Test your knowledge on the diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer

Support group leaders and other prostate cancer educators may wish to test their knowledge on the diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer by reading through the set of 29 slides prepared by Kleynberg and Gross and just made available on the Medscape web site.

A real decrease in the use of RP in treatment of men with low-risk prostate cancer?

A new paper from clinical research teams at two French hospitals suggests that there has been a significant relative increase (from 2005 to 2010, at their institutions) in the percentage of men found to have pathological T3 as opposed to pathological T2 disease after radical prostatectomy (RP). … READ MORE …

The current state of focal therapy for localized prostate cancer

Many readers may be interested in two expert interviews on the OncologySTAT web site with Dr. Mark Emberton (a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of The “New “Prostate Cancer InfoLink). … READ MORE …

Long-term outcomes after RP as first-line therapy for men with cT3 disease at time of diagnosis

We have no data from randomized trials on the relative effectiveness of surgery compared to radiation therapy in the treatment of men initially diagnosed with clinical stage T3NxM0 prostate cancer. However, we do now have data from > 800 men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) and followed for up to 23 years at the Mayo Clinic. … READ MORE …

Radical cystectomy as first-line treatment for clinical stage T4NxM0 prostate cancer

Clinical stage T4 prostate cancer is characterized by prostate tumors that have grown through the prostate capsule and into or even through the bladder wall. There is no agreed or “standard” form of first-line treatment for this form of localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Excess deaths among some older men with prostate cancer

A population-based analysis of mortality data for men diagnosed with prostate cancer from three European nations suggests that “a small but important group of older patients” initially present with late stage prostate cancer and die rapidly as a consequence. … READ MORE …

Clinical and pathologic staging of localized prostate cancer: an update

A new review by Epstein, currently available on line in the Journal of Urology, provides a detailed analysis of the clinical significance of various factors in determining prognostic risk for newly diagnosed and recently treated patients with localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Surprise! Being married improves prostate cancer survival

It has been known for years that marital status impacts the likelihood of stage at diagnosis and survival in a number of different types of cancer (prostate cancer included). However, a new study has now confirmed this in a large, US, population-based analysis of prostate cancer patients. … READ MORE …

Prevalence of men with differing stages of prostate cancer in the USA

One of the posters to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology offers an interesting model permitting replicative estimation of the numbers of patients living with different clinical stages of prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

“Reverse stage shift” at major tertiary prostate cancer center since 2000

Exactly how some of the major, tertiary, specialized prostate cancer centers think about the management of prostate cancer over time needs to be taken into account in evaluation of the data being published by those centers. … READ MORE …

Accuracy and relevance of clinical stage in diagnosis and prognosis of localized prostate cancer

According to a new report from the University of California, San Francisco (to be published in Cancer this week), clinical staging errors may — at least in part — underlie the fact that the researchers were unable to demonstrate a clear link between clinical stage and risk for prostate cancer recurrence in patients initially diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Fewer lymph node dissections and fewer positive lymph nodes: does it actually matter?

Surgical removal of samples of the pelvic lymph nodes at the time of radical prostatectomy (RP) — known as pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND)  — is still the most accurate method available to determine the presence or absence of lymph nodes positive for cancer (pN1 disease) in a patient with cancer of the prostate. … READ MORE …

The prognostic implications of perineural invasion at the time of surgery

A recently published Italian study has reported on whether perineural invasion (PNI) has prognostic value in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy for organ-confined prostate cancer, and on its possible correlation with other recognized prognostic factors. … READ MORE …

Age, race, interval between tests, and risk for prostate cancer

Unsurprisingly, the longer a man older than 65 years goes between PSA tests, the greater is the likelihood that he will be diagnosed with clinically significant prostate cancer that has escaped from the prostate (especially if he has never had a PSA test until he became Medicare eligiible). … READ MORE …

The Wednesday prostate cancer news: January 14, 2009

Reports covered in today’s news commentary include:

  • Prostate cancer diagnosis in men of low socioeconiomic status
  • The commercial launch of a new gene expression test
  • Risks for secondary cancers following different types of radiation therapy
  • Adverse effects of brachytherapy with or without hormone ablation
  • Single-port, robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
  • ARQ 501, a preclinical agent for potential treatment of prostate cancer … READ MORE …
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