1) The November 16th, 2011 issue of the Newsletter from Zero-The Project to End Prostate Cancer, published an interesting article from the New York Times entitled “A Watch-and-Wait Prostate Cancer Treatment.” The article focused on the PSA screening and subsequent actions that a man over the age of 70 can take to keep his prostate cancer from developing further and becoming problematic. Subjects such as cryosurgery, diet and nutrition, screenings and biopsies are discussed along with helpful advice from noted urologists.
2) The drug, TAK-700 (Ortoronel) and Phase 3 clinical trials have been described in a blog published on this website on June 3rd, 2011. TAK-700 is an oral, non-steroidal, androgen (e.g. testosterone) synthesis inhibitor. It is being developed by the Takeda Oncology Company affiliated with Millennium. They are sponsoring safety and efficacy clinical trials in men with metastatic prostate cancer who have not had previous chemotherapy or who have had chemotherapy more than two years earlier for early-stage prostate cancer (elm pc004) or metastatic cancer who have received chemotherapy (elm pc005). The trials are evaluating the safety and efficacy of TAK-700 when combined with prednisone as compared with prednisone alone. End points of the study are delay in disease progression and increased survival times. For details, see their website at http://elmpctrials.com/eligibilityAssessment.html?
3) The November 16th issue of Johns Hopkins Prostate Disorders Health Alerts (link) discusses the attractive option of using cryotherapy as a salvage procedure following failure of external beam radiation and/or brachytherapy to eradicate all the prostate cancer. Cryotherapy could minimize potential damage to the bladder and/or rectum which could occur if surgery or additional radiation therapy were used. See the full article for details.