Eight important updates in prostate cancer

National Prostate Health Month, observed in September, is intended to raise awareness, educate men about risk factors and symptoms, and promote the need for additional research.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a draft statement earlier this year that recommended men aged 55 to 69 years make individualized decisions regarding prostate cancer screening with their clinician.

Men aged older than 70 years should not undergo prostate-specific antigen screening, the task force recommended.

“The recommendations are sensible and will lead to more screening for prostate cancer that will no doubt save lives,” Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, professor and chair of the department of urology at Mount Sinai Health System, said in a press release. “It’s important to take a deliberate, thorough and cautious approach to managing prostate cancer.”

In conjunction with National Prostate Health Month, HemOnc Today presents eight important updates in prostate cancer that may affect your practice.

Metastasis-free survival could be a surrogate endpoint for OS in clinical trials designed to evaluate adjuvant therapy options for patients with localized prostate cancer who are at a higher risk for death. Read more.
Statin use after the diagnosis of prostate cancer appeared linked to reduced mortality. However, the study did not establish whether the association was causal. Read more.
Oncologists and urologists who received payments from the pharmaceutical industry did not write a larger number of prescriptions for major prostate cancer drugs than those who did not receive payments. Read more.
A circulating tumor DNA assay sufficiently identified driver DNA alterations in metastatic tissue in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. Read more.
A small group of men with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer who carried BRCA2 mutations responded favorably to platinum-based chemotherapy normally used in the treatment of breast and ovarian cancers. Read more.
Men with localized prostate cancer diagnosed with subsequent metastases experienced substantial cost increases for diagnostic, therapeutic and supportive care services during treatment. Read more.
The FDA accepted a new drug application for abiraterone acetate (Yonsa, Churchill Pharmaceuticals) — a CYP17 inhibitor — designed to treat patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Read more.
Radical prostatectomies for localized prostate cancer did not significantly reduce all-cause or prostate cancer-specific mortality compared with observation over 20 years of follow-up. Read more.