Top Prostate Cancer News from Summer 2023

In honor of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, we looked back at some of our most viewed and significant prostate cancer content from the summer of 2023.

AI May Predict Benefit with Hormone Therapy Plus Radiotherapy in Prostate Cancer

Artificial intelligence — commonly referred to as AI — is changing cancer care (and life in general). One recent study published in NEJM Evidence showed that an AI model may be able to predict which patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer would benefit from short-term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

The AI tests images from the patient’s biopsy alongside clinical data to determine if they would be a good candidate for ADT, or if it would be better to forego the treatment.

“Keeping patients from undergoing a treatment that would not provide therapeutic benefit, especially one that could do more harm than good, is everything to a clinician,” Dr. Felix Feng, scientific advisor to ArteraAI and professor of radiation oncology, urology at the University of California San Francisco, said in a release.

Prostate Cancer Treatment ARX517 Granted FDA Fast Track Designation

In July, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a Fast Track designation to the novel drug ARX517, for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Fast Track designations speed up the FDA’s review and development, according to clinical trial data, showing promise in treating a certain patient population. In this instance, the phase 1/2 APEX-01 trial showed that ARX517 led to a 30% or more decrease in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men with metastatic prostate cancer.

3 Reasons Writing Enhances the Cancer Experience

CURE® blogger and prostate cancer survivor, Ron Cooper, explained in a July blog why the suggestion to write was one of the best pieces of advice he has ever received after being diagnosed.

Cooper — who also had a career as a newspaper reporter for 25 years — explained that writing is cathartic, revealing and purposeful for him. “Since my prostate cancer diagnosis in 2014, I have honed my writing about this life-shaping disease,” he said.

Shared Race Between Patients and Oncologists May Increase Trust

A recent study showed that racial concordance — meaning the same race between patient and provider — increased the trust that patients with prostate cancer had for their doctor.

Study author, Dr. Stacy Loeb, discussed these findings with CURE® and explained that in groups that historically have faced racism and discrimination, having a doctor with a similar background could foster trust and thereby promote better cancer outcomes.

“Our study provides new insights into the factors associated with trust in health communications and how we can make them more effective in the future. The findings show the importance of increasing racial diversity in online information about prostate cancer to improve trust and uptake,” Loeb said.

PSMA PET/CT Can Reveal Prostate Cancer in Elderly Patients

Certain elderly patients may be able to forego a biopsy, as PSMA PET/CT scans were shown to be effective in diagnosing prostate cancer, according to research published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

“Due to the risks of biopsy for elderly patients, they are occasionally referred for PSMA PET/CT without a pre-imaging-confirming biopsy. In our study we sought to determine the rate, clinical characteristics and PET-based stage of elderly patients referred for PSMA PET/CT without biopsy and explore whether their biopsy status affected therapeutic approach,” explained study author Dr. Einat Even-Sapir, in a press release.

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