Men with metastatic prostate cancer have higher rates of inherited gene mutations than men with non-metastatic prostate cancer. Knowing about DNA mutations might help you make better treatment decisions. And you can also tell family members about their risk. Recent studies have shown that metastatic prostate cancer inherited mutations in the DNA-repair genes, such as the BRCA gene, can help [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Since we have many new treatments for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) (advanced prostate cancer) we need to develop earlier indicators of when a treatment might or might not be successful. A decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used to monitor treatment response, but it has not been validated as an [...]
The constant hope and conversation of late has surrounded what is referred to as a liquid biopsy. The hope and goal is to no longer need to have an invasive needle biopsy to diagnose and stage prostate cancer. Biopsies are not accurate because there are too many false negatives, they only evaluate the actual tissue [...]
There have been a number of studies that have linked male pattern baldness with a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. A possible explanation for why baldness is a risk factor for the development of prostate cancer is that hormones play a role in both baldness and in prostate cancer. We known that baldness joins [...]
In General the use of a PSA value in excess of 4.0 µg/L is considered a clinical indicator for men at risk for prostate cancer. But, is this a good prognostic indicator in men who are HIV Positive? Researchers found that PSA was highly predictive of prostate cancer in men with HIV; however the commonly [...]
