Prostate Cancer

NEW YORK-The final report of a phase II study suggests that the early addition of 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin, Acutane) to hormone therapy may enhance PSA responses in advanced androgen-dependent prostate cancer. Anna C. Ferrari, MD, of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, presented the results at the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium XIX (abstract 58).

Docetaxel (Taxotere)-based regimens can be included among the most effective treatment options for the management of patients with advanced, androgen-independent prostate cancer. Results with docetaxel as a single agent and in combination regimens with estramustine (Emcyt) have consistently achieved a palliative response, reduced serum PSA levels by 50% or more, and produced objective responses in patients with measurable disease. In addition, encouraging survival data have been demonstrated in several phase II trials.

Men underestimate their chance of developing prostate cancer even when they are considered "at risk" for the disease, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. The findings were

BALTIMORE-A single injection of FK506 (Prograf) or a similar immunophilin drug at the time of surgery might prevent impotence in men undergoing nerve-sparing prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer, according to preclinical work reported in Nature Medicine (7:1073-1074, 2001) by Sena F. Sezen, PhD, and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

WASHINGTON-Twice as many black as white men prefer not to know that they have prostate cancer, and two thirds believe that it is a "death sentence" with a treatment "worse than the disease," according to a study reported by Allyson Schifano, MPH, CHES, at the 8th Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved, and Cancer.

PALO ALTO, California-Varian Medical Systems has released VariSeed 7.0, the company’s newest treatment planning software for permanent seed implant brachytherapy used in treating prostate cancer. VariSeed 7.0 gives physicians the ability to use real-time images generated during the implant procedure to deliver precise accurate doses, the company said in a news release.

I read with interest the article by Hanks and colleagues-and the reviews that followed-on the evidence for cure in prostate cancer.

The multistep process of carcinogenesis, which can take many years, provides many opportunities for intervention to inhibit disease progression. Effective chemoprevention agents may reduce the risk of cancer by inhibiting the initiation stage of carcinoma through induction of apoptosis or DNA repair in cells harboring mutations, or they may act to prevent promotion of tumor growth. Similarly, chemoprevention may entail blocking cancer progression to an invasive phenotype.

WASHINGTON-Surgeons have historically had a "feeling that black men are at the highest risk" of bad outcomes in prostate cancer, said Christopher R. Porter, MD, professor of urology, Stony Brook Hospital Medical Center, Stony Brook, New York. Their risk of dying from the disease is twice that of white men, and their risk of developing it is 1.7 times higher.

WASHINGTON-Black men historically have some of the world’s worst rates of prostate cancer incidence and mortality, with prognostic features significantly worse than those of white Americans.

BOSTON-Excessive sun exposure is a known risk factor for the development of skin cancer, but sun exposure appears to have a protective effect against a variety of other cancers, according to speakers at a symposium on sunlight at the 168th National Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

STANFORD, Calif-Attempts to reduce prostate cancer mortality by ordering biopsies at ever-lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels are driving up health care costs and subjecting thousands of men to early prostatectomies they could safely defer for years, according to researchers at Stanford University Medical Center.

ROCKVILLE, Maryland-Members of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) have unanimously recommended that the Food and Drug Administration approve Zometa (zoledronic acid for injection, Novartis) for the treatment of bone metastases in patients with multiple myeloma and breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and other solid tumors.

CHICAGO-Nerve-sparing prostatectomy has become increasingly common as younger men diagnosed with prostate cancer seek to preserve erectile function. Although postoperative radiotherapy has improved control of prostate cancer, few studies have examined its effect on erectile function.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine is a well-known phenomenon among cancer patients, and prostate cancer patients are no exception. The review article by Drs. Das and Kaplan nicely summarizes most of the data available on the use of PC-SPES, selenium, and vitamin E by prostate cancer patients. These three agents are probably the most widely used complementary approaches in prostate cancer, and they are the ones that have been studied most extensively. However, true data on efficacy, careful toxicity analyses, dose-response analysis, or pharmacokinetic analyses of these agents are extremely limited.

Prostate cancer patients commonly use complementary and alternative medications. There has been growing interest in recent years in the role of the herbal medication PC-SPES and the essential nutrients selenium and vitamin E in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer. This article reviews the preclinical and clinical studies of these therapies.

Prostate cancer has been the most common visceral malignancy in American men for the last decade. The estimated lifetime risk of the disease in the United States is 16.6% for white men and 18.1% for African-American men, with a lifetime risk of death of 3.5% and 4.3%, respectively.[1] Recently, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reported that the overall cancer mortality rate decreased between 1990 and 1997, including a reduction of approximately 6% in prostate cancer mortality.[1] Furthermore, Tarone et al reported that the mortality rate for prostate cancer among white men in the United States declined to a level lower than that reported prior to the introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening in 1987.[2]

SAN FRANCISCO-Sildenafil (Viagra) is highly effective in improving erectile function in prostate cancer patients following three-dimensional (3D) conformal external radiotherapy, according to a study presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the

SAN FRANCISCO-Radiotherapy dose escalation is critical to improving survival in some patients with prostate cancer, according to a study presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (abstract 247). In the study, patients were followed for 8 to 12 years after treatment.

CHICAGO-Although radiotherapy has been administered after prostatectomy for decades to improve disease-free survival in men who have pathologic risk factors, its use in high-risk men who have undetectable PSA levels after prostatectomy is controversial

SAN FRANCISCO-Patients with lower PSA values after radiation therapy are more likely to be alive and free from distant metastasis 10 years later than those with higher values, according to study results presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the

SAN DIEGO--Sural nerve grafting is a new procedure that may allow prostate patients undergoing radical prostatectomy to maintain sexual potency. With limited information currently available about the procedure, the ambulatory nurse’s role in educating these patients can be critical in alleviating anxiety and stress, said Mary Schoen, RN, MSN, MPH, a clinical nurse in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Urology Department.

ROCKVILLE, Maryland-The website for the Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) has a whole new look. Stephen Doyle, an experienced graphic artist, has updated and redesigned the site to be a user-friendly tool for patients, clinicians, scientists, and the general public to find information about prostate cancer and related diseases.

NEW ORLEANS-After brachytherapy for prostate cancer, a small proportion of the radioactive seeds migrate into the lungs of more than a third of patients, according to a report from the American College of Surgeons 87th Clinical Congress.

The results of a clinical study demonstrating that exisulind (Aptosyn) slows tumor growth in men with advanced prostate cancer was published in the September 2001 issue of The Journal of Urology. The study is the first to show the significant

SAN FRANCISCO-Whole-field radiotherapy improves progression-free survival in prostate cancer patients who have a 15% or greater risk of lymph node involvement, compared with prostate-only radiotherapy, according to a study presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (plenary 5).

Fenretinide (N-4-hydroxyphenyl-retinamide, or 4-HPR) is a semisynthetic retinoid that was initially developed as a low-dose chemopreventative agent.[1-3] Unlike other naturally occurring retinoids such as all-trans, 13-cis, and 9-cis retinoic acids, fenretinide does not induce systemic catabolism that interferes with the maintenance of effective plasma levels during long-term use. This characteristic, combined with the agent’s low toxicity and its ability to block aspects of carcinogenesis, provided the rationale for the development of fenretinide in lower doses as a chemoprevention agent for breast, prostate, and bladder cancer.

ANAHEIM, California-The outcome of patients with clinically localized prostate cancer can be improved with aggressive treatment, according to two large studies presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting.

A study that evaluated 76 patients, aged 48 to 62 years, who underwent prostate brachytherapy between 1995 and 1999 using either palladium-103 or iodine-125 seed implants, reported that more than 98% achieved 5-year survival.

Clinical applications of image-based radiation therapy for the study of prostate cancer have expanded significantly over the past years. The results of recent studies of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with magnetic