How does your doctor do prostate biopsies?

So (in our opinion) the time has come — for a whole bunch of reasons — for actual and potential prostate cancer patients to start asking their urologists about whether they are able to carry out transperineal as opposed to transrectal biopsies. … READ MORE …

Major new survey on active surveillance and prostate cancer

In February, a group of researchers initiated a major new survey of patient knowledge about active surveillance as an initial management option for men with lower risk forms of prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Another new urine test for risk of prostate cancer

As we have mentioned previously, data on the use of a variety of methods of urine testing in assessment of risk for clinically significant prostate cancer (and therefore the need for a follow-up biopsy) continues to evolve. … READ MORE …

AS and management of Grade Group 2 prostate cancer

The abstract of a presentation to be given by Egan et al. — from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at Bethesda, MD — at the upcoming, virtual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium has indicated that active surveillance (AS) seems to be a very reasonable option for first-line management for compliant patients initially diagnosed with Grade Group 2 prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Risk for and detection of clinically significant prostate cancer in previously unbiopsied patients

The “best” way to identify clinically significant, localized prostate cancer continues to evolve. But there is still no consensus about what that “best” way might be to do this, let alone any consensus about the detection of “clinically insignificant”, localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

“Dose painting”: simultaneous integrated boost to the dominant intraprostatic lesion

Two technologies have come together to allow for a new kind of radiation treatment known as simultaneous integrated boost (SIB), or, more informally, “dose painting.” … READ MORE …

Urine testing for risk of prostate cancer: a current and future perspective

It is becoming very clear that over the next 5 to 10 years we will develop a whole new spectrum of urine-based tests for the assessment of risk for prostate cancer and whether a specific patient will actually need a biopsy and/or other tests to confirm diagnosis. … READ MORE…

Mediterranean diet, active surveillance, and low-risk prostate cancer: the details

As we advised readers yesterday, a newly published study by Gregg et al. from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has given some clear indications that men diagnosed with lower-risk forms of prostate cancer who are initially managed on active surveillance (AS) can benefit — in terms of time to disease progression — from what is known as the Mediterranean-type diet. … READ MORE …

Mediterranean diet, active surveillance, and low-risk prostate cancer

The abstract of a newly published study on the use of the Mediterranean diet (MD) by men on active surveillance (AS) for management of low-risk, localized prostate cancer states that … READ MORE …

FDA approves first gallium-68 PSMA PET scan imaging agent in US, BUT …

Yesterday the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its approval for the first gallium-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen imaging agent (Ga-67 PSMA-11), for the use in association with positron emission tomography (PET) scanning for the evaluation of men with suspected prostate cancer — and most particularly for those men  with high-risk characteristics suggesting the possibility of metastasis, including men with newly diagnosed or recurrent disease. However, here’s the “but”… READ MORE …

“Doctor, where did my cancer go?”

Some 18 months ago we had written about the possible occurrence of spontaneous remissions in men on active surveillance (AS) for low-risk forms of prostate cancer. We were therefore very interested in a recent article closely related to this topic. … READ MORE..

The epidemiology of prostate cancer (2003-2017)

A recent report in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) may offer one of the best analyses of an increasing risk for diagnosis with and death from advanced forms of prostate cancer over the period from 2003 to 2017 (the last year for which we have accurate data from the SEER database). … READ MORE …

AS for lower-risk forms of prostate cancer needs celebrity endorsement

The following article was written by two of the founders of Active Surveillance Patients International (ASPI) under the title “Al Roker’s forecast: rising PSA and a radical prostatectomy” and distributed largely by e-mail. It is re-posted here with the permission of the authors. … READ MORE …

The PSA test in “screening” for prostate cancer: yesterday, today, and tomorrow

So our good friend Howard Wolinsky has just written up his assessment on the evolution of the use of the PSA test in “screening” for prostate cancer in an article on the MedPage Today web site. … READ MORE …

Breakthrough Device Designation for miR Sentinel™ urine test

According to a media release issued on Tuesday this week by miR Scientific, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Breakthrough Device Designation for the company’s new urine-based test for risk of prostate cancer (the miR Sentinel™ Prostate Test). … READ MORE …