According to researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston Ma., men with aggressive prostate cancer who have radiation therapy to treat the cancer have better overall survival rates when the therapy is given at a high volume treatment facility. Paul Nguyen, MD, a physician researcher in the department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham said, “Our paper shows that [...]
A retrospective study, using the SEER Date, a U.S. national database, analyzed data from men diagnosed with prostate cancer and found that salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) improved the long-term survival in men whose cancer has returned after receiving radiation therapy. We know that approximately 30% of men who have radiation therapy as their primary therapy will have a recurrence [...]
Researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast along with the Belfast Trust are conducting a clinical trial evaluating the combination of two radiotherapy treatments, Radium 223 and Pelvic Radiation using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) in men with bone positive advanced prostate cancer. The trial, being called ADRRAD trial, involves combining androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) along [...]
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 [...]
The current standard hormone therapy (ADT) for men with advanced prostate cancer is a class of drugs called Luteinising hormone-releasing hormone agonists (LHRHa). These drugs reduce serum oestradiol as well as testosterone, causing bone mineral density (BMD) loss as a side effect of the ADT. Using transdermal (skin patches) oestradiol is a potential alternative to [...]
Researchers in Hong Kong wanted to confirm the efficacy of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) used prior to chemotherapy that had been shown in the trial setting. In their analysis they came up short; raising some very significant concerns about Zytiga’s efficacy when used prior to chemotherapy. They reviewed the clinical records of men with metastatic castrate [...]
We know that prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease, but most of our treatments are not based on the different molecular stratification exhibited by the disease. One of the differences we do recognize in the cancer is that some of the tumors have genetic DNA-repair defects. There has been evidence that in those cancers exhibiting [...]
Prostate cancer treatment will change as we incorporate new studies into our clinical practice. One of the major emerging new trends is the earlier use of chemotherapy with androgen therapy (ADT) in men, including men who are still hormone responsive. This changing trend comes from the results from there pivotal randomized phase III trials: GETUG15, [...]
UPDATE June 9, 2016 The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve its FY17 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill earlier today, with only one senator, Bill Cassidy (R-LA), voting against the bill. Funding for the Centers for Disease Control's Prostate Cancer activities program was restored!!! Thanks to all of Malecare's Patient Advocacy Leaders and ALL of You who [...]
In a sudden reversal of its prior opinion the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued final guidance recommending Janssen’s Zytiga (abiraterone) to treat advanced prostate cancer before chemotherapy. Its prior recommendation was not to approve Zytiga. TAccording to NICE their decision to change their December 2015 recommendation follows the submission [...]
