Olaparib in treatment of men with mCRPC and selected HRR gene mutations

According to a media release issued by AstraZeneca and Merck on Friday evening, olaparib (Lynparza) has shown “a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in … overall survival (OS)” in men with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and BRCA1/2 or ATM gene mutations (homologous repair gene mutations or HRRm). … READ MORE …

Data from the PROfound trial reported at ESMO

From a report presented by Hussain yesterday at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) we gained detailed insight into the results of the PROfound trial of olaparib (Lynparza), which had been said to be positive last August. … READ MORE …

Is PTEN loss a risk factor for progression of men on active surveillance?

A newly published paper in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases has explored the above question based on data from the Johns Hopkins active surveillance (AS) cohort of men with initially low- or very low-risk prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

PSA velocity no better than latest PSA value in screening men carrying BRCA1/2 genes

Data from the ongoing, prospective IMPACT study has shown that PSA velocity is not predictive of risk for a positive prostate cancer biopsy result in men who are carriers of the BRCA2 gene. … READ MORE …

A possible future test to differentiate between risk for aggressive and indolent forms of prostate cancer

A new paper by an  international group of researchers from several different centers has maybe identified a new way to differentiate accurately between indolent and aggressive forms of prostate cancer at time of initial diagnosis. … READ MORE …

FDA approves CAR T-cell therapy for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Within the past few hours, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the very first form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for the treatment of cancer — and this is also the first true form of gene therapy to be made available here in the US. … READ MORE …

Height IS a risk factor for higher-risk prostate cancer

A newly published and very detailed paper based on data from the PRACTICAL consortium now seems to have confirmed that taller men are at greater risk for high-risk prostate cancer than shorter ones (like your sitemaster). … READ MORE …

New test for abiraterone- and enzalutamide-resistant forms of prostate cancer

A group at The Institute for Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital in the UK — along with other European colleagues — has come up with a new, relatively low-cost test that seems to be able to identify men with advanced forms of prostate cancer who are more or less likely to respond well to treatment with drugs like abirateone acetate and enzalutamide. … READ MORE …

Mutation to inherited HSD3B1 gene associated with more aggressive form of prostate cancer

According to an article to appear in the September issue of The Lancet Oncology, some patients with aggressive prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. … READ MORE …

Prevalence of DNA-repair germline mutations in men with metastatic prostate cancer

A new study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine reports that DNA-repair germline mutations were found in nearly 12 percent of patients who had metastatic prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Can TMPRSS2-ERG gene expression predict low response to taxane therapy?

Drugs like docetaxel and cabazitaxel (taxanes) are among the most active forms of treatment in the management of men with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), but they don’t work for everyone. … READ MORE …

Is the Decipher test really as useful as it’s manufacturer seems to claim?

A newly published article in the journal PLoS One questions whether the Decipher® test (a 22-gene expression assay test) has actual clinical utility in helping physicians to make good decisions about the follow-up treatment of men with prostate cancer after an initial radical prostatectomy. … READ MORE …

Radiotherapy + “suicide gene” therapy in treatment of localized prostate cancer

A report in the Journal of Radiation Oncology is making big claims for the effectiveness of a combination of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) along with “suicide gene” therapy as first-line treatment for localized prostate cancer … but there are some real questions that need real answers. … READ MORE …

A potential future for prostate cancer risk assessment

A recent article in the International Journal of Cancer lays out a possible future scenario for prostate cancer risk assessment that takes specific account of familial and hereditary risks for clinically significant prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Master gene reprogramming and the development of prostate cancer

According to an hypothesis just published by a group of researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, they have identified “a new epigenetic program occurring as you transition from normal to tumor cells” in the development of prostate cancer. … READ MORE …