The cost of Enzalutamide (Xtandi) in the United States is being challenged by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), a public interest advocacy group. The average US wholesale price of Xtandi in 2015 was $88 per capsule. That can add up to $129,000 annual cost per man. There are significant issues related to high costs of treatment. [...]
Nizoral (ketoconazole, keto) is an older drug that has been used as a part of hormone therapy (ADT) for many years. Keto, which is an inexpensive anti-fungal drug had been used for many years as an inhibitor of adrenal androgen synthesis as is abiriterone (Zytiga). Ztiga has been shown to be more effective, however, it [...]
I recently returned home from the American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR) annual meeting held in New Orleans, La. The meeting was, as usual fantastic, but this years conclusion was by far the best I have experienced. The meeting’s closing session was reserved for remarks about the cancer "moonshot" initiative from Vice President Joe Biden. [...]
We are seeing more and more novel therapies being developed to treat castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC). One such therapy involves theranostic (individualized therapies for various diseases, and to combine diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities into a single agent) concepts using radiolabeled ligands of the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). In a recent study, designed to [...]
Increasingly, we are seeing younger men diagnosed with prostate cancer and with bone metastases. One of the more common therapies, radiotherapy is recognized for its effect on local control of bone metastases, but whether it could prolong overall survival, the gold standard is still controversial. Researchers retrospectively evaluated 113 men with prostate cancer and bone [...]
The decision to enroll in a clinical trial should involve a discussion between the person with prostate cancer and that individual’s physician. Your participation should depend on many factors, including your motivation for enrolling in a trial, the stage of your prostate cancer, and the trials available and its phase. When you decide to enroll in a clinical [...]
Happy DNA Day! First celebrated in 2003 by proclamation of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the holiday commemorates the day James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin first published their papers on the structure of DNA. The reason for the proclamation In 2003 it was announced that the Human Genome Project [...]
One of the many constantly recurring topics that we discuss is over the efficacy of intermittent hormone deprivation therapy (IAD) as opposed to continuous hormone deprivation therapy (CAD). Which therapy is better has been debated for at least ten years. The debate still rages over the question of efficacy, or survival as well as the [...]
If you are like me then you enjoy eating grilled meat. I know, eating red meat isn’t going to be healthy, but I still enjoy it and I long ago decided that eating, in moderation, the foods I enjoy is a trade off I am willing to do as I live my life. However, I [...]
In the near future we should be seeing more non-invasive methods to evaluate if a man is responding to their drugs. One such example is the blood bio-marker available only at Johns Hopkins, the Androgen Receptor Variant 7 (AR-V7). Evaluating the presence of the antibody AR-V7 in the blood strongly indicates whether or not both [...]
