Presented at EAU on March 23, 2009 The drug Denosumab has shown itself both easy to tolerate by patients as well highly able to increases bone mineral density (BMD) when compared with placebo in men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The results of this multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study [...]
One of the unsettled debates in our advanced prostate cancer world surrounds the issue of continuous vs. intermittent hormone therapy (IHT). Traditionally, hormone therapy was continuous, or once you started you never stopped the treatment. As many of us know, hormone therapy is notorious for damaging the quality of life. Hot flashes, loss of libido, [...]
That is the big question I am dealing with this week. I have been so pleased with my recent success with lowering my PSA, but the last test has reversed the trend. My PSA has shown a drastic rise. It went from just under .60 to almost 2.0 within a two week period! As we [...]
A small phase III, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial of Gabapentin which looked at the Management of hot flashes in men on a hormone blockade (ADT) was recently completed and published in the March 2009 journal of the Ann of Oncology. One of the most common and bothersome side effects of a hormone blockade [...]
A small study of 145 men with asymptomatic metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) was conducted to determine the benefit of starting early chemotherapy with docetaxel. Collected data were analyzed from these subjects who were treated with chemotherapy between February 2000 and June 2002 in one French center. The men were categorized into three groups according [...]
One of the significant secondary side effects resulting from of our advanced prostate cancer treatments can be blood clots. Blood clots are potentially dangerous as they can lead to heart attacks, strokes and death. Warfarin is one of the drugs commonly prescribed to prevent these dangerous blood clots from ever forming. However, dosing of Warfarin [...]
The occasionally discussed, but not often used, alternative hormone therapy, transdermal estrogen might be ready to soon move on to a phase III trial. A poster presentation of a phase II trial showed that transdermal estrogen patches drove down testosterone and PSA levels to a similar extent as an LHRH analog. The poster presentation was [...]
How can you obtain financial assistance getting your prescription drugs? One possible solution is the Partnership for Prescription Assistance. from their web site: "The Partnership for Prescription Assistance brings together America's pharmaceutical companies, doctors, other health care providers, patient advocacy organizations and community groups to help qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage get the medicines [...]
I have always assumed that treating my prostate cancer with a hormone blockade increases my risk of having a cardiovascular problem that increases my chance of death. Taking any drug is always a trade off, one benefit against the potential harms. It is a perfect risk-reward situation. However, there is some new research that makes [...]
There has been a lot of publicity surrounding the $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress. One thing that the bill will do for the first time is provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness. Researchers are scheduled to receive $1.1 [...]
