Welcome to Prostap DCS

Prostate Cancer

What is prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer occurs when prostate cells begin to malfunction – they respond to normal levels of testosterone by growing faster and in an uncontrolled way. This can lead to a tumour. It mainly affects men aged over 50, and currently over 400,000 men in the UK are living with the disease.

How does Prostap DCS work

GnRH is a hormone that regulates how much testosterone is in the blood. Prostap DCS is a GnRH agonist, meaning it causes the body to stop producing GnRH, which dramatically reduces the levels of testosterone in the blood. The result is that the prostate tumour is starved of testosterone, so it slows the growth. The tumour may even shrink.

How is your medication given?

Prostap DCS is an injection. It will be prepared according to your dosage needs and administered by your nurse or doctor at your GP surgery or hospital. You will have been prescribed one of two versions of Prostap DCS. These different types contain different amounts of the active medicine, which will determine the frequency you are given the injection.

Most common side effects

Injection-site reaction
Skin reactions at the site of the injection are common, affecting around more than 1 in 10 men.
These include:

• Skin hardening
• Redness
• Pain
• Abscesses
• Swelling
• Nodules
• Ulcers
• Skin damage

Note:
When starting Prostap DCS, you may experience a ‘flare-up’ of tumour symptoms, such as bone pain or difficulty urinating.
This is common to all GnRH agonist treatments and normally lasts for a few weeks.
In order to reduce the risk of a flare-up, you may be given an anti-androgen 3 days prior to Prostap DCS therapy and continued for the first 2-3 weeks of treatment.

Other side effects
For a full list of side effects, please consult the patient information leaflet for your dose. If you don’t have a copy of the patient information leaflet you can download one here:

Reporting of side effects
If you get any side effects, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse. This includes any possible side effects not listed in this leaflet or the package leaflet. Please don’t skip an injection.

You can also report side effects directly via the Yellow Card Scheme at www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard.

By reporting side effects, you can help provide more information on the safety of Prostap DCS.

Resources

Takeda provides a range of resources to support patients who have been prescribed Prostap DCS. You can request these materials from your Healthcare Professional.