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 [...]
Although there are now many new treatments for advanced prostate cancer, hormone therapy (ADT) has remained the standard of care for the last 70 years. While hormone therapy can provide pain relief, it is never curative. Long-term hormone therapy produces decreased quality of life. Men treated with hormone therapy have weight gain, experience impotence, decreased [...]
Not terribly surprising, but recent research shows that less than one-third of all cancer survivors of adult cancers in the United States ever had conversations with their healthcare providers about their psychosocial needs. The latest study showing this was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 This study was a large population-based study of 1777 [...]
One of the more common side effects of primary prostate cancer treatment with any form of x-ray or ionizing radiation is known as radiation proctitis and the related radiation colitis. Radiation proctitis is inflammation and damage to surrounding organs and tissue caused by stray radiation. Radiation proctitis most commonly occurs after treatment for many different [...]
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 [...]
The New England Journal of Medicine just published a very appealing and easy to understand video about Xofigo dichloride (Radium 223 or Alpharadin), the newly FDA approved treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer who have developed bone metastasis. The short video can be viewed at: N.E. Journal Xofigo Video Joel T. Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.
All of us on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) know that without testosterone our bodies change and we will develop insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes. In a just very small, just published study investigators examined if endurance training would improve insulin sensitivity and body composition in men being treated with ADT for their advanced prostate [...]
In an interview about radium 223 with Medscape Medical News, Dr. Vapiwala pointed out that radium-223 is the first alpha-emitter to reach the market, and described it as a "breakthrough for radiopharmaceuticals" and "another breakthrough for prostate cancer," as it joins several other agents that have recently been approved for this disease. She characterized the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
