Scientists develop ‘barcode’ blood test for aggressive prostate cancer

Scientists have designed a blood test that reads genetic changes like a barcode ? and can pick out aggressive prostate cancers by their particular pattern of gene activity.

A team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found reading the pattern of genes switched on and off in blood cells could accurately detect which advanced prostate cancers had the worst survival.

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New drugs, new ways to target androgens in prostate cancer therapy

Prostate cancer cells require androgens including testosterone to grow. A recent review in the British Journal of Urology International describes new classes of drugs that target androgens in novel ways, providing alternatives to the traditional methods that frequently carry high side effects.

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Study shows botanical formula fights prostate cancer

A non-toxic, botanical formula controls aggressive human prostate tumors in mice, according to a peer-reviewed study in the The International Journal of Oncology. Researchers at Indiana University, Methodist Research Institute, showed the prostate formula significantly suppresses tumor growth in aggressive, hormone-refractory (androgen-independent) human prostate cancer cells. The study also demonstrated the formula has no toxic side effects, even at high dosages.

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Early clinical data show galeterone safe, effective against prostate cancer

Patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer had limited side effects and in many cases a drop in prostate-specific antigen expression with galeterone (TOK-001), a small-molecule oral drug, according to phase I data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 – April 4.

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Circumcision may help protect against prostate cancer

A new analysis led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that circumcision before a male’s first sexual intercourse may help protect against prostate cancer. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study suggests that circumcision can hinder infection and inflammation that may lead to this malignancy.

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4 new drugs will change prostate cancer care

After a decade and a half of near stagnation, four new drugs could help make advanced prostate cancer a chronic illness instead of a terminal disease, a leading Colorado prostate cancer expert says.

“It’s not just chemotherapy. The drugs have different and innovative methods of action. One is a bone protective agent; another’s a more effective hormone agent; another is radiotherapy; and the final one is the first drug tested for cancer immunotherapy,” says E. David Crawford, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and head of urologic oncology at University of Colorado Hospital.

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New method makes it easier to treat prostate and pancreatic cancer

Laser light in combination with certain drugs – known as photodynamic therapy – can destroy cancer tumours, but is today used mostly to cure skin cancer. The reason that internal tumours are not treated with the method is that the technology does not exist to check that the precise amount of light is administered. However, software developed by researchers in atomic physics at Lund University in Sweden looks like being able to solve the problem.

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New technology to tackle treatment-resistant cancers

Free-flowing cancer cells have been mapped with unprecedented accuracy in the bloodstream of patients with prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer, using a brand new approach, in an attempt to assess and control the disease as it spreads in real time through the body, and solve the problem of predicting response and resistance to therapies.

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Proton therapy effective prostate cancer treatment

Proton therapy, a type of external beam radiation therapy, is a safe and effective treatment for prostate cancer, according to two new studies published in the January issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics (Red Journal), the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) official scientific journal.

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Researchers discover Achilles’ heel in lethal form of prostate cancer

An international team of researchers led by clinicians at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered a genetic Achilles’ heel in an aggressive type of prostate cancer — a vulnerability they say can be attacked by a targeted drug that is already in clinical trials to treat other types of cancers.

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