One of the hot topics in the prostate cancer community is the value of detecting AR-V7 tumor cells circulating in the blood. AR-V7 tumor cells in the blood predicts response or failure of treatment with enzalutamide (Xtandi) or abiraterone (Zytiga). A recent study found that men who have AR-V7 circulating tumor cells in their blood will not [...]
Screening for early cancer detection may reduce the rate of related metastatic disease, but not always. In a published study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers evaluated the incidence of men having a diagnosis of advanced, metastatic prostate cancer at the initial prostate cancer diagnosis. The researchers data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and [...]
In a press release issued yesterday, Genomic Health Inc. announced topline results from their clinical validation study of its biopsy-based Oncotype DX® Genomic Prostate Score™ (GPS). The study met its primary endpoint by demonstrating that Oncotype DX® test is a strong predictor for the development of metastasis and also prostate cancer death in men with early-stage prostate [...]
Again and again I have mentioned the huge need we have for the development of reliable bio-markers. Reliable bio-markers will allow us to know which men will respond positively to a treatment (also those who will not) and when a treatment is still effective (also when it no longer is effective). These biomarkers really don’t [...]
We often refer to prostate cancer as a family affair, or rather being passed on from father to son, etc. This is only partially true because there is still more prostate cancer diagnosed in men without any family history. For those cancers that are passed on from one family member to another it is important [...]
There are multiple definitions of biochemical recurrence for prostate cancer treatment post surgery. This causes confusion both within the patient community and the medical community. It would be very helpful if we could standardize a simple measure, PSA as the biomarker for a biochemical recurrence. Standardization post surgery would give us a better way to [...]
Historically, too many men were haphazardly treated for prostate cancer. Happily, the incidents of over treatment have been declining and the general acceptance of Active Surveillance has emerged as the preferred management strategy for men with very low–risk prostate cancer. However, There is still too few high-quality comparative effectiveness studies evaluating the incremental risks associated [...]
We have a number of newer hormone pathway drugs now available to treat men with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Researchers have shown that prostate specific antigen (PSA) response can be used as a pharmaco-dynamic end-point that may help identify men with early resistance to these new drugs. They found that there is clinical [...]
Making treatment decisions once you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer is difficult. Often, it is impossible to accurately and reliably be able to predict the eventual course of the cancer. Prostate cancer, besides being one of the slower growing cancers, is also one of the deadliest. So good, informed decisions are vital. The original [...]
Not often discussed, but a valuable measure of prostate cancer bone activity is serum (in the blood) alkaline phosphatase. It is a normal enzyme produced naturally by the body. Everyone produces some of this enzyme regardless of his or her state of health, gender, or age. The tissues that produce the most alkaline phosphatase are the [...]
