MINNEAPOLIS —Because very long-term mortality in men with early prostate cancer treated with surgery over observation is uncertain, a VA study sought to determine long-term effects of surgery vs. observation on all-cause mortality for men with early prostate cancer....
Older Men With Prostate Cancer Likely to Die of Other Causes
LOS ANGELES —Men with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy don’t always receive enough information on competing risks of mortality to inform prognosis and guide treatment, according to a new study. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center-led researchers sought to...
VA Care Erases Prostate Cancer Racial Differences
LA JOLLA, CA —Unlike in the general U.S. population, African American men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the VA health system do not appear to present with more advanced disease or experience worse outcomes compared with non-Hispanic white men. That’s according to...
Prostate Cancer Survival Unimproved with Androgen Blockade Addition
SAN DIEGO—While the addition of androgen deprivation therapy to radiation therapy improves survival in patients with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer, it remained unknown whether combined androgen blockade with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and a...
Study Looks at Trichomonas Vaginalis Infection, Cancer Link
LOUIS—The protist Trichomonas vaginalis causes a common, sexually transmitted infection, some research has raised the possibility that it might contribute to the development of chronic prostate conditions, including benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. A...
Post-Surgical Prostate Cancer Surveillance Not Guideline-Concordant
ANN ARBOR, MI—Does guideline concordance with annual postoperative prostate-specific antigen surveillance increase when PSA values exceed 4 ng/mL, even though that represents a screening threshold that is not relevant after surgery? That was the question raised in an...
VA Implements National Structure for Prostate Cancer Precision Medicine Initiative
WASHINGTON — The VA has adopted aggressive goals and a new national structure to bring precision medicine to the 15,000 veterans diagnosed each year with prostate cancer.
Better Imaging and Testing at VA Improves Risk Classification in Prostate Cancer
NEW YORK — National guidelines recommend conservative management for men with low-risk prostate cancer, but concern about misclassification and other issues could lead patients and physicians to pursue treatment. Recent in diagnosis and monitoring at the VA could simplify the decision for veterans.
VA Clinical Trials Play Vital Role in Development of New Prostate Cancer Drugs
SEATTLE — The treatment options for prostate cancer are rapidly evolving, in no small part as a result of the VA’s expanded commitment to clinical trials and precision medicine.
VA Leads Nation in Quality Assessment of Radiation Oncology for Prostate Cancer
RICHMOND, VA — A study on the VA’s pioneering use of quality metrics in radiation oncology for prostate cancer went into this month’s 2019 American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago preselected as a “Best of ASTRO” presentation that will be presented around the world as a highlight of this year’s advances in radiation oncology.
HIV Patients Had Lower PC Incidence in VA Study
NEW YORK—Non-AIDS defining cancers are increasingly important contributors to health outcomes for aging persons with HIV (PWH), according to a recent conference presentation. The presentation also pointed out that, although prostate cancer is prevalent in aging men,...
Post-Prostatectomy ART Beneficial for Prostate Cancer Patients
BOSTON—After prostatectomy, options for prostate cancer with adverse pathological features such as pT3 and/or positive margins can be managed with adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) or surveillance followed by early-salvage radiotherapy (ESRT) for biochemical recurrence. The...
4Kscore Predictive for African-American Veterans With Prostate Cancer
MIAMI—While the 4Kscore test has been shown to accurately detects aggressive prostate cancer and reduces unnecessary biopsies overall, its performance in African-American (AA) men remained unclear. To remedy that, a study led by researchers from the Miami VAMC and the...
Gene Assay Can Help Determine Active Surveillance Usefulness
BEDFORD, MA—Active surveillance (AS) has been widely implemented at the VA as a standard of care for low-risk prostate cancer (PCa). A study in the American Journal of Managed Care posits, however, that patient characteristics such as age, race and Agent Orange (AO)...