Prostate cancer treatment will change as we incorporate new studies into our clinical practice. One of the major emerging new trends is the earlier use of chemotherapy with androgen therapy (ADT) in men, including men who are still hormone responsive. This changing trend comes from the results from there pivotal randomized phase III trials: GETUG15, [...]
The phase III trials for both Xtandi and Zytiga were similar. Both trials investigated men who progressed or died against placebo. Only 14% of men taking Xtandi during the trial progressed or died compared to 40% of the men in the placebo group. In the phase III trial of Zytiga 28% of the men [...]
Since we have many new treatments for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) (advanced prostate cancer) we need to develop earlier indicators of when a treatment might or might not be successful. A decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used to monitor treatment response, but it has not been validated as an [...]
Randomized trials have clearly demonstrated that when low dose Prednisone (P) is combined with docetaxel chemotherapy (D) to treat prostate cancer there is a survival benefit. What is the role of the prednisone and does it actually provide any additional benefit to the docetaxel treatment itself? To answer this question a retrospective study was performed [...]
The drugs called PARP inhibitors have been increasing discussed in the world of prostate cancer. There is every good reason to believe that we will continue to hear more about them and for certain select men with prostate cancer they will probably become a part of their treatment. In a recent paper published in the [...]
It has been announced that two important players in the fight against prostate cancer in New Zealand and Australia, ANZUP Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) will work together to fund and implement new clinical trials. ANZUP, which is one of the leading collaborative trials group for urogenital and [...]
Side effects, or what are known as co-morbidities, often discourage men who have metastatic prostate cancer from continuing with chemotherapy (docetaxel). The question often asked is there a relationship between having side effects and the ultimate efficacy of the chemotherapy? In other words does having side effects have an effect on overall survival? To answer [...]
There is a paradigm shift happening around us in the clinical care of men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. We now know that survival is better when docetaxel chemotherapy is added to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), but there have been and still remains concerns about the toxicity of the docetaxel. Recent findings from a new study, [...]
Once again we see what seems to be logical isn’t necessarily the way it actually works! In a surprising study result, it was shown that the use of intermittent androgen-deprivation therapy (IADT) for prostate cancer is not associated with fewer long-term adverse events than continuous ADT! Who would have guessed? We all thought that intermittent [...]
Radium-223 (Xofigo) is a drug for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRCP) who have multiple bone metastases. Radium-223 selectively targets bone metastases by mimicking calcium, which is attracted to the bone, especially to the fast growing areas of the tumor in the bone. It emits an alpha-emitting dose of radiation, which is mostly contained [...]
