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 [...]
My wife Wendy periodically receives Facebook requests for her to “Hate Cancer.” Yes, she does hate cancer, but she wants us all to actually be productive about what we do with our “hate.” Wendy wrote on Facebook, "I'm not a cut and paster, and certainly not a "hater," so I have an alternative suggestion. I just had the [...]
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 [...]
Men who have decided to have radiation as their first (primary) treatment for prostate cancer have a one-third chance of recurrence. Some of those men have salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) to fight the recurrence. A study shows this might be a good idea. Antoni Vilaseca, MD, etal from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, studied 251 men [...]
Being diagnosed with cancer is tough. Being diagnosed with cancer is often coupled with clinically meaningful levels of mental or emotional distress. Researchers in Germany have found that during the prior four weeks nearly a third of more than 2,100 cancer survivors interviewed at inpatient and outpatient care centers experienced mental or emotional distress that [...]
Today’s post is not directly an advanced prostate cancer post, but more about a new potential and very interesting treatment on the horizon for men with prostate cancer that might otherwise be considered for active surveillance. According to the researchers who have been working on the treatment protocol, it is "truly transformative". This is not [...]
Drugs and their names are just confusing. When they are being developed they are given many different names. Despite their names the drugs (or treatments) are the same. Names are just names nothing more. For laymen, drugs having multiple names for the same drug is confusing. So, why are there so many different names for [...]
A late-stage clinical trial designed to see if Xtandi in addition to Zytiga along with a steroid worked any better than either of these drugs separately (combining them v sequencing them) in men with advanced prostate cancer whose disease had worsened it was concluded that the combination was not superior to the individual drugs. This [...]
The following was posted on the Malecare Advanced Prostate Cancer Health Unlocked online support group. I have received permission to reprint it here because it might be helpful to some of you. FYI- Provenge is a cancer vaccine that helps to mobilize your own immune system to your prostate cancer. It is currently only [...]
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 [...]
