Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped

[ScienceRocks]

Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped
sfgate ^ | 6/2/12 | Victoria Colliver

Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped

A new drug for advanced prostate cancer patients has proved so effective that researchers stopped the clinical trial early to give all patients a chance to receive the life-extending medication, according to a UCSF-led study released Saturday.

The hormone treatment, Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga, when added to a standard steroid therapy doubled the time it takes for the disease to progress in patients treated with the standard therapy alone, said the lead researcher, Dr. Charles Ryan, associate professor of clinical medicine at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Effective yes but what are the side effects? Or are we not supposed to care about them?

 

[Douger]

Exactly.
ZYTIGA® (abiraterone acetate)

 

[Againsheila]

Effective yes but what are the side effects? Or are we not supposed to care about them?

When the alternative is death, do you really care about the side effects?

 

[waltky]

Whenever Granny puts on her dishwashin' gloves an' tells possum to get ready to cough - he faints dead away...

Skin patches 'tackle prostate cancer'
3 March 2013 - Skin patches which deliver oestrogen into the blood may be a cheaper and safer treatment for prostate cancer than current therapies, a study says.

The main treatment is injections of a chemical to cut levels of testosterone - the driving force of many prostate cancers - but it causes side effects. The Imperial College London study in the Lancet Oncology compared patches and injections in 254 patients. It found patches were safe and should avoid menopause-like side effects.

'Effective treatments'

Using oestrogen to treat prostate cancer is an old treatment. Both oestrogen and testosterone are very similar chemically, so ramping up the levels of oestrogen in the body can reduce the amount of testosterone produced - and slow prostate cancer growth. However, taking oral oestrogen pills caused significant health problems by overdosing the liver. The organ then produced chemicals which caused blood clots, heart attacks and strokes. The preferred treatment is injections of a drug, LHRHa, which reduces the production of both oestrogen and testosterone.

However, this has side effects similar to the menopause in women - resulting in poor bone health and diabetes. Prof Paul Abel, from Imperial College London, said: "We're not claiming this is equivalent to current therapies yet, but it does look like we are getting castration levels of testosterone." However, the researchers need to follow patients for longer. "The next step is to test if the oestrogen patches are as effective at stopping the growth of prostate cancer as the current hormone treatments, we're now testing this in over 600 patients."

Kate Law, from the charity Cancer Research UK which part funded the study, said: "More men than ever are surviving prostate cancer thanks to advances in research, but we still urgently need to find more effective treatments and reduce side effects. "This trial is an important step towards better and kinder treatments that could bring big benefits to men with prostate cancer in the future." Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: "It is unclear as yet if hormone patches could be an effective alternative to hormone injections, but we await with anticipation the results of the further trials planned which could in time offer men hope for the future."

BBC News - Skin patches 'tackle prostate cancer'

 

[waltky]

Most severe prostate cancer gene mutation found...

'Aggressive' prostate cancer gene find
8 April 2013 - Men with prostate cancer and an inherited gene mutation have the worst form of the disease, research reveals.

The BRCA2 gene is linked to hereditary breast cancer, as well as prostate and ovarian cancer. Now scientists say that as well as being more likely to get prostate cancer, men with BRCA2 are also more likely to develop aggressive tumours and have the poorest survival rates. They say these men should be treated quickly to save lives. Around one in every 100 men with prostate cancer will have the BRCA2 mutation. These men might benefit from immediate surgery or radiotherapy, even if their disease is at an early stage and would normally be classified as low risk, according to the latest work in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Diverse disease

Prostate cancer can grow extremely slowly or very quickly, and this is something that is hard to predict early on. Some men may live symptom-free for a lifetime, despite having this cancer. For many, treatment is not immediately necessary. But researchers say men with BRCA2 and prostate cancer should be treated early and aggressively because their tumour is more likely to spread.

Prof Ros Eeles and colleagues at The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found prostate cancers spread more quickly and were more often fatal in men who had inherited a faulty BRCA2 gene than in men without the faulty gene.

They looked at the medical records of prostate cancer patients which included 61 men with BRCA2, 18 men with a similar gene mutation called BRCA1, and 1,940 men with neither mutations. Patients with BRCA2-mutations were significantly less likely to survive their cancer, living an average of 6.5 years after diagnosis compared with 12.9 years for non-carriers. They were also more likely to have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis.

'More deadly type'

 

[Politico]

Effective yes but what are the side effects? Or are we not supposed to care about them?

When the alternative is death, do you really care about the side effects?

There is no alternative. It is still going to kill them. It will just take a little longer.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Everything is controlled by genes. This is why gene therapy is going to be so fucking big by the mid point of this century!

 

[waltky]

Heart disease is the most common cause of death among prostate cancer survivors...

Prostate cancer survivors more likely to die of other diseases
Feb. 10, 2016 - Heart disease is the most common cause of death among prostate cancer survivors, Vanderbilt University researchers said in a new study.

Prostate cancer survivors are most likely to die from something other than cancer, with cardiovascular disease as the most common cause, according to a new study. Androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT, may increase several cardiovascular risk factors that contribute to heart disease and adverse cardiovascular events, researchers at Vanderbilt University report. Cardiovascular disease is already the top killer of men in the United States, which researchers said should make it a bigger concern anyway, regardless of treatment for prostate cancer.

ADT reduces serum testosterone levels, which can slow or stop tumor growth, or cause them to shrink. "No one is simply a prostate or a heart, and the treatments we use to treat one illness or another can dramatically affect the well-being of other parts of a patient," said Dr. Alicia Morgans, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, in a press release. For the study, published in the journal Circulation, researchers lay out a method of evaluating prostate cancer survivors' risk of developing heart disease they call the ABCDE algorithm, which includes: awareness and aspirin, blood pressure monitoring, cholesterol management and cigarette avoidance, diet and diabetes, and exercise.

The researchers note collaboration among specialists treating patients is responsible for educating patients about steps to take to lower the risk, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network is now planning to adopt the algorithm as part of its national cancer survivorship guidelines. "While ADT therapy is of great benefit to many patients with prostate cancer, it may also increase the risk of developing diabetes or having a heart attack or stroke," said Dr. Eric Shinohara, medical director of the Vanderbilt Radiation Oncology Clinic. "By collaborating with urology, medical oncology and the cardio-oncology program, we are better able to determine which patients are most likely to benefit from hormones, and in those who do get hormones, how to better protect their cardiovascular system."

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016...of-other-diseases/8881455133695/?spt=slh&or=1

See also:

Study: Sending fewer men to prison may slow spread of HIV
Feb. 9, 2016 - High rates of incarceration in a community increase people's number of sexual partners and helps the spread of HIV, a study suggests.

Reducing the number of men who go to jail could help to slow the spread of HIV, as well as decrease the number of sexual partners both men and women have, according to a new study. A computer model developed at the University of Michigan showed the negative effects of more men going to prison, as well as suggesting longer sentences make the effect worse.

Researchers said they focused on men because they are incarcerated more often than women. In 2009, 954 out every 100,000 men in the United States went to jail, compared to 68 out of every 100,000 women. "The model shows that simply removing men and returning them to the community frequently can increase the number of sexual partners that both men and women have in the community," Dr. Andrea Knittel, a researchers at the University of California San Francisco who was involved with the study, said in a press release. "It supports the assertion that mass incarceration has complicated and far-reaching unintended consequences, and may have significant public health implications."

For the study, published in the journal of Social Science and Medicine, researchers built a computer model community using 250 simulated people who date and have sexual relationships. The researchers then ran a simulation without incarceration to see how many sexual partners men and women would have, and then ran multiple simulations with incarceration, using rates based on other studies that show their effects on relationships and the community.

Incarceration increased the number of sexual partners for both men and women, partially because of changes in the way formerly incarcerated men are seen by women and the way they see women, and harsher or longer sentences made the effects worse. "Our model showed that high levels of incarceration likely play a role in community-level sexual behavior, and are likely detrimental in terms of sexual risk for HIV and other STDs," Knittel said. "The results suggest that reducing incarceration and creating a more open criminal justice system that supports the maintenance of inmates' relationships to reduce instability of partnerships for men who are incarcerated may have important sexual health and public health implications."

Study: Sending fewer men to prison may slow spread of HIV

 

[waltky]

Get an MRI instead of a biopsy...

Prostate biopsies could be avoidable with MRIs: study
January 20, 2017 • A quarter of men suspected of having prostate cancer could avoid invasive and potentially dangerous biopsies with the help of MRI scans, researchers reported Friday.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could also reduce the number of men over-diagnosed with the disease by five percent, they detailed in a study published in The Lancet. The new approach is potentially a game-changer, experts commenting on the study said. In the case of prostate cancer, "over-diagnosed" includes relatively benign cancers that do not cause any harm during a man's lifetime. "Prostate cancer has aggressive and harmless forms," noted lead author Hashim Ahmed, a surgeon at University College London's faculty of medicine. Typically, men undergo a prostate biopsy if they experience certain symptoms or show high levels of a protein in their blood, as detected by a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. Each year, over a million prostate biopsies are done in Europe alone.

The procedure -- which can cause bleeding, pain and serious infections -- involves using a biopsy needle to draw a tissue sample through a small cut made between the anus and scrotum. The needle goes in "blind," and can thus bypass a cancerous mass. "Our current biopsy test can be inaccurate because the tissue samples are taken at random," Ahmed said in a statement. "It can miss aggressive cancers that are actually there." And if the biopsy does finds cancer cells, it cannot reliably determine whether they are malignant. As a result, some men are given a false diagnosis and prescribed treatments with nasty side effects. Ahmed and his team wanted to find out if a MRI scan could be used as a "triage" test to determine which men with elevated protein counts might safely avoid a biopsy. A multi-parametric MRI (MP-MRI) can provide information about a cancer's size, density, and proximity to the bloodstream.

- Second trial under way -

All of these elements help distinguish between aggressive and benign forms of the disease. In the study, 576 men spread across 11 public hospitals in Britain and suspected of having prostate cancer were given a MP-MRI scan, followed by two types of biopsy. One was the type commonly used to detect cancer, and the other was designed to compare the standard biopsy's accuracy in detecting malignancy against the MRI scans. Forty percent of the men turned out to have had aggressive cancer. The scan correctly diagnosed almost all of them (93 percent), whereas the standard biopsy identified only half. "Our results show that MP-MRI should be used before biopsy" to identify men who have harmless cancers and do not need a biopsy immediately, Ahmed said. This group however should continue to be monitored by their doctors.

Only those whose scan results point to an aggressive cancer should have a biopsy, to confirm. Using the two tests in this fashion "could reduce over-diagnosis of harmless cancers by five percent... and improve the detection of aggressive cancers from 48 to 93 percent," Ahmed concluded. Reaction from other experts was positive. "This has the potential to change clinical practice," said Arnauld Villers, head of the urology department at the Regional University Hospital in Lille, France. "These results represent a solid basis for a new pathway of diagnosis for prostate cancer detection, leading to fewer biopsies." A second clinical trial overseen by Cancer Research UK, currently recruiting volunteers, will seek to validate the study results.

Prostate biopsies could be avoidable with MRIs: study

 

[Old Rocks]

Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped
sfgate ^ | 6/2/12 | Victoria Colliver

Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped

A new drug for advanced prostate cancer patients has proved so effective that researchers stopped the clinical trial early to give all patients a chance to receive the life-extending medication, according to a UCSF-led study released Saturday.

The hormone treatment, Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga, when added to a standard steroid therapy doubled the time it takes for the disease to progress in patients treated with the standard therapy alone, said the lead researcher, Dr. Charles Ryan, associate professor of clinical medicine at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Thank you, Mathew. My father, several uncles on both sides, and a brother have all had prostate cancer. Only one uncle died from it, but it is a problem in my family. Any progress in the treatment has a high possibility of being important to me, personally.

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd always gets his prostate checked when he goes to the doctor...

Prostate cancer: Four in 10 cases diagnosed late, charity says
9 April 2018 - Four in 10 prostate cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed late, a study suggests.

The report by charity Orchid found a "worrying trend" of late diagnosis with 37% of prostate cancer cases diagnosed at stages three and four. The report found one in four cases of prostate cancer was diagnosed in A&E. In February figures showed the number of men dying from prostate cancer had overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK.

With an aging population, the charity has called for urgent action to prevent a "ticking time bomb in terms of prostate cancer provision". Orchid chief executive Rebecca Porta said: "With prostate cancer due to be the most prevalent cancer in the UK within the next 12 years, we are facing a potential crisis in terms of diagnostics, treatment and patient care. Urgent action needs to be taken now."

The report canvassed the opinion of the UK's leading prostate cancer experts and looked at previously published data to get a picture of the prostate cancer care across the UK. The data came from organisations such as NHS England, charities and the National Prostate Cancer Audit. The report says that 42% of prostate cancer patients saw their GP with symptoms twice or more before they were referred, with 6% seen five or more times prior to referral.

Greater awareness

Prof Frank Chinegwundoh, a urological surgeon at Bart's Health NHS Trust said: "25% of prostate cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed at an advanced stage. "This compares to just 8% in the US where there is greater public awareness of prostate cancer and greater screening," he added. He said while there was controversy over the effectiveness of the standard PSA test used to detect the cancer, "it is still vital that patients are diagnosed early to assess if they need treatment or not as advanced prostate cancer is incurable". The report also said there needed to be renewed efforts to develop better testing methods.

Prostate cancer symptoms