Genitourinary Cancers

Exercise has been shown to reduce recurrence in men with prostate cancer, according to several studies. A new study shows that vigorous exercise for 1 hour 3 times per week upregulates the expression of genes that are unfavorable to cancer, providing a potential explanation for the mechanism by which exercise has anticancer effects.

Worldwide, there are approximately 500,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and in those men prostate cancer is the third most common type of malignancy, surpassed only by cancer of the lung and stomach.¹ Other than nonmelanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed male cancer in the United States.² There is disparity in risk of prostate cancer diagnosis between races. Read More ›

In a randomized phase 2 study of patients with metastatic breast cancer, peripheral neuropathy was less likely to occur in patients receiving eribulin mesylate than with ixabepilone.

“Peripheral neuropathy is a big problem in the treatment of breast cancer. Across the spectrum, patients have it, and we don’t know how to treat it,” said Linda T. Vahdat, MD, Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who presented the study at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

An investigational alpha-pharmaceutical not only prevented skeletal-related events (SREs) in patients with prostate cancer with bone metastases in a phase 3 study presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress, but it also improved overall survival.

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Urothelial (transitional) bladder carcinoma, the most common type of bladder cancer, has mutations in genes that function in chromatin remodeling, affecting the way DNA is packaged, duplicated, and processed during cell division. Gui et al from China examined this issue in a study just published online in Nature Genetics. Common chromatin remodeling genes include UTX, MLL-MLL3, CREBBP-EP300, NCOR1, ARID1A, and CHD6. Read More ›

A recently developed urine test can assist in the early detection of and treatment decisions regarding prostate cancer, a study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology finds.

The test is designed to supplement an elevated PSA screening result. While defining those men at highest risk for clinically significant prostate cancer, the test could also delay or negate the need for a needle biopsy in some patients.

Based on results of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) and the Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) trial, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the Warnings and Precautions sections of the labels for the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5-ARI) drug class. These trials showed that daily use of finaseride and dutasteride reduced overall incidence of prostate cancer (mainly low-grade), but increased the incidence of high-grade prostate cancers.

Clear cell (CC)-renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the predominant histologic type of RCC, is highly dependent on angiogenesis, via the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway.¹ The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway also appears to play a role in VEGF production, as well as directly promote tumor cell growth.

When initial androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) fails to control progression of metastatic prostate cancer, the disease is redefined as castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Studies have shown that using docetaxel and prednisone to treat men with CRPC only modestly extends median overall survival (OS) to ~19 months. Read More ›

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abiraterone acetate (Zytiga, Centocor Ortho Biotech) in combination with prednisone to treat patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have received prior docetaxel-based chemotherapy.

This oral oncolytic targets CYP 17A1, which plays an important role in the production of testosterone. The drug works by decreasing the production of this hormone that would stimulate cancer cells to continue growing.