Whenever we take a drug, whether it's in injectable or an oral drug it must be cleared from our bodies otherwise it can become toxic to us. Unfortunately, our ability to clear drugs varies from individual to individual. These different abilities are often related to genetic differences we each have from one another. Doing of [...]
OncLive Peer Exchange has put out a video about the issues that most concern many of us surrounding the use of Provenge (Sipuleucel-T). The video is a 9 minute discussion with Drs. Raoul Concepcion (moderator), Leonard Gomella, Lawrence Karsh, Evan Yu and Mark Scholtz. They examine the concern that so many men with advanced prostate [...]
Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) and Ketoconazole (keto) are both widely used in prostate cancer therapy to treat men with advanced prostate cancer. They both have a common mechanism of action, they both work by inhibiting the enzyme CYP17 that is responsible for androgen biosynthesis (creation). Inhibiting CYP17 lowers testosterone levels, which results in prostate cancer tumor regression. Because [...]
On the advanced prostate cancer online support group there have been some questions raised about how we know when drugs like Zytiga and Xtandi have stopped working. Knowing this as soon as possible is important so that you can quickly move on to the next treatment without giving the prostate cancer time to progress and [...]
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, [...]
The first line of treatment for advanced prostate cancer is Androgen (male hormone) Deprivation Therapy or ADT. Once the PSA progresses (climbs) while still on ADT and with testosterone levels
On August 13, 2013 I wrote an important post about the terrible practice beginning to rear its head called step therapy. Step therapy is the practice of insurance companies requiring less expensive drugs be prescribed prior to more expensive ones despite the comparative efficacy of the drugs and their different mechanisms of action. This practice [...]
Recently men with advanced prostate cancer have found that their insurance companies have been dictating what drugs they can get instead of their doctor making the best decision for them. At Malecare we have seen that when a man with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has finished taking chemotherapy they have been steered by [...]
The treatment of advanced prostate cancer, and in particular castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), has changed greatly over the last 4 years. Treatment options have expanded and now offer multiple treatment possibilities that did not exist 4 years ago. With the addition of all these new options, so comes the addition of significant economic costs, [...]
Since it FDA approval in 2004, docetaxel (a taxane based chemotherapy) has been the standard first-line chemotherapy for men with metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC). Other than the trial of Provenge all the successful phase III trials conducted in mCRPC focused on men experiencing cancer progression after first-line docetaxel chemotherapy. The implication is that improving the [...]
