Prostate Cancer

The optimal management of patients with lymph node-positive prostate cancer remains controversial. The role of pelvic irradiation in patients at high risk for nodal involvement continues to be debated. Studies of prostate

BETHESDA, Md--The Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) has voted not to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration approve Metaret (suramin hexasodium for injection, Parke-Davis) for the treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

The optimal management of patients with lymph node-positive prostate cancer remains controversial. The role of pelvic irradiation in patients at high risk for nodal involvement continues to be debated. Studies of prostate

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with an estimated 200,000 new cases diagnosed in 1998.[1] Compared with white men, African-American men have a 66% higher incidence of prostate cancer and mortality rates twice as high.[1]

The optimal management of patients with lymph node-positive prostate cancer remains controversial. The role of pelvic irradiation in patients at high risk for nodal involvement continues to be debated. Studies of prostate

STRATFORD, Connecticut--Several studies have shown the ability of the percent-free PSA blood test to help differentiate benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) from prostate cancer among men with elevated PSA levels and thus reduce the need for prostate biopsy. Now, two studies in the September issue of Urology have further defined the situations in which percent-free PSA may be used to improve the performance of total PSA level results.

PRINCETON, NJ--Cytogen Corporation is sponsoring a new website on prostate cancer that highlights its diagnostic imaging agent ProstaScint. The agent is used in newly diagnosed patients at high risk for metastases and in postprostatectomy patients with a high suspicion of recurrence or spread.

WILMINGTON, Delaware--Zeneca Pharmaceuticals has received FDA approval to market Zoladex (goserelin acetate implant) for use in combination with the antiandrogen flutamide (Eulexin) prior to and during radiation therapy for the management of early-stage prostate cancer (stages B2-C).

ANN ARBOR, Michigan--Prostate cancer patients are increasingly likely to ask their physicians about alternative (or complementary) therapies, and physicians need to know the evidence, or lack of evidence, supporting their use.

A team of molecular biologists have located a genetic switch in prostate cancer cells that may play a role in triggering a quiescent tumor to erupt into an invasive, deadly cancer.

TORONTO--Preliminary data on patients with rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels after radical prosta-tectomy suggest that ProstaScint scin-tigraphy may offer a way to identify patients most likely to benefit from radiation therapy. ProstaScint (capromab pendetide) is an indium-111-labeled murine monoclonal antibody diagnostic agent that attaches to the prostate-specific membrane antigen.

LOS ANGELES--Early use of combination chemotherapy may have a role in the treatment of poor-prognosis, androgen-dependent prostate cancer, as well as androgen-independent patients, preliminary results from an ongoing study suggest. Evidence of anticancer activity has been seen in several patients treated with the combination of paclitaxel (Taxol), estramustine (Emcyt), and carboplatin (Paraplatin), William Kelly, DO, reported at the ASCO meeting.

ANN ARBOR, Michigan--The addition of androgen ablation to radiation therapy led to significant improvement in the rate of local failure, distant failure, and disease-free survival, but not overall survival, in men with large-volume, low-grade, locally advanced prostate cancer.

In order for the immune system to protect against cancer, it must recognize tumors as "non-self." Markers present on the surface of tumors, known as antigens, allow the immune system to recognize tumors as non-self. However, in order for the

ANN ARBOR, Michigan--The typical candidate for radical prostatectomy does at least as well with three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer, results of a University of Michigan study suggest. Findings in 172 consecutively treated patients showed a 95% actuarial survival 8 years after radiation therapy and an 85% rate of freedom from biochemical failure.

LOS ANGELES--Combined therapy with suramin and hydrocortisone significantly improved palliation over placebo plus hydrocortisone in hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The palliative improvement emerged within 6 weeks, and the difference between the regimens increased to the end of therapy, Eric Small, MD, reported at the ASCO integrated symposium on prostate cancer.

LOS ANGELES--Preliminary results with a gene-therapy approach to recurrent prostate cancer suggest antitumor activity in at least some patients. Three of 18 patients have had decreases in PSA levels of more than 50%. The effects have persisted for 45 to 290 days, including one patient who became biopsy negative for a brief period of time.

QUEBEC CITY--For the first time, a randomized clinical trial of screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been performed and shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer mortality.

NEW ORLEANS-A technique for rallying a prostate cancer patient’s antitumor response helps some patients without harming quality of life, Michael L. Salgaller, PhD, head of the immunothera-peutics division at Northwest Biother-apeutics, Seattle, reported at the 89th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Recent advances in research focused on identifying genetic and other markers that can predict cancer risk were reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Included in the presentations were reports of

A gene discovered by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center may provide a target on prostate cancer cells for antibodies to attack, allowing the antibodies to destroy those cells while ignoring all others.

ASCO--A Canadian study is the first to show that prostate cancer screening, using a PSA of 3.0 ng/mL as the upper limit of normal, could significantly decrease deaths from the disease. Fernand Labrie, MD, in his presentation at the ASCO plenary session, said that 27,000 lives a year could be saved in the United States alone if PSA testing were performed on all men age 50 and older.

NEW ORLEANS--High concentrations of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in the circulation identify the men most at risk of prostate cancer as well as the women at highest risk of premenopausal breast cancer, according to results presented at the 89th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

BOSTON--Transrectal ultrasound is not a reliable method for detecting residual or recurrent tumor in prostate cancer patients after cryosurgical ablation, due to the altered appearance of the gland on ultrasound after freezing, Caryl Salomon, MD, said at the 42nd Annual American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) conference.

I was pleased to read the timely update on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) by Drs. Jürgen Pannek and Alan W. Partin in the September 1997 issue of oncology (pp 1273-1278) and the accompanying review by Dr. Steven J. Jacobsen (pp 1281-