PET/MRI scanning in pre-surgical staging of high-risk prostate cancer patients

A small, Norwegian, Phase II clinical trial has explored the potential diagnostic value of [18F]fluciclovine PET/MRI scans of the pelvic lymph nodes in staging for patients with high-risk prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Salvage whole pelvic radiation after cancerous pelvic lymph nodes have been found

Is it still worthwhile to attempt salvage radiation therapy (SRT) after positive pelvic lymph nodes (PLN) have been pathologically detected (stage pN1)? … READ MORE …

The “right” ways to treat TxN1M0 disease today

Really sound guidance on “the best” way to treat men who are initially diagnosed with lymph node-positive (TxN1M0) prostate cancer — or are found to have such cancer at the time of first-line surgery — is not as readily available as one might like. … READ MORE …

If you have positive surgical margins post-surgery, you need to …

… know the Gleason score of the tissue at that positive surgical margin as well as and as opposed to just the Gleason score of the primary tumor. It makes a difference to your risk for biochemical recurrence. Your doctors need to know this information too! … READ MORE …

Biochemical recurrence among pT2 patients with a positive surgical margin post-surgery

A new paper by a group of German researchers and clinicians has provided us with expanded insight into risk for biochemical recurrence for men with organ-confined prostate cancer and a positive surgical margin based on their post-surgical pathology report. … READ MORE …

Salvage treatment of recurrent, lymph node-positive prostate cancer in the modern era

The advent of imaging tests like the [11C]choline PET/CT scan and others have made it possible to identify, relatively early, the presence of one or more foci of recurrent prostate cancer after first-line therapy, and often these recurrent foci can be found in patients’ pelvic lymph nodes. … READ MORE …

Which patients with a PSM post-surgery need early adjuvant therapy?

Could more intensive monitoring of PSA levels in the first few months after a radical prostatectomy help to determine which patients who have a positive surgical margin (PSM) need adjuvant radiation therapy and which don’t? … READ MORE …

Accurate identification of positive lymph nodes in men with progressive prostate cancer

One of the hardest things to be able to do, currently, in a man with progressive prostate cancer after first- or second-line therapy, is to determine his risk for lymph node-positive prostate cancer or LNPPC (i.e., one of the earliest  and more common components of metastatic prostate cancer). … READ MORE …

PPC as a key element of clinical stage instead of T stage in localized prostate cancer?

In recent years it has become increasingly widely accepted that clinical stage is of dubious value as a prognostic factor in determining prostate cancer risk, particularly as regards the sub-stages of clinical stage T2 (i.e., T2a, T2b, and T2c) in men with localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …

Adjuvant radiation + ADT after surgery for SV+ prostate cancer

A new study just published in BJU International offers data suggesting the idea that all men found to have positive seminal vesicles (SV+) after radical prostatectomy should receive immediate adjuvant treatment with external beam radiation and  androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). … READ MORE …

Immediate adjuvant therapy for men with positive surgical margins after RP

There are no absolute guidelines as to which patients who have positive surgical margins after a radical prostatectomy (RP) are most appropriate for immediate adjuvant radiation therapy (with or without neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant hormone therapy). … READ MORE …

What’s hot at the AUA annual meeting (Sunday morning)?

So lots of posters and and presentations this morning, but not a lot of actionable information for patients (as far a we could tell). Among the more interesting papers were the following: … READ MORE …

Post-surgical outcomes of men with positive seminal vesicles over time

An interesting research question is whether, given the earlier diagnosis, the reduced risk for positive surgical margins, and the reduced likelihood of positive lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis in the contemporary PSA era, there has been any impact on the long-term outcomes of men with pathologic T3b prostate cancer post-surgery. … READ MORE …

Prostate weight and risk for positive margins at surgery

A new study has clearly shown that men with lighter (and therefore smaller) prostates are at greater risk for positive surgical margins after robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) than men with heavier (and therefore larger) prostates. … READ MORE …

PCA3, PSA, and free PSA in prediction of prostate cancer risk

A new study has suggested that, although the PCA3 test is slightly better than the total PSA test in prediction of risk for a positive biopsy finding, it is not necessarily always better than the free PSA test. … READ MORE …