One of the newer drugs and one that has recently had great air play is the bone targeting radiopharmaceutical drug radium-223 or Xofigo. Currently, it is approved for men with castrate resistant prostate cancer with bone metastases. The problem is that currently Xofigo is only approved for one round of treatment using 6 monthly infusions. [...]
Prostate cancer tends to metastasize to bones as opposed to soft tissue and other organs. We have no idea why it does have a preference for bone, but it does. Developing bone metastases in prostrate cancer is a very strong negative prognostic indicator. Prostate cancer’s tendency to favor bone over soft tissue causes significant morbidity [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]