Prostate Cancer

For the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news cycle — especially coverage of health. But as big an issue as COVID is, it's not the only disease we have to worry about. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are still significant causes of disability and death and will continue to be long after the COVID crisis has passed. And for men in particular, there's one more serious illness that we shouldn't overlook: prostate cancer. Every year, nearly 200,000 men are diagnosed with the disease and more than 33,000 will die. While public and private spending on female-specific cancers dwarfs spending on male-specific cancers, one organization, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI — a U.S.-based nonprofit created through the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) has funded a number of important prostate-cancer studies designed to "help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare decisions." Let'...

Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's  Coronavirus Resource Center. Here are the most important stories that Medscape Oncology's editors picked for you to read today: Controversial Prostate Cancer Trial Fully Enrolled Many men with early-stage prostate cancer are currently followed with active surveillance, where they are monitored but not treated.   A new clinical trial, which is controversial because it may represent overtreatment, will examine the immunotherapeutic sipuleucel-T ( Provenge , Dendreon) in men with early-stage prostate cancer. The product is currently approved only for use in metastatic prostate cancer. The trial has fully enrolled about 6 months ahead of schedule, and the principal investigator says it appeals to men who want to do "something" while they are being monitored.   Cancer Screenings Plummet in the Time of COVID-19 Screening tests for cancer and other conditions in the United States have dec...

[embedded content] Alanna K. Rahm, PhD, MS, an assistant professor at Geisinger Genomic Medicine Institute, discusses alternate delivery models for genetic counseling in prostate cancer. Telehealth programs offer another option to provide genetic counseling to patients, says Rahm. Additionally, genetic counseling assistants and non-genetics providers can alleviate some of the burden for genetic counselors who are overextended, explains Rahm. Often, the counseling pre-test can be conducted by a genetic counseling assistant or a non-genetics counselor, and then the genetic counselor will conduct the follow-up with the patient. These alternate delivery models increase access to genetic counseling for patients, explains Rahm. Improved access to genetic counseling ensures that guidelines are followed, and patients are tested. Moreover, increased testing will lead to comprehensive understanding of which men should receive genetic testing, concludes Rahm.

By Will Doss For the first time,   advanced   prostate cancer has been treated based on the genomic makeup of the cancer, delaying progression for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, a deadly and treatment-resistant form of the disease.    Published April 28 in the   New England Journal of Medicine, the clinical trial represents a breakthrough in treating this cancer and for precision medicine more broadly, according to   Northwestern Medicine oncologist   Dr. Maha Hussain,   the Genevieve E.   Teuton   Professor of  Medicine   and   co-lead author   of the study.   “We have indeed entered a new era of personalized and precision medicine for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and I am confident more will be coming,” said Hussain, who is   also deputy director of the  Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University .    In 2020, there...

[embedded content] Sam S. Chang, MD, MBA, professor in the Department of Urology and Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses the importance of quality of life (QOL) in prostate cancer. From a prostate cancer standpoint, physicians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are focused on improving QOL and learning more about patient-reported outcomes, says Chang. There is so much more to be understood with regard to how patients are doing before, during, and after treatment. That information must be taken into account. Physicians have aleady started to do a better job at counseling patients on what outcomes will look like with the different therapies that can be employed for their cancer. Those things make a difference and have been very exciting within the space, concludes Chang.

Prostate Cancer Treatment Market report provides in-depth statistics and analysis available on the market status of the Prostate Cancer Treatment key players and is a valuable method of obtaining guidance and direction for companies and business enterprise insider considering the Prostate Cancer Treatment market. It contains the analysis of drivers, challenges, and restraints impacting the industry. The research report on Prostate Cancer Treatment Market provides comprehensive analysis on market status and development trend, including types, applications, rising technology and region. Prostate Cancer Treatment Market report covers the present and past market scenarios, market development patterns, and is likely to proceed with a continuing development over the forecast period. A number of analysis tools such as SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces analysis have been employed to provide an accurate understanding of this market. Get Sample Copy of this Report @   https://ift.tt/3...

Once the stuff of headlines and clinical buzz, sipuleucel-T ( Provenge , Dendreon) has had a steep decline in its profile as a prostate cancer treatment. But the stage is being set for a possible comeback. To much fanfare in 2010, the drug became the first-ever immunotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, albeit in a protracted and controversial process. In the final data set, it improved overall survival by 4 months compared with placebo. It is an unusual product. Sometimes referred to as a vaccine and usually called by its trade name, Provenge is an autologous active cellular immunotherapy, made individually for each patient. Clinical uptake of the product was slow, and, after launch, it soon faced stiff competition from other new drugs for advanced disease. Ten years after approval, the once-hyped therapy is now seldom mentioned, and, according to the company, has only 8% penetration of the metastatic prostate cancer ma...

Scientists are reporting some promising findings from a large prostate cancer trial, where patients were administered a drug typically used to treat breast cancer. The drug proved more effective than standard hormone treatments at applying the brakes to the disease, with the scientists hopeful it can lead to approval this year of the first gene-targeted drug to tackle prostate cancer. The drug investigated in this study is called Olaparib, and is already licensed for use as a treatment for breast and ovarian cancers. Taken as a pill, the drug works by inhibiting a protein called PARP, which plays an important role in repairing damaged DNA. While boosting the activity of PARP would normally be a desirable outcome, and may open up exciting opportunities when it comes to anti-aging or treating radiation damage, the opposite is true of this protein in cancer cells. Some cancer cells shaped by genetic mutations rely on PARP to maintain healthy DNA and continue to grow, which presents res...

INTRODUCTION Nuclear receptors are important pharmaceutical targets because they are key regulators of many diseases and have druggable ligand-binding sites. Approximately 13% of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs target nuclear receptors ( 1 ). Recently, chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter–transcription factor II (COUP-TFII; NR2F2), an orphan nuclear receptor, has been identified as an important molecular target for disease treatment. COUP-TFII protein is expressed in the mesenchymal compartment during embryonic development and regulates essential genes in organogenesis ( 2 , 3 ) through binding to direct repeats of DNA elements or interacting with other transcription factors and cofactors ( 4 ). As development proceeds, the expression of COUP-TFII is greatly reduced after the completion of organogenesis in adulthood ( 3 , 4 ). However, increasing evidence has shown that COUP-TFII expression is elevated under pathological conditions, resulting in the development of...

Once the stuff of headlines and clinical buzz, sipuleucel-T ( Provenge , Dendreon) has had a steep decline in its profile as a prostate cancer treatment. But the stage is being set for a possible comeback. To much fanfare in 2010, the drug became the first-ever immunotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, albeit in a protracted and controversial process. In the final data set, it improved overall survival by 4 months compared with placebo. It is an unusual product. Sometimes referred to as a vaccine and usually called by its trade name, Provenge is an autologous active cellular immunotherapy, made individually for each patient. Clinical uptake of the product was slow, and, after launch, it soon faced stiff competition from other new drugs for advanced disease. Ten years after approval, the once-hyped therapy is now seldom mentioned, and, according to the company, has only 8% penetration of the metastatic prostate cancer ma...