We are in the fortunate position because the treatment of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) continues to evolve as new agents with the ability to extend survival gain FDA approval. The most recently FDA approved treatment, the alpha emitting radiopharmaceutical radium-223 (Xofigo) was approved for men with bone metastatic prostate cancer. Most other [...]
It is generally agreed that prostate cancer which is still 100% confined to the prostate gland is curable using local therapies like radiation or surgery, but when it has left the prostate gland and becomes metastatic it is no longer curable. Treatment for metastatic prostate cancer is intended to make the prostate cancer a chronic [...]
Extra radiation will not keep the doctor away, so why do we use it? According to a recent study published in the Oct. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association most men who are given radiation to control pain from bone metastasis accompanying advanced prostate cancer undergo more treatments than they really [...]
On the advanced prostate cancer online support group there have been some questions raised about how we know when drugs like Zytiga and Xtandi have stopped working. Knowing this as soon as possible is important so that you can quickly move on to the next treatment without giving the prostate cancer time to progress and [...]
There are a number of funds available to assist men with their treatment co-pays and to help cover travel for treatments. These funds receive their financial support from the drug companies (pharama) which make voluntary contributions. Within the overarching fund there are many disease specific funds that supply co-pay and or travel support for individuals. [...]
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). [...]
