Saturday, August 1, 2015

Prostate Cancer News 08-01-2015



Prostate Cancer News 08-01-2015

General Case Management

A Decade of Dramatic Change in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer - Cancer Therapy Advisor
In 2005, the relative 10-year survival rate for prostate cancer was 92% and the relative 15-year survival rate was 61%, according to the American Cancer Society.1
Today, the numbers are significantly higher: the relative 5-year survival rate for all stages of prostate cancer is almost 100%, the relative 10-year survival rate is 99%, and the 15-year relative survival rate is 94%.2
“The greatest advances in the management of prostate cancer in the last decade have come directly from our understanding of the biology of what causes prostate cancer cells to become resistant to treatments we had a decade ago,” said Anthony D'Amico, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, MA.


Urological cancer: Management of patients with prostate cancer: evolution towards a risk-stratified approach : Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology : Nature Publishing Group
Growing evidence exists that patients with localized prostate cancer have substantial differences in their management needs, depending on their individual risks of adverse outcomes. Now, results of an extensive analysis have confirmed that this evidence is beginning to be adopted into clinical practice: an analysis of the Cancer of the…

India relies on PSA and ADT for initial detection and treatment of Prostate Cancer in elderly

Doc suggests prostate cancer test for elderly - The Times of India
This disease takes place in old age, with 75% patients being above 60 years, he said. Early detection can increase longevity of the patient. Because of early detection, survival for five years after detection, which was 76% earlier, has now gone up to 98%. Kolkata-based Dr G S Bhattacharya said if detected early, there is no need for aggressive treatment for prostate cancer. "The first line of treatment in this disease is hormonal manipulation, because it is a hormone-dependent disease, and chemotherapy is reserved for those cases which has become resistant to hormone therapy," Dr Bhattacharya said and added many drugs are available these days which are very effective in prostate cancer. There are many drugs in pipeline and in clinical trial stage, which will revolutionize the management of prostate cancer, provided there is early detection.

What you can do

You can make choices in your life to impact whether you get it, or how well you respond to treatment.
Should You Take a Multivitamin? | Alan Christianson
A large study of 14,641 male physicians were tracked for 14 years to see how the use of multivitamins influenced their risk of prostate cancer. This study included a placebo group who took pills that looked like multivitamins but contained no active nutrients. The men taking real multivitamins were 8 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those taking a placebo.

Foods to prevent prostate cancer | Health - Home

"Eat plants, that's the healthiest thing to do. You don't have to go paleo, but eat plants," Dr. Klein said. Green veggies are great at slowing down the spread of cancer-causing substances. So, men who eat three or more half-cup servings of green veggies a week drop their odds of getting prostate cancer by 41-percent.
The lycopenes found in red fruits such as tomatoes can, according to one study, lower the risk of prostate cancer by 35-percent and advanced prostate cancer by half.
And feast on fish. Omega-3's found in tuna, trout and salmon also slow the growth of prostate cancer cells.
But avoid fat.

Foods That Affect Prostate Cancer Risk | Naija247news
Getting enough vitamins and minerals with a healthy, balanced diet may be one of the keys to warding off prostate cancer.
And using nutrition to your advantage may prove very useful when fighting prostate cancer too. Diet can be a powerful tool, according to Roberta Anding, a registered dietitian, instructor at the Baylor College of Medicine, and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Screening - Diagnosis

Early detection and diagnosis of Prostate Cancer is key to survival. The PSA test has been criticized for too many false alarms, which new tests could reduce.

Initial

PCA3 Test Now Offered at Dr. Samadi's Prostate Cancer Center -- NEW YORK, July 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Dr. David Samadi's Prostate Cancer Center is now offering the PCA3 test for prostate cancer screening.
The PCA3 test is a simple urine sample collected following a digital rectal exam for the determination of the PCA3 score. Specific for prostate cancer, and, unlike the PSA, this test is not affected by prostate enlargement or other non-cancerous prostate conditions. In combination with PSA and DRE results, the PCA3 score provides useful information to help decide if a biopsy is needed, or can be delayed. It's much more specific in giving additional information about the aggressiveness of the cancer if the patient has a positive biopsy.
4K Score Test Now Offered at Dr. Samadi's Prostate Cancer Center — BioPortfolio.com
NEW YORK, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. David Samadi's Prostate Cancer Center is now offering the 4K Score test for prostate cancer screening.
The 4K Score is a blood test measuring 4 different prostate-related proteins that provides a percent risk score of having an aggressive prostate cancer. This new tumor marker is an optimized screening and diagnostic test for prostate cancer that assesses the risk of prostate cancer to further indicate the need for a biopsy.
"The purpose of this new tumor marker test is to reduce unnecessary biopsies. Not every elevated PSA translates to the need for a biopsy. The 4K Score test was specifically developed to address the criticisms of the detection of too many low-grade, indolent prostate cancers. If we can identify the high-risk cancers early on, we can focus on treatment right away," said Dr. David Samadi, Chairman of Urology and Chief of Robotic Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The 4K Score aids in a smarter diagnosis for prostate cancer, which then leads to the right treatment for each patient. The 4K Score tumor marker test also has created a major shift in the field because it improves and helps distinguish between high and low risk cancer through a simpler method versus a biopsy.

Prostate cancer: Men should not take GP's 'no' for an answer - Telegraph
Trained dogs can sniff out prostate cancer - Harvard Prostate Knowledge
One method which proves totally reliable - and is used in many hospitals around the world - but is still not accepted in the UK, is that of 'sniffed' detection by the Medical Detection Dogs.
Research on early detection of prostate cancer is on-going at the charity's unit in Milton Keynes, with the help of volunteers from the Warwick centre of Graham Fulford's Trust. Men attending on the third Thursday of each month are being asked to donate a urine sample to help train the dogs and become part of MDD's second, vitally important Prostate Cancer Study.

Pathology

Instead of a Gleason Score based on cell shape and structure, genomic classification may be more effective.

Prostate cancer: Five types 'found' - BBC News

Five subtypes of prostate cancer identified, paving way for more personalized treatments - The Washington Post
 
Prostate cancer is five different diseases, experts say -- ScienceDaily
Scientists have, for the first time, identified that there are five distinct types of prostate cancer and have found a way to distinguish between them, according to a landmark study.
 
How many “different” types of prostate cancer are there? | THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK

a new article by Ross-Adams et al. in the online journal EBioMedicine may be helpful in this regard (see also this report on the ScienceDaily web site). If you click here, the entire article by Ross-Adams et al. is also freely available. Basically, Ross-Adams et al. argue that prostate cancers can be
classified into five genetically different categories and that this classification system may be helpful to doctors (and presumably their patients too) in deciding on the best course of treatment for each
individual patient, based on the characteristics of each patient’s individual tumor. More specifically, here is what they did and found.

  • They used tissue specimens from 259 men diagnosed with primary prostate cancer in the UK.
  • From those tissue specimens, they isolated 482 different samples of cancerous tissue, benign tissue, and so-called “germline” tissue.
  • By analyzing copy number alterations (CNAs) and methods, they identified genomic loci affecting expression levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) in a quantitative manner and then they were able to stratify the patients into subgroups associated with future clinical effects and
    behaviors of the cancers.
  • They were able to describe five separate patient subgroups with distinct genomic alterations and expression profiles.
  • Using these five subgroups, they were able, consistently, to predict future biochemical relapse after first-line treatment with a high degree of accuracy.
  • They were able to validate their predictions using a different cohort of patients.
  • They confirmed alterations in six genes previously associated with prostate cancer (MAP3K7, MELK, RCBTB2, ELAC2, TPD52, ZBTB4), and identified 94 genes other not previously linked to prostate cancer progression that would not have been detected using either transcript or
    copy number data alone.
  • They confirmed several known molecular changes associated with high-risk prostate cancer (including MYC amplification, and NKX3-1, RB1, and PTEN deletions, as well as over-expression of PCA3 and AMACR, and loss of MSMB in tumor tissue).
  • They showed that use of the subset of 100 genes described above significantly outperforms established clinical predictors of poor prognosis (PSA, Gleason score) and previously published gene signatures (p = 0.0001).
High-Grade Prostate Cancer Linked to Low Testosterone - Renal and Urology News
Low testosterone levels predict an increased likelihood of high-grade prostate cancer (PCa) being found as a result of a prostate biopsy, new findings suggest.

Biopsy

Addressing the need for repeat prostate biopsy: new technology and approaches : Nature Reviews Urology : Nature Publishing Group
No guidelines currently exist that address the need for rebiopsy in patients with a negative diagnosis of prostate cancer on initial biopsy sample analysis. Accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer in these patients is often complicated by continued elevation of serum PSA levels that are suggestive of prostate cancer, resulting in a distinct management challenge. Following negative initial findings of biopsy sample analysis, total serum PSA levels and serum PSA kinetics are ineffective indicators of a need for a repeat biopsy; therefore, patients suspected of having prostate cancer might undergo several unnecessary biopsy procedures. Several alternative strategies exist for identifying men who might be at risk of prostate cancer despite negative findings of biopsy sample analysis. Use of other serum PSA-related measurements enables more sensitive and specific diagnosis and can be combined with knowledge of clinicopathological features to improve outcomes. Other options include the FDA-approved Progensa® test and prostate imaging using MRI. Newer tissue-based assays that measure methylation changes in normal prostate tissue are currently being developed. A cost-effective strategy is proposed in order to address this challenging clinical scenario, and potential directions of future studies in this area are also described.

Genomics

Young-Age Prostate Cancer
Although prostate cancer is a disease of the elderly, its diagnosis is not uncommonly made in men younger than 55 years. Both ethnic, familial and genetic factors play a role in the early onset of prostate cancer, but the biology, particularly of low-grade prostate cancers detected at young age is not well understood. Autopsy studies have shown a high prevalence of Gleason score 6 prostate cancers in men under 55 years, but mortality of prostate cancer at this young age is almost negligible. Recently, a number of susceptibility genes such as BRCA2 and HOXB13 were reported, each with their own specific biological and histopathology features. In this review, we provide an update on the most recent findings in young-age prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer: Intrapatient heterogeneity in prostate cancer : Nature Reviews Urology : Nature Publishing Group
A newly published study used whole-genome sequencing of multiple prostate tumour foci from several patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer to track evolutionary patterns and delineate the marked intrapatient molecular heterogeneity of this disease. Their findings have potential implications for the development of clinical prognostic and predictive biomarkers.

Genetic risk, aggressive prostate cancer, and ethnic/racial differences | THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK
According to a newly published article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, there are new and strong indications that a specific “genomic fingerprint” is associated with elevated risk for diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer in African Americans compared to Caucasians.

The article just published by Yamoah et al., along with a media release issued by Thomas Jefferson University define a subtype of prostate cancer that the research team has defined as “triple negative prostate cancer.” They define such triple negative disease as prostate cancer exhibiting the absence or the expression of only low levels of three genes called ERG, ETS, and SPINK1.
"Cancer driver gene" reduces metastasis in prostate cancer
A gene that is responsible for cancer growth plays a totally unexpected role in prostate cancer. The gene Stat3 is controlled by the immune modulator interleukin 6 and normally supports the growth of cancer cells. The international research team led by Prof. Lukas Kenner from the Medical University of Vienna, the Veterinary University of Vienna, and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institiute for Cancer Research (LBI-CR) discovered a missing link for an essential role of Stat3 and IL-6 signalling in prostate cancer progression. 

Imaging

18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT for the Detection of Prostate Cancer Relapse: A Comparison to 11C-Choline PET/CT
F-fluciclovine provided a statistically significant better performance in terms of lesion detection rate as compared with C-choline.

Treatment

Prostate cancer: treatment options | CPD article | Pharmaceutical Journal
Treatment of early stage prostate cancer and locally advanced disease can involve surveillance, radical treatment or androgen deprivation therapy; however, as the disease progresses, these options change. Although patients may require definitive therapy as their disease progresses, active surveillance is an important treatment option.
Radical prostatectomy or radical radiotherapy are recommended for men with intermediate- and high-risk localised prostate cancer, where there is a prospect of long-term disease control. However, both options are associated with complications, including impaired sexual function.
Androgen deprivation therapy has been the mainstay for advanced prostate cancer management; however, recently there has been a move towards initiating hormonal treatment in younger men with early disease or recurrent disease after definitive treatment. Advanced disease, or metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer, usually occurs 12–18 months after diagnosis and androgen ablation, with a median survival of two to three years. Treatment usually involves chemotherapy with docetaxel, but a number of newer drugs, including cabazitaxel, abiraterone and enzalutamide, are available.

Active Surveillance


Active surveillance in prostate cancer: a critical review.
Tools for better selection of candidates and monitoring of the disease process have evolved since the conception of AS, including new biomarkers like phi, mpMRI and alternate biopsy strategies. AS is a sound strategy for reducing overtreatment of men with low-risk, and potentially selected men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer and shorter life expectancy, without compromising overall and cancer specific survival.

Hormone (ADT)

Dose-dependent effect of androgen deprivation therapy for localized prostate cancer on adverse cardiac events.
Exposure to ADT with GnRH agonists is associated with an increased risk of cardiac events in elderly men with localized PCa and a decent life expectancy. Clinicians should carefully weigh the risks and benefits of ADT in patients with a prolonged life expectancy. Routine screening and lifestyle interventions are warranted in at-risk subpopulations treated with ADT.

Surgery

Prostate cancer: Opting for robotic surgery, Health News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
In recent years, many centers have reported positive outcomes after using robotic surgery to treat aggressive prostate cancer, with cancer recurrence rates that are similar to or lower than those who had open surgery.
In such high-risk patients, removing the pelvic lymph nodes helps to reduce the likelihood of the recurrence of cancer.
For those who find that the cancer has spread outside the prostate capsule or involves the attached seminal vesicles, a short course of radiation may be necessary to completely eradicate the cancer cells in the pelvis.

First Report: Robot-Assisted Total Pelvic Exenteration for Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer.
Pelvic exenteration is used in the treatment of several pelvic cancers, including those of the rectum, uterus, and bladder.
We report the first case of robotic pelvic exenteration for the treatment of symptomatic prostate cancer involving the rectum and bladder.
A six-port transperitoneal robotic approach was used. Bilateral extended lymphadenectomy up to the inferior mesenteric artery was performed.
The rectum and bladder were removed en bloc, and a double-barrel anastomosis was then performed with both ureters being connected to the lower opening of the colostomy. Operative time was 249 minutes, and estimated blood loss was 600 mL.
No intraoperative or postoperative complications were recorded. Biopsy of the rectum and bladder showed prostatic adenocarcinoma with a Gleason score of 9 (5+4), and 1 of 17 nodes was positive for cancer. Postoperative prostate-specific antigen level was 1.24 ng/mL.
The patient is already 19 months after surgery with optimal quality of life.
Thus pelvic exenteration is a feasible alternative for highly symptomatic prostate cancer involving adjacent pelvic organs.

Radiation Therapy

Common side effect of radiation treatment for prostate cancer - Medical News Today
In the study, a collaboration among five institutions, researchers analyzed 1,001 men who received various types of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. While doctors are aware that medium and high doses of radiation to the rectum increase the risk of late rectal bleeding, this the new study found that, the dose being equal, men with shorter rectums were more likely to suffer from rectal bleeding. The probability of bleeding can be predicted using a mathematical formula during treatment planning to minimize the risk.
"By reducing the dose to the edge of the area being irradiated in men with shorter rectums, possibly using better treatment image guidance, we can significantly reduce the risk of late-stage rectal bleeding," said Joseph Deasy, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. "This formula potentially could be put into treatment planning systems that are routinely used."

Scientists discover why some prostate tumours are resistant to radiotherapy
In the latest studies, published in European Urology and the British Journal of Cancer, scientists in The YCR Cancer Research Unit in the Department of Biology at York have shown a direct link between these tiny molecules – known as micro-RNAs - and resistance to radiotherapy.

Clinical Oncology News - Mixed Results for RT Dose Escalation in Prostate Cancer
“Dose escalation to 79.2 Gy for intermediate-risk prostate cancer did not improve the overall or disease-specific survival. However, dose escalation did improve local control, distant metastases–free and biochemical disease–free survival [DFS] rates,” and was associated with less use of salvage therapy, said Jeff M. Michalski, MD, MBA, a radiation oncologist at Washington University’s Siteman Cancer Center, in St. Louis.
Dose-escalated radiation therapy in prostate cancer patients is included in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines and commonly is used in the United States. Five clinical trials, with study populations ranging from 300 to 850 patients, have shown that dose escalation improves biochemical DFS rates, but these studies have failed to identify a benefit in OS. The researchers wondered whether a larger trial would identify a survival benefit, and thus launched the randomized RTOG 0126 trial. The trial analyzed data from roughly 1,500 patients who received three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (CRT) or intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). An equal number of patients received a minimum target volume prescription of either 70.2 Gy in 39 fractions or 79.2 Gy in 44 fractions.

Advanced; Recurrent

When initial treatment fails, and the cancer comes back and spreads, there are still treatments.
Molecular biology of castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Castration-resistant prostate cancer was subjected to a paradigm switch from hormone resistance to androgen deprivation therapy resistance during the last decade.
Indeed, new therapeutics targeting the androgen receptor showed clinical efficacy in patients with progressive disease under castration.
Thus, it is a proof that the AR remains a dominant driver of oncogenesis in earlier-called hormone resistant prostate cancer.
This review summarizes the molecular mechanisms involved in castration-resistant prostate cancer.

New Therapies

Molecule identified that facilitates spread of prostate cancer - Medical News Today
The study is published in the journal Cancer Cell and was completed by researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA.
The results offer a target for the development of a drug that could prevent metastasis in prostate cancer - and possibly other cancers, too.
Karen Knudsen, PhD, director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, says:
"Finding a way to halt or prevent cancer metastasis has proven elusive. We discovered that a molecule called DNA-PKcs could give us a means of knocking out major pathways that control metastasis before it begins."
We think cryotherapy and another recent development, HIFU, have a real role to play.
Unlike radiotherapy, they can be used again if the treatment isn't successful the first time because they don't cause irreversible changes in the surrounding healthy cells. Cryotherapy is especially useful for patients who, like Mr Tallant, aren't suitable for HIFU.
After taking a biopsy and MRI scan to work out where to target the treatment, the patient comes in for day surgery.
With the patient under general anaesthetic, we insert fine needles into the prostate, using the MRI images as guidance. We insert a catheter into the urethra and pass through a warm saline solution to protect the area and stop the cells there freezing.
We then pass compressed argon gases through the needles into the prostate. These cool rapidly to minus 40c and develop into balls of ice on the ends of the needles.
After ten minutes of freezing, we run helium through the needle to warm up and thaw the ice ball. Typically, we run through two freezing and thawing cycles.

Chemo Therapy

Prostate cancer patients being denied low-cost, breakthrough treatment - News - pharmaphorum
Men with advanced prostate cancer are being denied access to a breakthrough treatment for the disease – despite it being low cost, and based on UK research.

The chemotherapy drug docetaxel has been around for decades, but new research shows if used earlier, it can help men with metastatic prostate cancer live much longer – adding 22 months of life on average.

This is a massive increase in overall survival, a huge benefit rarely seen in any clinical trials. But NHS England and other regional bodies across the country are currently ignoring the new evidence – this means thousands of men could be missing out on the breakthrough and many extra months of life.

Prostate cancer breakthrough must wait for publication, says NHS England - News - pharmaphorum
Groundbreaking, low-cost treatment which dramatically extends the lives of prostate cancer patients won't be recommended until after trial results are published in a peer reviewed journal, NHS England has said.

Prostate cancer: Abiraterone in elderly patients with CRPC : Nature Reviews Urology : Nature Publishing Group
Abiraterone acetate seems to be effective and well tolerated in elderly patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to interim findings from the randomized, controlled COU-AA-302 trial.

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