Statins and the treatment of mCRPC with chemotherapy

A report on the UroToday web site has addressed a presentation given this week at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich, Germany, that is relevant to the potential value of taking a statin while you are being treated for very late stage prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Examining “value” in the management of prostate cancer

Three new articles in the Journal of Oncology Practice take close look at the issue of risk/benefit and “value” in the management of prostate cancer today — and the management of advanced disease in particular. … READ MORE …

Effects of prazosin + radiation therapy on recurrence-free survival

The following was brought to our attention by Arthur as a consequence of a question posed on Ask Arthur by a reader within the past 24 hours. … READ MORE …

Three-year biochemical recurrence after Retzius-sparing RALP

Back in January this year we commented on a technique known as Retzius-sparing radical prostatectomy, which — according to its advocates — is said to facilitate recovery of erectile function post-surgery. … READ MORE …

Low-dose-rate brachytherapy monotherapy at the Mayo Clinic

A clinical research team from the Mayo Clinic (Routman et al.) has reported 10-year oncological results on 974 consecutive low- and intermediate-risk patients treated with low-dose-rate brachytherapy monotherapy (using iodine-125 seeds) from 1998 to 2013. … READ MORE …

Prostate cancer outcomes today vs. outcomes yesteryear

As some of us have long suspected and understood, using data from men treated 20+ years ago as a guide to what would happen if you were treated the same way today is not really a very good idea. … READ MORE …

Salvage radiation dose: decision-making under uncertainty

A large, well-done, confirmed, randomized clinical trial (RCT) is the only evidence that proves that one therapy is better than other. According to current consensus, this is deemed “Level 1a” evidence. But this high level of evidence is seldom available. … READ MORE …

ORP vs. RALP re-visited

A newly published report in The Lancet Oncology has pretty much finally confirmed what many of us have been assuming for a long time now: … READ MORE …

Promising new data on lutetium-177 PSMA radioligand therapy

According to a presentation given last week in San Francisco, lutetium-177 (177Lu) prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) radioligand therapy has significant clinical activity in men with metastatic prostate cancer (as opposed to just in men with very late stages of prostate cancer). … READ MORE …

VTP in the focal therapy of low-risk, localized prostate cancer

We have previously reported data from the 2-year follow-up of the patients participating in the PCM301 trial of vascular targeted phototherapy (VTP) — a form of prostate hemiablation — compared to active surveillance in the treatment of low-risk, localized prostate cancer. New data at 4 years of follow-up have now been published in the Journal of Urology. … READ MORE …

MRI-guided biopsy in the diagnosis of prostate cancer (again)

The results of the so-called PRECISION trial were just published in the New England Journal of Medicine this morning. … READ MORE …

First randomized clinical trial of SBRT reports primary outcome

In the first trial ever to randomly assign patients to extreme hypofractionation, primary radiation therapy delivered in just seven treatments had the same effectiveness and safety as 39 treatments. … READ MORE …

Long-term data on active surveillance from MSKCC

A presentation at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) will provide data on outcomes of men initially managed on active surveillance at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York over the past 17 years. … READ MORE…

The MEAL study — another update: data coming soon

In October last year we had expressed the hope that data from the Men’s Eating and Living (MEAL) study would be presented at a major medical meeting this year. … READ MORE …

Short-term ADT for men on active surveillance?

One paper to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUS) gives results from treatment with a 3-month dose of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for men with low-risk prostate cancer compared to standard active surveillance. … READ MORE …