The following post is actually a response to a listserve issue over the side effects of Xofigo. I decided to post my response here to avoid the limit of lines allowed on the listserve and because I feel that it is also of interest to my regular readers of this blog. My response is using [...]
The New England Journal of Medicine just published a very appealing and easy to understand video about Xofigo dichloride (Radium 223 or Alpharadin), the newly FDA approved treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer who have developed bone metastasis. The short video can be viewed at: N.E. Journal Xofigo Video Joel T. Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.
In an interview about radium 223 with Medscape Medical News, Dr. Vapiwala pointed out that radium-223 is the first alpha-emitter to reach the market, and described it as a "breakthrough for radiopharmaceuticals" and "another breakthrough for prostate cancer," as it joins several other agents that have recently been approved for this disease. She characterized the [...]
Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are the process that the body uses to breakdown old bone and then to rebuild it with new bone. c-Met is a tyrosine kinase expressed by osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and overexpressed by prostate cancer cells. This over expression leads to the eventual development of bone metastases. The experimental treatment known as Cabozantinib [...]
Xgeva is a monoclonal antibody that inactivates RANKL, a protein that enhances osteoclast activity and survival. By inhibiting RANKL, Xgeva prevents skeletal-related events in men with bone metastasis from prostate cancer. Under no circumstances should a man who also has multiple myeloma use Xgeva. There have been studies that compared Xgeva to zolendronic acid (Zometa). [...]