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 [...]