Prostate Cancer

Article from GenomeWeb curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the drug pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) for solid tumors based solely on whether they have a high tumor mutational burden—a high number of changes in the DNA of the cancer cells.

Go to full article published by GenomeWeb.

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Curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:

Prostate cancer is the most common potentially lethal cancer diagnosed among American men. The great majority do not die of their disease. But there are many controversies about best handling. To learn more, read this authoritative, detailed presentation from Medscape, published August 2019.

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Excerpt:

“Patients who underwent primary radical prostatectomy followed by radiotherapy for locally or regionally advanced prostate cancer had better survival outcomes than patients treated with radiotherapy plus androgen deprivation therapy, according to findings from a population-based, retrospective study published in Cancer.

” ‘There is a lot of debate about whether to remove the whole prostate and follow-up with radiation therapy or, as a second option, spare the prostate and treat it using radiation therapy plus hormone-blocking therapy,’ Grace Lu-Yao, PhD, associate director of population science at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, said in a press release. ‘Our study suggests that removing the prostate followed by adjuvant radiotherapy is associated with greater OS in men with prostate cancer.’ ”

Go to full article published by Healio on Oct 15, 2018.

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Excerpt:

“Hypofractionated external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for early prostate cancer represents a reasonable alternative to standard treatment protocols involving lower doses of radiation administered over a longer period of time, according to a new clinical guideline.

” ‘Moderately hypofractionated’ EBRT regimens result in similar disease control and side effects as compared with conventional protocols, although the shortened regimens confer a small risk of more short-term gastrointestinal toxicity. Additionally, physicians should counsel patients about the limited data on oncologic outcomes beyond 5 years of follow-up, according to a panel representing the American Society for Radiation Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and American Urological Association.”

Go to full article published by MedPage Today on Oct 11, 2018.

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Excerpt from Healio:

“Treatment-emergent small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer, a particularly deadly subtype of the disease, occurs in nearly one-fifth of all cases of metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer, study data showed.

“Researchers suggested that the subtype should be treated with novel targeted therapies that are currently in the development or testing phase.”

Go to full article published by Healio on July 9, 2018.

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Article from CAP Today curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

Tumor boards are an established method of dealing with problem cancer cases. In precision oncology, they may, even must, be molecular. This is a great example of how a molecular tumor board can provide actionable insights for patients.

Go to full article published by CAP Today.

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Excerpt:

“The targeted radiation therapy Lutetium-177 PSMA-617 produced high response rates among men with prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to results of a single-arm, phase 2 trial scheduled for presentation at Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

“The treatment also appeared well-tolerated among these men, whose disease had progressed after multiple standard therapies.”

Go to full article published by Healio on Feb 14, 2019.

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Excerpt:

“Adding apalutamide to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) does not appear to harm health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), according to new research published in Lancet Oncology.

“Previous research has showed that men in this patient population who received apalutamide had longer metastasis-free survival and a longer time to symptomatic progression compared with those who received placebo. This new study found that adding apalutamide still preserves HRQOL. Specifically, the group mean patient-reported outcome scores over time demonstrated HRQOL was maintained from baseline (initiation of apalutamide), and it was similar over time among men receiving apalutamide versus placebo.”

Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Oct 9, 2018.

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Excerpt from OncLive:

“Treatment with apalutamide (Erleada) was not associated with a significant impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to patient-reported outcome (PRO) data from the phase III SPARTAN trial.

“In the study overall, patients treated with the addition of apalutamide to standard hormone therapy also had an improvement in metastasis-free survival (MFS) and longer time to symptomatic progression compared with those who were treated with placebo.”

Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 17, 2018.

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Excerpt from MedPage Today:

“Adding abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) to enzalutamide (Xtandi) did not improve progression-free survival (PFS) after prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression in men on enzalutamide monotherapy for chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), researchers found.

“In the randomized, double-blind PLATO trial, the median PFS in patients treated with enzalutamide plus abiraterone and prednisone was 5.7 months. By comparison, the PFS was 5.6 months in the control group treated with abiraterone and prednisone plus placebo (hazard ratio [HR] 0.83; P=0.22).”

Go to full article published by MedPage Today on July 28, 2018.

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Article from The ASCO Post curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:

Most prostate cancers don’t hurt the patient. Surgery for high-risk prostate cancer can be beneficial. If the cancer recurs, more treatment could be helpful. This study provides useful information about detection of recurrence.

Go to full article published by The ASCO Post.

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Excerpt from MedPage Today:

“A high proportion of men who entered active surveillance for early prostate cancer had one or more high-risk disease characteristics when they subsequently had radical prostatectomy, a Swedish study showed.

“Medical records showed that 52 of 132 men had at least one adverse pathology feature at radical prostatectomy. All the men initially opted for active surveillance, and the median time from enrollment to surgery was 1.9 years.”

Go to full article published by MedPage Today on Sep 21, 2018.

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Article from Medscape curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

Depression is, for obvious reasons, common in patients with advanced cancer. The old, inexpensive drug ketamine—already approved for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—seems rapidly effective, according to small studies.

Go to full article published by Medscape.

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Article from ASCO Daily News curated by Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs, Lola Rahib, PhD.

In collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Cancer Commons presented new research at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)’s virtual 2020 meeting. The findings show that, by 2040, we will likely see notable changes in which cancer types are most common and which are most deadly, highlighting the influence of cancer screening programs. This research was led by Dr. Rahib at Cancer Commons.

Go to full article published by ASCO Daily News.

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Article from The ASCO Post curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

Go to full article published by The ASCO Post.

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Article from The Philadelphia Inquirer curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

A new Pennsylvania law requires insurance coverage for use of FDA-approved best drugs first, rather than only after failing with a cheaper alternative.

Go to full article published by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Research paper from Nature curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

A massive study of thousands of cancers that explores the genomic basis for cancer is being reported simultaneously in dozens of journals. Nature has published this summary article.

Go to full paper published in Nature.

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Article from GenomeWeb curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some clinical trials have gone virtual.

Go to full article published by GenomeWeb.

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Excerpt from a National Geographic article:

“For now, the sole intervention for vulnerable cancer patients is social distancing and enhanced hygiene practices for their family and health care workers.”

Go to full article published by National Geographic.

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Article from the American Society of Clinical Oncology curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

For now, the only definite preventive measures vulnerable patients with cancer can use for themselves and their families are scrupulous social distancing and enhanced personal hygiene; i.e., wash your hands. For more details, ASCO is an authoritative source:

Go to full article published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.