Men who have decided to have radiation as their first (primary) treatment for prostate cancer have a one-third chance of recurrence. Some of those men have salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) to fight the recurrence. A study shows this might be a good idea. Antoni Vilaseca, MD, etal from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, studied 251 men [...]
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 [...]
In an issue of ONCOLOGY, there was a review of the literature provides us with a comprehensive review of the limited literature on management of men with prostate cancer who have pelvic lymph node involvement but no known distant metastatic disease at diagnosis. Common folklore has been that these men, with limited pelvic lymph node [...]
We know that Abiraterone (Zytiga) extends life, but we also know that its side effects can be harsh, especially in elderly men (men over 75 years). We also know that men with metastatic, castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) have a limited potential life expectancy. Given these facts, it is important to know if, despite being [...]
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 [...]
FROM this blog on September 9, 2015 ) According to Michael Jan, MD, and his collaborators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden those of us who are experiencing high levels of stress need to be cautious. Their findings boil down to the fact that our stress could allow our prostate cancer to kill us. [...]
In an analysis of outcomes reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, men who were diagnosed with lymph node-positive prostate cancer (no bone involvement) who went on to receive targeted radiation (adjuvant radiotherapy) enjoyed a survival benefit over those individuals who did not have this therapy. This finding was specifically for men with both low-volume [...]
Despite its approval five years ago sipuleucel-T (Provenge) remains one of the most controversial treatments available for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC). Provenge has its advocates (Full Disclosure- I am) and it has many detractors. The detractors argue that it doesn’t work and they hang their hat on the argument that it [...]
Immunotherapy has a major and expanding role in the treatment of cancer, including advanced prostate cancer. Over time there have been a number of naysayers as the immunotherapy Provenge has played the role whipping boy by critics. The common criticism leveled at Provenge can be summed up simply, “It doesn’t work.” The plain truth is [...]
It has always been assumed that Ketoconazole, when used for the treatment of men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), would not be as potent as abiraterone (Zytiga), but there has never been any head to head comparison to demonstrate this assumption! Ketoconazole is a less potent inhibitor of the CYP-17 enzyme, the mode [...]
