Prostate Cancer

Yale Urology Chair Isaac Y. Kim, MD, PhD, MBA, has published his concerns surrounding interpreted results in the landmark ProtecT Study.

The Vanquish device is currently being assessed in the VAPOR 2 trial, which is evaluating the treatment in patients with intermediate risk, localized prostate cancer.

“Increasing the representation of physicians (or actors) who appear concordant with the target audience may be an important tool for more effective health communication strategies to mitigate health disparities," the authors write.

In the second installment of this series, Ryan A. Hankins, MD, and Sean P. Collins, MD, PhD, provide insights on the multidisciplinary approach to treating patients with prostate cancer and discuss the roles of urologists and radiation oncologists.

“The real immediate use case is that this biomarker can be an adjunct, or it can be something to assist in making the shared decision making with patients [with prostate cancer],” says Daniel E. Spratt, MD.

Digging into the logistics of advanced prostate cancer management, keynote speakers consider challenges faced with the electronic systems used to request or order therapy.

Switching their focus to the treatment armamentarium, expert panelists reflect on selection and sequencing of therapy for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

"It could identify about 2/3 of men that normally we'd be recommending hormone therapy would appear to have no benefit from hormone therapy," says Daniel E. Spratt, MD.

Focused discussion on the quality of training and onboarding of physicians who manage advanced prostate cancer within a variety of institutions and settings.

Key opinion leaders in urology share their credentials and highlight the general structure of their institution in regard to prostate cancer management.

“Water vapor therapy shows great promise to provide patients with another option to proactively manage their cancer risk while preserving quality of life,” said Naveen Kella, MD.

ARX517 is currently being studied in the phase 1/2 open-label APEX-01 trial.

In the first article of this series, Juan Montoya, MD, discusses advances in perirectal spacing in the treatment of prostate cancer.

“We are now doing more testing on the RNA side,” says Brittany M. Szymaniak, PhD, CGC.

"The beauty is, now we can deliver a cisplatin-based chemotherapeutic orally, which is usually never done. And by targeting the prostate, we can reduce kidney and liver toxicity and the risk of peripheral neuropathy," says Shanta Dhar, PhD.

The prospective cohort study seeks to enroll 200 patients from the South Florida region and 1800 patients from international sites.

"My predominant role as a genetic counselor is really to serve our patient population and help support our providers," says Brittany M. Szymaniak, PhD, CGC.

"Within the Inflation Reduction Act, there is a provision that will cap the out-of-pocket contribution for Medicare beneficiaries, dropping to $3250 in 2024, as well as $2,000 in 2025," says Brian Cortese.

Experts summarize how the use of PSMA-PET imaging has impacted the field to date and share their hopes for the future.

The panel discusses the possibility of PSMA-PET becoming the standard-of-care imaging modality for prostate cancer, which may obviate the need for conventional imaging and bone scans, and then touches on the increasing availability of PSMA-targeted radiotherapies.

"Our most significant finding may be that patients experience financial toxicity despite their ability to remain compliant with treatment," says Daniel D. Joyce, MD.

“To our knowledge, these results are the first to suggest an association between second-generation [antiandrogens] and cognitive and functional toxic effects based on data from prospective [randomized controlled trials],” the investigators wrote.

Drs Cookson and Sellinger discuss the remaining unmet needs in imaging for patients with prostate cancer.

The panel shares their perspectives on the transition to virtual multidisciplinary tumor boards for patients with prostate cancer after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would say that the take-home message of the study is that these immunosuppressive medications have alterations in the microbiology in a lot of these organs and a lot of these tumors," says Conor Driscoll, MD.