Most of the newly approved drugs and treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer are designed and approved to be used independently of other advanced prostate cancer treatments, other than with the continuation of standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The newly approved drug, Xofigo, is different. It has been designed to supplement, or actually go [...]
The exciting thing about Provenge is not only the real survival advantage that it offers with minimal side effects, but that it is a proof of concept treatment that is heralding in the potential future of many other immunotherapies. Today, we have two new possible treatments in active phase 3 trials, Prostvac and Yervoy. [...]
Enzalutamide (Xtandi) monotherapy induced striking declines in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a majority of patients with hormone-naive prostate cancer in a phase II trial, and this oral agent appears to have little effect on bone mineral density. If these findings are confirmed in a phase III trial, then enzalutamide may be an alternative to androgen [...]
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 [...]
A press release made yesterday brought some bad news to the advanced prostate cancer community. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) announced that it has un-blinded and stopped the ELM-PC 5 Phase 3 study (C21005) of orteronel plus prednisone compared to placebo plus prednisone in patients with metastatic, castration- resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) that had progressed [...]
Many men, after they have had a radical prostatectomy, find that their testosterone levels are low and are desirous of supplementing their testosterone. (This low level of testosterone is not a result of the surgery). One way of supplementing androgens is by transdermal testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT), but TRT also has the undesirable effect of increasing [...]
Conversations among survivors and evidence in the literature suggests that there is a positive association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] (vitamin D3) and survival in certain types of cancer, including advanced prostate cancer. Researchers from the Cancer Treatment Centers of America investigated the relationship between survival advantage and vitamin D3 levels in [...]
Xtandi is often referred to as a “super bicalutamide (Casodex).” Casodex functions as a androgen blockade, which deters testosterone from being able to interact with the prostate cancer cell and feed the growth of the cancer. There are some oncologists in the United States and the standard hormone treatment in Europe often utilizes Casodex as [...]
The recent news is unavoidable, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, usually used by men with heart ailments and prostate cancer is tied to a 71% increase of developing prostate cancer and that the cancer is often an aggressive prostate cancer! A prospective study by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has confirmed the link between high [...]
Why does PSA continue to rise and prostate cancer disease continue to progress (new tumors develop and existing tumors continue to get bigger) when a man has an immune system treatment to go after their prostate cancer? This issue is probably the major marketing hurdle faced by Dendreon’s Provenge and based on the current statistics [...]
