Startling Fact: PSA Testing Frequency Changes PSA Doubling Time – A Time Honored Surrogate Biomarker is Not Valid!

In our quest to understand our prostate cancer we have developed many “measures” of our disease aggressiveness and progression.  Many of these measures are generally accepted has valid, but many have never been validated. One example is the prognostic nature of PSA Doubling Time (PSADT) in men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (BRPC or PSA [...]

Start A Cure Successfully Funds Its First Project – A Disparities Research Project from Johns Hopkins University

When I opened my computer this afternoon I checked the Malecare prostate cancer crowd-funding site to see how things were going. To my great pleasure I discovered that Start A Cure (www.StartACure.org) had achieved it first funding success! Sometime in the early afternoon some very kind individual made the pledge that completed the funding goal [...]

Using Circulating Tumor Cells as a Prognostic Tool – Better than PSA

Better prediction tools to predict treatment outcome in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) should significantly improve treatment outcomes. Without good predictive measures we often don't know when is the optimum time to stop a therapy and move to another. This means that we might maturely stop an effective treatment losing the effectiveness of [...]

StartACure – Now is the Time to Step Up and Start A Cure for Prostate Cancer

Today’s post will be a little admonishment of you, my loyal readers. So, please be open-minded and think about what I have to say to you. A number of months ago I mentioned the new prostate cancer research-funding project we have embarked upon, Start A Cure (www.StartACure.com). For those of you who might have missed [...]

Dr. Francis Collins (NIH) Speaks About the Cancer Funding Predicament We Face

A post from Alan on the Advanced Prostate Cancer On-Line Support Group shared a link, which should interest all of us. It should interest us all because it will have an effect on each and every one of us, whether we are a prostate cancer survivor, if we become one in the future. Actually the [...]

Who will respond to Zytiga (Abiraterone) and Xtandi (Enzalutamide)?

We have many new drugs that have been recently approved to treat advanced prostate cancer. Two of these drugs are abiraterone (Zytiga) and enzalutamide (Xtandi). These drugs offer new hope to men with advanced prostate cancer after the cancer has become resistant to hormone therapies (called "castration-resistant prostate cancer"). These drugs are a real breakthrough, [...]

Metastasis-Free Survival Is A Possible Biomarker for Overall Survival

Researchers at Johns Hopkins has concluded that metastasis-free survival appeared to independently predictor of overall survival (OS) in men with recurrent prostate cancer who underwent androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) after developing metastases. Men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (PSA only) tend to survive for long periods so the FDA gold standard for clinical trial endpoint [...]

Prostate Cancer Awareness Events in September

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month and many organizations that are involved with education and support of men (and their families) who have prostate cancer are scheduled to have programs during the month. There are a number of events that I want to let you know about (perhaps you will attend): September 6-8 The Prostate [...]

Testosterone Therapy for Prostate Cancer: Feeling Better while Defeating Cancer

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 [...]

DOD Gets a Thumbs Up From Congress for FY14 – Some Great News

Yesterday we did have some good news for cancer survivors which didn’t get any significant attention. Most of the media attention from yesterday’s congressional budget vote was focused on an amendment dealing with NSA surveillance, the House did actually vote on final passage on the FY14 Defense Appropriations bill which included funding for the Department [...]

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