Finally, advanced prostate cancer makes it into the genomeic world of cancer. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences an announcement that they have mapped the genomes of three different types of [...]
It is estimated that in the United States 200,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year with approximately 20% to 30% having clinically aggressive prostate cancer. When diagnosed the standard is to consider factors such as Gleason score and tumor stage to assess a man’s prognosis, however there are no biomarkers to identify [...]
It is fairly common practice for those diagnosed with breast cancer to have genetic testing. Genetic testing is almost unheard of when men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Current research shows that genetic testing for men with prostate cancer could provide important information about both potential treatment efficacy and prognosis. A recent look at the [...]
We have heard for a period of time that the future of cancer treatment is in genetics. Despite the hubbub, we see very little hard evidence of this in today’s current treatment decisions. Treatment still remains tied into protocols with a strong bias to following a common map. Each map does have little variances, but [...]
Yesterday the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCRF) made a major announcement, it has sequenced the of whole cancer genomes of seven different men with aggressive prostate cancer. This is a historic development in the fight against prostate cancer, however, it is a small step for those of us on the ground. The eventual goal of projects [...]
A study performed in the UK, reported in the British Journal Cancer (2010), showed that men who have a deleterious germ-line mutation in the breast cancer 2 (BRCA2) gene and who have prostate cancer do not survive as long as men with prostate cancer who are non-carriers. There have been earlier studies that have shown [...]
Genetic counseling is common place in the world of breast cancer including the evaluation of the BRCA genes. Prostate and breast cancer increasingly been shown to have a relationship, perhaps all the down to the genetic level. Researchers are now understanding, that like in breast cancer, BRCA1 loss preexisting in small sub-populations of prostate cancer [...]
There were many themes running through the recent American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR) conference that I just attended in Washington D.C. One significant theme running through the conference was the need to develop personalized medicine to be able to successfully control cancer. This leads us to the question, What is personalized medicine? [...]
