CRPC with Bone Metastases: From the Editor

29 January 2019

“We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Most recent data from SEER reveal that black men in the US have 1.5 times greater chance of developing prostate cancer than white men, and are 2.2 times more likely to die from the disease¹. 

07 January 2019

There are many features that distinguish prostate cancer from other common solid tumors, but one of the more frustrating for researchers has been the difficulty transplanting human tumors into laboratory mice. For most solid tumors, transplantation across species varies in yield, despite the use of immune-incompetent mice and support of various growth factors; but prostate cancer stands out as being of particularly low yield.

06 November 2018

At the 2018 meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), Matthew Smith, MD, PhD, presented the highly anticipated results of ERA-223, a phase III trial of abiraterone acetate prednisone (AAP) combined with radium-223 or placebo in men with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC)¹. Radium-223 is the alpha-

19 September 2018

As a physician, I probably don’t think about my own health as much as you might guess, but last month I underwent an executive physical (full disclosure: my wife signed me up and my Duke benefits covered it, otherwise I would not be talking about this). Labs, physical, stress test, bone and muscle density testing; nutrition, exercise and stress counseling, the whole gamut.

24 July 2018

Last month we saw the final published data from the PROSPER study¹, and coupled with the earlier published SPARTAN study², we now have two complete and large phase III studies detailing the clinical activity of androgen-receptor inhibitors, enzalutamide and apalutamide in so-called “non-metastatic” castrate-resistant prostate

07 June 2018

For those of us who are responsible for treating men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), we’ve all seen the ravages that this disease bestows on its victims – bone pain, weakness, anorexia/weight loss, anemia and other cytopenias and fatigue, profound fatigue.

Normally, we can see this coming – both in terms of the symptoms progressing through the last year or year and a half of life, as well as the tumor burden. Until recently, it has been hard to quantify these factors.

12 March 2018

How many times has a patient with advanced prostate cancer said to you, “I have bone cancer?” 

In the past, I would smile politely and correct them by saying, “actually what you have is prostate cancer that has spread to your bones.” But, what if they are right? I mean, many of these patients have previously undergone a prostatectomy or radiation therapy, and have no evidence of local disease. Sure, the patient may have an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, but does that alone really make this prostate cancer?