One of the newer drugs and one that has recently had great air play is the bone targeting radiopharmaceutical drug radium-223 or Xofigo. Currently, it is approved for men with castrate resistant prostate cancer with bone metastases. The problem is that currently Xofigo is only approved for one round of treatment using 6 monthly infusions. [...]
Prostate cancer tends to metastasize to bones as opposed to soft tissue and other organs. We have no idea why it does have a preference for bone, but it does. Developing bone metastases in prostrate cancer is a very strong negative prognostic indicator. Prostate cancer’s tendency to favor bone over soft tissue causes significant morbidity [...]
Researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast along with the Belfast Trust are conducting a clinical trial evaluating the combination of two radiotherapy treatments, Radium 223 and Pelvic Radiation using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) in men with bone positive advanced prostate cancer. The trial, being called ADRRAD trial, involves combining androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) along [...]
Radium-223 (Xofigo) is a drug for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRCP) who have multiple bone metastases. Radium-223 selectively targets bone metastases by mimicking calcium, which is attracted to the bone, especially to the fast growing areas of the tumor in the bone. It emits an alpha-emitting dose of radiation, which is mostly contained [...]
Researchers are now beginning to understand which men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) might be helped by radium-223 (Xofigo), and for which men Xofigo will be a waste of time and money, and possibly cause harm. They have found that baseline ECOG performance status, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), hemoglobin (Hb) levels, and the concomitant use of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) [...]
Understanding how to best sequence and combine our new drugs to treat advanced prostate cancer includes the most discussed issue, efficacy. We want to know if a special order or a special combination of the approved drugs will nake a difference in both our quality of life (QoL) as well as how survival. Often [...]
As I have said before, the next big step in the clinical care of men with prostate cancer will be in not in the development of a new drug, but in our growing knowledge of how to sequence and combine our new drugs. Today’s post provides just one example of this new type of breakthrough [...]
I have been informed that it is now possible for men in need of the treatment Xofigo to obtain it without having to pay any co-pays. The program that is making this possible is called Xofigo Access Services and is designed to make Xofigo available for men with a commercial medical insurance policy (not medicaid [...]
Many of our doctors are constantly vigilant about our developing skeletal related issues. Having advanced prostate cancer and receiving treatment for this disease increases our odds of developing skeletal issues which affect both our quality of life and our mortality. Drugs like denosumab (Xgeva) and zoledronic acid (Zometa) are important in delaying the onset of [...]
Most people don't know the many advances that the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (DOD PCRP) has brought to the PROSTATE CANCER COMMUNITY. Did you know that the program is directly responsible for funding the initial development of three of the very new drugs we have available? The DOD PCRP is directly [...]
