In the treatment of prostate cancer the first very expensive drug we had that was FDA approved was Provenge, with an initial cost of $93,000 for a one-month’s treatment protocol. Today, the cost is in excess of $106,000. According to the phase III clinical trial result Provenge extends life by a median of 4.1 months, [...]
In a presentation at the ASCO Annual Meeting, Dr. Andrew Himelstein, MD, FACP of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, presented the results of a trial evaluating Zoledronic Acid (Zometa) at a dosing schedule of every 12 weeks as opposed to the current standard of care of every 4 weeks. The trial included [...]
According to a news release from MD Anderson they have recently completed a study that shows that combining two separate chemotherapy agents is more effective than sequencing them one after another. The current standard of care for the cytotoxic chemotherapy agents used to treat prostate cancer is to treat men with advanced metastatic castration-resistant prostate [...]
Starting androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to treat advanced prostate cancer is usually the start of a long treatment period that will continue for many years, actually until you die. Since our goal in cancer treatment is to make cancer a chronic illness and since prostate cancer does progress for most men in a relatively slow [...]
A recently previewed (prior to the upcoming ASCO Annual Meeting) of a large study shows that men with prostate cancer who had a PSA-based relapse (Biochemical Recurrence) could delay starting androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) until they started experiencing symptoms from the cancer. They found that this delay would not affect the men’s long-term survival. The [...]
Clinicians believe that there is an association between the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the duration and type of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in men with prostate cancer. Researchers took data from 2006 to 2012 on filled drug prescriptions from the Swedish national health care registers. A cohort of 41,362 men with prostate cancer who were on ADT [...]
We have many new drugs to treat metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), but not all men have a positive result to each of the drug. Understanding who might obtain a positive result to a specific drug prior giving it will save both the individual man and society time and money. Understanding this it becomes [...]
It is vital that you take an active role in making sure that you are going to receive the correct IV treatment and injections. Mistakes do happen, protect yourself. Make sure that you personally double check to confirm you're receiving the correct treatment. Don't sit back and rely on another person, errors do occur and [...]
It is common knowledge that men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) don’t all have the same disease. There are many different types or flavors of prostate cancer. These differences are involved in the genetic structure of the cancer cell its self. Some prostate cancers have mutations in the DNA repair genes (genes whose job [...]
On April 8th I post on this blog an article called The Cholesterol In Your Diet Might Be Causing Your Prostate Cancer To Spread (http://advancedprostatecancer.net/?p=5156). Since I published this I have received some feedback, which has included people asking if they should take statins to control their cholesterol levels. Statin drugs do help control cholesterol [...]
