Cancer Treatment Today

Staging of any cancer requires an assessment of distant metasases. At the same time, for most cancer types, groups that have too low of a chance of having metastatic diseae can be defined, and generally these groups can be spared the cost and discomfort of imaging to look for them. The American Urological Association (AUA) and the European Association of Urology (EAU)  and NCCN provide guideliens that have a bearing on this question in prostate

Enzalutamide (Xtandi, MDV3100) is an androgen receptor antagonist drug reported to cause an up to an 89% decrease in PSA levels after a month of use. It is more potent than Casodex. Enzalutamide has approximately fivefold higher binding affinity for the androgen receptor (AR). It also does not promote translocation of AR to the nucleus and it prevents binding of AR to DNA and AR to coactivator proteins. In August of 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

IMRT is a rapidly evolving technique, which affords a more precise radiation dose delivery of escalated doses, in appropriate cases, to targeted tumors, while sparing nearby healthy tissue structures.  The FDA clearance of numerous devices for the technical delivery of IMRT is based on the capability of this technology to incorporate accurate dose calculation algorithms, associated with a verifiable dose distribution, as managed by the treating

The Xeloda and Taxotere regimen is supported by several phase II studies and is also in a clinical study, NCT00258284: Capecitabine and Docetaxel in Treating Patients With Metastatic Prostate Cancer. This study is ongoing, but not recruiting participants. The available studies in metastatic or neaodjuvant setting show some responses but the most recent study of 2008 was dissapointing. "A total of 15 patients were treated, of whom 6 (40%) experienced

Erectile dysfunction is common among patients treated for prostate cancer. It is greatest among those treated with prostatectomy; More than half of men who undergo radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer experience erectile dysfunction. It also occurrs among those treated iwth radiation and seed implants. More than 80% of prostate cancer patients develop erectile dysfunction (ED) as a result of treatment, regardless of whether they have surgery

Charged-particle beams consisting of protons or helium ions are a type of particulate radiation therapy that contrast with conventional electromagnetic (i.e., photon) radiation therapy due to the unique properties of minimal scatter as the particulate beams pass through the tissue, and deposition of the ionizing energy at a precise depth (i.e., the Bragg Peak). Thus radiation exposure to surrounding normal tissues is minimized. The theoretical advantages

Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor is a pleiotropic cytokine capable of inducing systemic immune responses against experimental and human tumors. GM-CSF stimulates the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors to monocytes and neutrophils, and reduces the risk for febrile neutropenia in cancer patients. GM-CSF also has been shown to induce the differentiation of myeloid dendritic cells (DCs) that promote the development of T-helper

Little evidence exists on the safety of TRT initiation after treatment for primary prostate cancer. Agarwal et al. treated 10 hypogonadal men, treated for organ-confined prostate cancer, with TRT for a median of 18 months. They reported no PSA recurrence in all men with associated significant symptomatic improvement in quality of life indices. However, there are no documented large and long-term studies proving that the risk of recurrence is not

Risk assessment can be useful to clinicians because it allows assessment of risk versus benefit of partcular treatments. Risk assessment methods currently used for newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients have disadvantages. THey include: D’Amico risk categories, Partin probability tables, University of California, San Francisco-Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment risk score, and Kattan nomograms; all rely heavily on traditional clinical variables

Triptorelin is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist. By causing constant stimulation of the pituitary, it decreases pituitary secretion of gonadotropins luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Like other GnRH agonists, triptorelin may be used in the treatment of hormone-responsive cancers such as prostate cancer. TRELSTAR DEPOT is indicated in the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer. It offers an alternative