Prostate Cancer

Adding apalutamide prior to metastases may benefit men with prostate cancer who are no longer responding to androgen deprivation therapy, according to new phase III study findings.

Docetaxel (Taxotere) appears to help improve overall quality of life and delay time for subsequent therapy in men with both non-metastatic and metastatic prostate cancer, according to a new analysis of STAMPEDE trial results.

"While improving local control seems to be important, especially in those with high-risk features, it’s not clear whether adjuvant EBRT is necessarily better than early salvage EBRT," writes Badar M. Mian, MD.

Comorbidity does not affect prostate cancer-specific mortality, according to authors of a large prospective observational study of men in Sweden, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2017; 35:3566-74).

Body mass index is an independent predictor of metastasis and prostate cancer mortality after radical prostatectomy, according to results from a large, long-term single-institution study.

“Active surveillance continues to gain traction as a management strategy for low-risk prostate cancer in the United States. However, barriers still exist and challenges remain for both the treating urologist and the patient,” writes J. Brantley Thrasher, MD.

Men undergoing active surveillance for prostate cancer experienced levels of anxiety that were moderate, but that decreased over time, according to results of a large, prospective cohort study presented at the 2017 Society of Urologic Oncology annual meeting in Washington.

"The management of prostate cancer always requires caution to safeguard against avoidable risks from both the treatment and the monitoring protocol," writes Badar M. Mian, MD.

The findings “[raise] the specter that patients could potentially receive different treatments depending on the cell-free DNA platform,” authors of a recent research letter write.

A recently published statement provides an evidence-based, consensus-driven framework on the role of genetic testing for determining prostate cancer risk, screening, and management.

Multiparametric MRI, USPSTF’s updated PSA screening recommendation, and the landmark STAMPEDE and LATITUDE trials were among this year’s highlights in the peer-reviewed literature for prostate cancer, according to Leonard G. Gomella, MD; Stacy Loeb, MD, MS; and J. Brantley Thrasher, MD.

Among men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer, biennial biopsies appear to be an acceptable alternative to annual biopsies.

Patients with non-suspicious digital rectal exam findings and total PSA in the 4.0- to 10.0-ng/mL range are far less likely to be biopsied if they’ve undergone Prostate Health Index (phi) testing than if they don’t.

The overall use of active surveillance in men with low-risk prostate cancer is 14.2%, according to an examination of the National Cancer Data Base.

Tissue-based prognostic biomarker assays for prostate cancer are not robust to tumor multifocality and heterogeneity, according to research presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.

We asked several urologists about whether they advocate for PSA screening to primary care physicians in their area. 

Overexpression of a specific pair of genes might provide early warning of prostate cancer patients’ likelihood of progressing to metastatic disease.

There’s a troubling disconnect between low-risk prostate cancer patients’ desire to preserve sexual function and the treatment choices they and their doctors often make.

Other products and services discussed in this round-up include a biosimilar for cancer, an American College of Surgeons manual on quality initiatives, a kidney cancer microsite, and more.

Adherence to current guidelines for genetic testing in men with prostate cancer would miss a sizable proportion of patients with pathogenic germline variants, according to a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.

The level of immune response in prostate cancer may predict a patient’s response to radiation therapy, risk of disease recurrence, and survival outcomes, according to results of a recent analysis of prostate tumors.

Top-line results from a large phase III trial support a potential role for enzalutamide (XTANDI) as treatment for non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Treatment with radiotherapy plus androgen deprivation therapy may improve survival for select patients who are found to have pathologic node-positive prostate cancer at radical prostatectomy

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy was associated with earlier and increased rate of recovery of erectile function when compared to radical retropubic prostatectomy and a slightly higher but acceptable rate of positive surgical margins, according to a study published online in European Urology (Sept. 4, 2017).