower dose of antidepressants.
Certain antipsychotics
When combined with this medicine, certain antipsychotics tend to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Certain benzodiazepines
When combined with this medicine, certain benzodiazepines (but not every one of them) tend to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Clarithromycin
This medicine combined with Casodex is reported to cause clarithromycin toxicity in your body, thus bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Under circumstances such that you have to combine these drugs, consult with your doctor and observe his recommendation. Also, you may have to stay in hospital for monitoring.
Colchicine
When combined with this medicine, colchicine tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. You may have to stay in hospital for monitoring after taking this combination if your doctor will find it necessary.
Cyclosporine
When combined with this medicine, cyclosporine tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. You may have to stay in hospital for monitoring after taking this combination if your doctor will find it necessary.
Eplerenone
When combined with this medicine, eplerenone tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Your doctor may choose to lower the dosage of the latter and monitor you if necessary.
Ergot medications
When combined with this medicine, Ergot Medications can lead to increased toxicity in your body. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Erythromycin
When combined with this medicine, erythromycin tends to accumulate in your body. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Everolimus
When combined with this medicine, everolimus tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Your doctor may choose to lower the dosage of the latter and monitor you if necessary.
Fentanyl
When combined with this medicine, Fentanyl tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Your doctor may choose to lower the dosage of the latter and ask you to stay in hospital for monitoring you if necessary.
Pimecrolimus
When combined with this medicine, pimecrolimus tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. You may have to stay in hospital for monitoring after taking this combination if your doctor will find it necessary.
Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5 inhibitors)
When combined with this medicine, PDE5 inhibitors tend to accumulate in your body. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor. It is advised to take lower dosage of PDE5 inhibitors under such circumstances.
Ranolazine
When combined with this medicine, ranolazine tends to accumulate in your body. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor. It is advised to take lower dosage of ranolazine under such circumstances.
Salmeterol
When combined with this medicine, Salmeterol tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects such as increased heart rate. You may have to stay in hospital for monitoring after taking this combination if your doctor will find it necessary.
Saxagliptin
When combined with Casodex, Saxagliptin can cause glucose level to decrease in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of dangerous side effects. You are advised to stay under monitoring in hospital when taking this combination.
Statins
When combined with this medicine, certain statin cholesterol drugs tend to accumulate in your body, potentially leading to unintended effects. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Theophylline
When combined with this medicine, Theophylline tends to accumulate in your body, thus potentially bringing up the risk of unintended effects. Your doctor may choose to lower the dosage of the latter and monitor you if necessary.
Tolvaptan
When combined with this medicine, tolvaptan tends to accumulate in your body resulting in increased risk of unintended effects. The need of taking these medicines in a combination should be discussed with your doctor.
Warfarin
Casodex combined with warfarin, particularly at the first taking of medicines, are known to potentially cause bleeding. Doctor may advise you to stay under monitoring in hospital in case you need to take this combination.
Conclusion
Casodex has been reported to react abnormally when taken with other drugs. The complete list won't fit in this article, so whenever you are about to start taking Casodex combined with some other medicine, consult with your doctor.
Can generic version of Casodex be so effective in therapeutic way?
replyquote
Jack
12 April 2012
Rimond - yes, the medicine is effective in this way. This version just has other inert ingredients or as they call them compounding ingredients that help to keep the tablet together. The difference is in the dissolving if a pill in your body. Active ingredients remain as they are in the brand version. The active ingredients are totally the same.
replyquote
Jensen
10 December 2012
My PSA is equal to 3.7 when I began to take this medication. I didn't have any surgery and the only side effect that I had, was enlargement of my breasts. I am 79 and have strength enough to swim 1 mile once a day. I am doing well and my condition is great.
