Researchers are now beginning to understand which men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) might be helped by radium-223 (Xofigo), and for which men Xofigo will be a waste of time and money, and possibly cause harm. They have found that baseline ECOG performance status, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), hemoglobin (Hb) levels, and the concomitant use of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) [...]
There are many trials and tribulations facing new drug approvals for men with prostate cancer. This is particularly true for men the drugs that are designed to fight metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) because of the many new treatments, all with life extending ability, that we now have available to use. The good news is [...]
Understanding how to best sequence and combine our new drugs to treat advanced prostate cancer includes the most discussed issue, efficacy. We want to know if a special order or a special combination of the approved drugs will nake a difference in both our quality of life (QoL) as well as how survival. Often [...]
I have been relatively quiet about the skyrocketing cost of drugs, but it has now become impossible to remain out of the fray. A Pharmaceutical company recently acquired a drug called Daraprim, the drug treats potentially fatal parasitic infections. After its acquisition the company raised the price of Daraprim by almost 5,0000%. When confronted with [...]
As I have said before, the next big step in the clinical care of men with prostate cancer will be in not in the development of a new drug, but in our growing knowledge of how to sequence and combine our new drugs. Today’s post provides just one example of this new type of breakthrough [...]
The standard of care and the facts are simple. Men who have aggressive prostate cancer and elect to have radiation therapy will benefit from six months of concurrent hormone therapy (ADT). However, based on recent findings by D’Amico etal, there seems to be a segment of men who will not benefit, but will have inferior [...]
FROM this blog on September 9, 2015 ) According to Michael Jan, MD, and his collaborators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden those of us who are experiencing high levels of stress need to be cautious. Their findings boil down to the fact that our stress could allow our prostate cancer to kill us. [...]
Are you stressed? If you are and you have been treated for clinically localized prostate cancer you are at a 66% increased risk of dying from your prostate cancer! Research has shown that high stress levels are associated with an increased rate of prostate cancer (PCa) specific mortality among men treated for clinically localized prostate [...]
Intermittent hormone therapy (IHT) as opposed to continuous hormone therapy (CHT) provides a better quality of life (QoL) for men with locally advanced prostate cancer. However, there is a debate created by a few major research protocols that have been inconclusive as to the difference in achieving the ultimate goal, survival despite prostate cancer. Researchers [...]
Increasingly, we have become better informed about the possible role of psychological and spiritual interventions in the treatment of cancer, specifically for this post in men with locally advanced prostate cancer. This post is limited to just discussing the possible interventions specifically in men with a Biochemical Prostate Cancer Recurrence, commonly referred to as a [...]
