Whether continuous docetaxel (DTX) chemotherapy offers an advantage over intermittent therapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is unknown. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy, toxicity and quality of life (QoL) of intermittent tri-weekly DTX with bicalutamide in CRPC. Forty-two patients (group A) with CRPC were enrolled. The patients received intravenous DTX (75 mg m 22 ) once tri-weekly with oral bicalutamide (50 mg) once daily. Patients had a DTX holiday when the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level declined o50%. DTX was restarted in patients with a PSA increase o25%. Sixty patients (group B) who had matching characteristics and had continuously received DTX without bicalutamide for 10-12 cycles were also enrolled. There were no statistically significant differences in progression-free survival (8 months vs. 9 months, P50.866) or overall survival (19 months vs. 21 months, P50.753) between groups A and B; however, the proportions of patients in group A with all grades of neutropenia (33% vs. 58%, P50.013) and nausea/vomiting (11% vs. 29%, P50.024) were significantly less compared to group B. A significant improvement in the global health and fatigue scores was recorded for group A post-chemotherapy compared to pre-chemotherapy (P,0.05). The fatigue, nausea/ vomiting and appetite loss scores in group B were increased post-chemotherapy compared to pre-chemotherapy (P,0.05). In conclusion, intermittent tri-weekly DTX plus bicalutamide is well tolerated and has the potential to achieve comparable disease control with an improvement in QoL for patients with CRPC.