UPDATE June 9, 2016 The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve its FY17 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill earlier today, with only one senator, Bill Cassidy (R-LA), voting against the bill. Funding for the Centers for Disease Control's Prostate Cancer activities program was restored!!! Thanks to all of Malecare's Patient Advocacy Leaders and ALL of You who [...]
In a sudden reversal of its prior opinion the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued final guidance recommending Janssen’s Zytiga (abiraterone) to treat advanced prostate cancer before chemotherapy. Its prior recommendation was not to approve Zytiga. TAccording to NICE their decision to change their December 2015 recommendation follows the submission [...]
The PSA flare phenomenon when first starting chemotherapy with docetaxel has been noted by many clinicians. To evaluate this flare in men with castrate resistant prostate cancer treated with docetaxel, researchers retrospectively evaluated the charts of 56 men who received docetaxel-based chemotherapy in three different centers from August 1999 to August 2007. They found that [...]
There has been a lot of hype and confusion about what is the best contrast for prostate cancer PET/CT scans. The two newest contrasts; (18)F-FACBC (anti1-amino-3-(18)F-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid) and (11)C-choline both have their supporters and their detractors. To try and evaluate the efficacy differences between these two contrasts in men who have suffered a bio-chemical recurrence [...]
The phase III trials for both Xtandi and Zytiga were similar. Both trials investigated men who progressed or died against placebo. Only 14% of men taking Xtandi during the trial progressed or died compared to 40% of the men in the placebo group. In the phase III trial of Zytiga 28% of the men [...]
Since we have many new treatments for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) (advanced prostate cancer) we need to develop earlier indicators of when a treatment might or might not be successful. A decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used to monitor treatment response, but it has not been validated as an [...]
Randomized trials have clearly demonstrated that when low dose Prednisone (P) is combined with docetaxel chemotherapy (D) to treat prostate cancer there is a survival benefit. What is the role of the prednisone and does it actually provide any additional benefit to the docetaxel treatment itself? To answer this question a retrospective study was performed [...]
Presented at ASCO GU by Stolten and colleagues was abstract 244 that described the responses African American men had to abiraterone (Zytiga) in a retrospective cohort study of men seen at a single institution. Stolten included differences in the men including their age at diagnosis, prior enzalutamide (Xtandi) and/or docetaxel (chemotherapy) use, as well as [...]
The constant hope and conversation of late has surrounded what is referred to as a liquid biopsy. The hope and goal is to no longer need to have an invasive needle biopsy to diagnose and stage prostate cancer. Biopsies are not accurate because there are too many false negatives, they only evaluate the actual tissue [...]
In an article in Time (3/7 Sweetland Edwards) there is a discussion about the failure of the Affordable Care Act to stop patients from receiving “surprise” bills from their medical providers for services provided. These surprises result from people going to a medical facility, which is in their Network but having some service, provided by [...]
