The summer is coming to a close and I am back, ready to again take on the world. I had the fantastic opportunity of spending almost two weeks in Alaska, a land that is so different from the lower 48. I have to say that I have a new found respect for those individuals who [...]
Algeta announced that updated data from the phase III trial, ALSYMPCA, for its investigational drug Alpharadin (radium-223 dichloride). The data confirmed the overall survival of men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and symptomatic bone metastases using Alpharadin, compared to the interim analysis from June 2011. • Overall survival in Alpharadin arm increased by 44% • [...]
On June the 4th I reported on the SWOG-9346 study presented at the ASCO Meeting in Chicago (http://advancedprostatecancer.net/?p=3264). In the presentation by principal investigator, Maha Hussain, M.D., F.A.C.P., from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Hussain reported that intermittent androgen-deprivation (IAD) therapy for men with advanced prostate cancer with bone metastasis is not [...]
According to the results of a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology a bone scan index (BSI) can assess response to treatment and predict survival in metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Men who have castrate resistant or metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormonal therapy and has spread to distant sites [...]
Radium-223 Chloride (Alpharadin) is now available for the treatment of men with advanced prostate cancer who have symptomatic bone metastases (painful) and who are also castration-resistant (hormone-refractory). This is an expanded access program that will allow the use of Alpharadin prior to the formal FDA approval of the treatment. From the Clinical Trials Web Page [...]
Xgeva (denosumab), which has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention fractures in men with advanced prostate cancer that has already migrated to the bone, has been rejected by the FDA to expand the use of the drug to delay the spread of tumors in men without metastases to [...]
Rarely discussed, but very much a potential problem for men with advanced prostate cancer are neurological complications resulting from prostate cancer metastasis. Neurological complications of metastatic prostate cancer require quick treatment to minimize impact on a man, so early recognition is important. Family physicians when faced with a man complaining of low back pain or [...]
One of the major causes of prostate cancer morbidity and mortality is bone metastases. Currently, when it comes to treating prostate cancer metastases we are very limited in effective therapies that actually prolong survival. Kirschenbaum A, etal (Departments of Urology and Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Bone Diseases, Mount Sinai [...]
