According to a researchers report, a new drug for building bones has been found successful in a test conducted for men who had undergone a hormone therapy used for curing prostate cancer, as a result of which their bones had been weakened.

Amgen Inc. believes that denosumab (Prolia), the drug, which is a monoclonal anti-body, can be marketed for prevention of fractures not only in the men who have prostate cancer but also for the post-menopausal ladies who are undergoing hormone therapy procedure for the treatment of their breast cancer. An advisory panel from the US FDA has been scheduled for a meeting very soon to consider upon the application made by Amegen.

The author of the study, Dr. Matthew R. Smith, the director of genitourinary medical oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital said that 2 million men in America receive the hormone blocking therapy for treating prostate cancer and from one third to around one half of them are potentially using Denosumab.

Denosumab works by blocking the activities of the molecule which causes destruction of the bone cells. Due to the lack of hormones, both men and women lose bones. Patients are given intravenous injection of this drug once in every 6 months.

Smith said that this study is an important one because there has no large scale study for men before which deals in preventing fractures. Over 900 men were enrolled in the study who were already receiving treatment at 156 different medical centers of US and Europe.

It was found that over a period of 2 years, the density of bones increased by 5.6% in men who received denosumab and decreased by 1% in men who were received a placebo. Over 3 years, incidences of fractures of the spine was 1.5% among people who received denosumab while 3.9% in those who received placebo.

Dr. Sundeep Khosla, a medicinal professor in Endocrine Research Unit of Mayo Clinic, wrote a supplementary editorial in which he mentioned that although denosumab is a significant drug and largely effects the condition in both the studies published, it is yet to be decided whether it can be used in prostate cancer therapy or not.

Khosla said that several other drugs are now being in use for preventing bone fractures in men who have received treatment for prostate cancer. Because all other drugs seem to have a similar sort of efficiency, the position of this drug is yet to be decided.

Khosla said that zoledronic acid (Zometa) seems to give tough competition to Denosumab. Zometa is a new member in the family of bone-building bisphosphonate. It is also given intravenously, requiring only one injection in the whole year. But the main difference and point of consideration is that zoledronic acid has to be taken under professional guidance of a physician only while Denosumab can be taken under self-administration.

Cost also seems to be a major issue for use of these drugs. A generic bisphosphonate may be available at as low as only $100 in a year while zoledronic acid comes at the wholesale rate of $1300 per year. Khosla said we still do not know how much Amgen will set the cost for the drug. But whatever will be the price, it will be a great thing for some groups of patients. Khosla also agrees with the statement from Smith that around one third to one half of men who receive hormone blocking therapy will be in these groups.

There are some concerns that denosumab can have some effects over the immune system of the person because the molecule that is blocked by it plays a significant role in a human body’s immune response. A study conducted on the post-menopausal women showed some problems related to the immunity such as increase in eczema incidences. Khosla said that although there have been concerns; they are not significant enough to disapprove the medication, although a surveillance may be needed.

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have conducted recent studies, which reveal how hormone independent late state prostate cancer tumors are able to grow independently without the hormones. When this happens, it means that the prostate cancer has reached the advanced stage and is not able to be cured.

The study was published in the July 2009 issue of the Cell and focuses upon the androgen receptors, the molecules present in the nucleus of prostate gland cells and some other tissues. Androgens, the male sex hormones, get bound with these androgen receptors and ultimately, activate the genes which control the growth of cells.

According to the research, in the prostate cancer that does not need androgens to grow, the androgen receptors get reprogrammed for regulating the group of genes that are involved in a later, different phase of division of cells. This triggers the growth of cells rapidly. It is further shown that modifying the chief component of chromosome lead to this kind of reprogramming.

Qianben Wang, the assistant professor of cellular and molecular biochemistry and one of the researchers in the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center- James Cancer Hospital and the Solove Research Institute said that although some of the prostate cancers in the advanced stage do not need androgen hormones for their tumor growth, but they require the androgen receptors.

The study reveals how androgen receptors are important for development of prostate cancer that has become hormone independent. It studies how these androgens become active and what genes are regulated by them to support the growth of the tumor. After these findings, prostate cancer can be understood in a better way and new therapies can be identified to get rid of this cancer and new treatments can be developed to cure the disease even at an advanced stage.

Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. In the year 2009, more than 192,250 cases of prostate cancer have been expected in US alone and around 27, 360 deaths are anticipated due to the disease.

The study has been conducted by Wang, Dr. Myles Brown, and some colleagues. Brown is working as a professor medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. They used the cell lines of both hormone dependent and independent prostate cancer, data from gene expression and tissues from the human tumors. The study showed that in the hormone-dependent prostate cancer, an earlier phase of the cell cycle is regulated by the androgen receptors. In hormone-independent disease, the receptors receive a reprogramming for selectively regulating the genes that are involved in the division of cells, which is known as the mitotic phase of the cell cycle.

UBE2C, a gene, stood out among the other genes and the increased expression of this gene was in co-relation with the progression to the phase in which the prostate cancer becomes hormone-independent. In addition to that, epigenetic change is a chemical change in the histone protein that is associated with the gene enables the androgen receptors be become bound with the gene and activate it in the hormone-independent cancer.

Finally, it was shown that the over-expression of these genes is essential for the cancer cells responsible for hormone-independent prostate cancer. Wang says that the UBE2C gene also gets over-expressed in others types of cancer including breast, bladder, lung, ovary, esophageal and thyroid. This suggests that the findings revealed from the study can have a much wider application. Funding for the study is supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense.

Prostate cancer is a disease that has engulfed men from all parts of the world. Such a widespread about the disease has led to increase concern whether prostate cancer screening is really helpful. A recent review found that this screening procedure does not provide much evidence on survival benefit.

Prostate cancer screening know as PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen reduced the mortality risk of prostate cancer by barely 20% in the best case scenario, as per the reports of the University of Texas Health Science Center published in July-August issue of the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The life time risk result from the screening is shifted from 3% to 2.4% but it has not come without paying a price. The risk of diagnosis has increased from 6%-9% with no screening to 17% -20% of heavily screened individuals. The researchers have also noted that unresolved issues with PSA threshold argue against the efficiency of the screening.

According to experts, the PSA screening should be conducted only in mutual decision making program between the individuals and their physicians. For the past 20 years, prostate cancer screening is based on the blind faith of early detection rather than being based upon the evidence of decreased mortality rates. Experts also commented that decrease in the costs of healthcare can only be possible if the testing is done on the basis of evidences rather than on the basis of faith or profit based medicinal practice.

It has been estimated that 55% of men who are 50 years or older get a PSA screening every year out of which 75% get tested at least once in their life time. This dramatically affected the incidence rates of prostate cancer; as lifetime risks of diagnoses increased significantly after the introduction of PSA screening in the US in 1980s. According to the statistics, it was 7.3% in 1977 while it has risen to 17% in 2005. Finding more cases in prostate cancer is a poor goal as it gets virtually present in men as they get older. The main aim is to reduce the risks of death due to prostate cancer and its morbidity or other related healthcare expenses.

Since the year 1993 which is only 4-5 years after the screening was introduced, there is a continuous decline in age-adjusted death rate due to prostate cancer which was 39.3 per 100,000 men to 24.6 in 2005. A group of experts said that the decrease cannot be attributed to screening because the disease has a very long natural history. Other things that can explain the decrease in mortality rate can be significant innovations and improvements such as surgery, hormonal therapies and radiation during the same period in which screening proliferated. According to the computer models, 29% to 50% of the prostate cancers detected by screening do not have the possibilities of having clinical significance and therefore were over-diagnosed.

Only around 10% men with localized prostate cancer choose for active surveillance in place of treatment, which come with higher risk of urinal, sexual and bowel related complications. Whether the screening saves lives from prostate cancer or not can only be verified with a well-conducted, well-designed and prospective randomized scientific trial. Some of the trials that have already been published are:

• The Quebec study which found that 16% extra death cases in screening group compare to non-screening group.
• According to a Swedish trial, 47% higher rates of diagnosis and 4% higher risks of deaths due to prostate cancer randomized to screening as compared to those that were not offered the screening procedure.
• Interim analysis of US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening test revealed that there are no significant differences between the two.
• An interim analysis of European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) revealed a ratio of 0.80 in mortality rate that favored screening but near double in incidence.

The ERSPC says that in order to prevent one death due to prostate cancer, 1410 people need to be screened and 48 more prostate cancer cases need to be treated. Thus, a man who undergoes screening has 48 more times risks to be harmed through screening than he can be saved, 9 years after the diagnosis.

A peer-reviewed journal of medicine, published by the American Cancer Society, recently stated that men who drink alcohol heavily have higher risk of developing prostate cancer. It is also found that the use of heavy alcohol may also diminish the effects of finasteride, a drug which is used to reduce prostate cancer risk.

The study has been based on the PCPT (Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial), a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute, which proved that finasteride is effective in enlarging the prostates so that men can urinate freely. Finasteride was believed to reduce risk of prostate cancer by at least 25%.

In the study, the researchers of University of California observed the drinking pattern of more than ten thousand men which included the frequency, type and amount of alcohol the men were taking. It has been found that, men who consumed at least 50 gms of alcohol every day and men who drank heavily (more than 5 times per week) had more risk of developing high grade prostate cancer. High grade cancer is the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. 50 gms of alcohol is equivalent to 3.5 liquor drinks or 4 beers or 4 wine glasses. The study also showed that men who consume beer heavily are at a higher risk as compared to liquor or wine. But this conclusion may be the result of the fact that men drink more beer than any other type of alcohol.

Taking finasteride can lower the risk of low-grade prostate cancer but if one consumed alcohol heavily, then it is believed that alcohol is able to cancel out the effects of finasteride and thus it is not effective on heavy drinkers. Alcohol is known to interfere with the enzymes that are required for the processing of the drug. If you take finasteride for decreasing prostate cancer risk and at the same time, consume alcohol, then you must consult your doctor who will tell you whether you should continue taking the drug or not. This may lead to some difficult adverse effects like no interest in sex and erectile dysfunction.

If you are a regular alcohol drinker, then you should consider to cut back. Although its relation with prostate cancer is still not proven, alcohol is known to be linked with other type of cancers like throat cancer, larynx cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, esophagus cancer and colon cancer. Women are advised by the American Cancer Society to take only one drink in a day while men can take up to 2 drinks per day.

In general terms, a drink means beer (12 ounces) or wine (5 ounces) or 80 proof distilled spirits (1.5 ounces). It would also be better to consult a doctor to know about other life style choices that can be helpful in reducing risk of cancer. These may include maintaining healthy body weight, doing regular exercise, eating healthy diet and taking regular cancer screening.

The results of this study seem to be different from those of other studies and according to the researchers, more studies are required to be conduced to confirm these findings.

Early this month witnessed a major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer when a team of medical professionals operated a British patient with a surgical robot.

Believe it or not, he is indeed the first individual to get his prostate removed by incurring a whopping £2 million on the gadget. The operation was successful and the 48-years old patient known by the name of Jeremy Lineham, was allowed to leave for home the following day.

The keyhole surgery was carried out in one of the reputed hospitals of Europe, London Guy’s Hospital and it is also know that an earlier version of the same robot has been used for some time. Following the success of the operation, Declan Murphy, the consultant urologist remarked, “Jeremy’s operation was a great success and we are impressed with the enhanced performance of the new robot”. The urologist further added that the range of motion and the dexterity of the robot are much more precise than that of human hand and that is the main reason that operation witnessed success in the very first instance.

The robot also enhances the view of the anatomy with its 3D high-definition and what’s even more impressive is that two doctors can simultaneously carry out operations with the dual consoles. This also facilitates the training process, which wasn’t’ so easy in previous times. The urologist further made a claim that they are planning to upgrade the robot in the coming months so that their patients can benefit from the best technology available.

The patient is exhilarated at the success of the operation and also overjoyed over the fact that he could return home within a span of less than 24 hours after such a major life-threatening operation.

According to a study published in British Journal of Cancer, a form of therapy helpful in treating prostate cancer is found to be able to cure men without the need of surgery and with fewer adverse effects. Under this experiment, 172 men suffering from prostate cancer were treated with HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound) under general anesthesia in University College Hospital, London and Princess Grace Hospital, London. HIFU uses the sound waves for killing cancer cells.

The men who took part in the experiment were discharged from the hospital after 5 hours of the treatment on an average. Usually, prostate cancer is either treated through surgery or through radiotherapy, both of which are lengthy procedures. Surgery requires a patient to be admitted in the hospital while radiotherapy requires a patient to come to the hospital every day for about one month for treatment.

Out of the 172 men who were treated with HIFU, 159 were followed up for one year and it was found that 92% of them did not show any recurrence of the disease. Although this is not a comparative statement because people treated with traditional forms of prostate cancer treatment also have same percentage of recurrence among patients. Out of these 159 men who were followed up, less than 1% had incontinence, around 30-40% had impotence but no one had any kind of bowel problems.

If we follow patients who are treated with surgery or radiotherapy, we will find that 5-20% will have incontinence and 50% will have impotence. Radiotherapy may also cause some side effects like diarrhea, bleeding and pain in 5-20% of treated patients. A spokesperson from the division of surgical and interventional science of UCL said that this therapy of treating prostate cancer can be used extensively in future because it has fewer adverse effects. But yet, it is not known if it is more useful and effective than surgery and radiotherapy. Further studies are needed to be carried out, which will involve treatment of larger number of men and following up for a longer period. In this way, they will be able to compare the effectiveness of the treatment in the long run.

HIFU or High Intensity Focused Ultrasound makes use of high frequency waves of sound for heating up small tissues to 80-90 ºC temperature. This therapy can be used to treat the entire prostate or only the cancer affected areas. The chief clinician of Cancer Research UK also said that further studies are needed to be made to prove the effectiveness of HIFU therapy. If it is found that this method causes fewer side effects in the patients as compared to other methods of treatment, then that will be very good news. HIFU does not pass through air and solid bone so it can only treat a limited type of cancer including prostate cancer, primary and secondary liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer.

prostate cancer

A new drug was discovered that proved to be very effective in stimulating the body’s own immune system to fight prostate cancer in cases when the tumor was wide spread beyond the possibility of surgical intervention and became resistant to hormonal treatment or chemotherapy. The new drug is MDX-010, an antibody which builds on the action of the hormone.

In an experimental treatment on two prostate cancer patients where the patient’s tumor have spread beyond the prostate gland, MDX-010 (also know as Ipilimumab drug) was administrated. The experimental therapy used MDX-010 as standardized hormone treatment together with radiation therapy. As a result, the patient’s specific prostate antigen shrank lower enough to be surgically removed. After a few weeks from the treatment the tumor could not be seen with Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

The real surprise came when urologist and surgeon, Dr Kwon and Dr Michael Blute decide to operate their patients. They were shocked to learn that the results were far beyond what they had expected. In a statement, Dr Michael Blute said that he had difficulty trying to locate the cancer because the tumors had shrunk so dramatically. He added that he had never he had never seen anything like this in his whole career. After one and a half year, both patients are cancer free and no longer need any therapy.

In order to find out the efficiency of the treatment, more studies had been conducted. It seems that the immune system can be influenced by blocking a complex set of interactions so that it can provoke a regression of the cancer cells, causing the tumor to shrink significantly, so that surgical intervention became possible. The immune system plays a role in detecting and eliminating altered cells by generating T-cells that destroy foreign objects. Some cancer cells can dial down the strength of the response of the immune system and allow tumor to grow. The mechanism of down regulation of the immune system involves the molecule CTLA-4, which appears on the surface of the T-cells as a normal regulatory mechanism that is supposed to protect the human body from immune system overreaction. MDX-010, also known as Ipilimumab, is a human antibody against human CTL-4, the molecule on T cells that suppresses the immune response.

More studies are made to investigate the potential of MDX-010 in regulating the immune system help suppress tumor growth in other types of cancer. Other research is made to determine the possibility of increasing the effect of the treatments when Ipilimumab is used in combination with other types of chemicals.

According to researchers, it has been recently found that polyphenon E, a polyphenol that is present in green tea, plays a significant role in slowing down the development of prostate cancer. In fact, polyphenon E significantly reduces cancer progression’s bio-markers, which include Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). This has been well-supported by the latest edition of the Cancer Prevention Research. As a result of this new discovery, researchers concluded that polyphenon E is crucial for the treatment as well as prevention of prostate cancer and thus consuming green tea can be very beneficial for the purpose.

Some of the previous studies stated that green tea is related to reduce incidents of prostate cancer and the polyphenols present in it is being regarded as a useful cancer therapy source. But this fact is still inconclusive. In the year 2008, FDA said that because people usually consume green tea in very small quantities, the evidences about benefits of green tea are uncertain. After this statement from the FDA, researchers started conducting a single arm, open label phase II trial for determining the effect of active compounds present in green tea on the serum bio-markers of prostate cancer patients, if consumed in small quantities. The biomarkers involved are prostate specific antigen or PSA, hepatocyte growth factor or HGF and vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF.

During the experiment, 26 prostate cancer patients age between 41 to 68 years underwent radical prostatectomy. The patients were asked to take four capsules of Polyphenon E daily until the date of their surgery arrived. Researchers said that 4 capsules are almost equivalent to 12 cups green tea. As a result, researchers found significant decrease in the levels of serum for all the 3 biomarkers. It was noted that 10 out of 25 patients received more than 25% decrease in their HGF levels and 6 out of 25 patients received more than 25% reduction in their levels of VEGF.

Researcher explained that ECCG which is a major catechin in polyphenon E that present in green tea is able to rapidly block the production of HGF. EGCG is also responsible for blocking VEGF production that plays a crucial role in cancer associated fibro-blasts. It was also found that time on medicines, race and age did not significant effects on changes in the serum bio-markers.

It is stated in some studies that, if taken in high doses, EGCG may even adversely affect the functioning of the liver, but according to this study, all the markers of dysfunction of liver have significantly decreased, especially total protein, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, albumin and aspartate aminotransferase. This proved that the doses used in the study are safe said Dr. Cardelli.

Since the result was obtained with concentrated active ingredients, Dr Cardelli also raised the question whether this can be translated into drinking 12 cup of green daily. Although the data from the study support the role of green in prostate cancer treatment and prevention, the effects of long-term administration, different doses and mixing with other medicines still need to be seen.

According to a recent research carried out by some eminent researchers, doctors may shortly come up with a technique which can diagnoses prostate cancer by measuring chemical compounds rather than the conventional blood test.

In a recent telephonic interview, David Parker of Durham University concluded that the test can produce a fingerprint of citrate - a chemical that falls in the prostate gland with the gradual development of cancer. The designer of the chemical test further explained that, citrate formed in cell metabolism processes act as a biomarker for disease, citrate levels in prostate fluid fall as prostate cancer progresses. Thus it provides reliable method for screening and detecting prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is known to be the second most common diseases that men all across the globe are affected with. It falls second only to lung cancer and devours as many as 254,000 men each year all over the world.

Almost all the cancer specialists advise a blood test to male-folks over 50 years of age. This blood test is called prostate-specific antigen test, and is popularly known as the PSA test. Doctors and specialists believe that early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer is better than at a later stage, as it stands a better chance of controlling the spreading of the disease.

Most of the prostate tumors take time to grow and gradually cause harm. Studies revealed that many prostate cancer patients are even living with the harsh effects caused by aggressive hormone therapies and radiation treatment that may not have killed them.

During the study, David Parker along with his colleagues further concentrated their research on compound citrate, which is known to provide the prostate cells with the required energy.

The citrate level in the prostate varies considerably and depends on a zinc-sensitive enzyme. For men who are diagnosed with cancer, there is a considerable reduction in the levels of zinc that in turn brings about a reduction in the levels of citrate. Again, Leslie Costello from University of Maryland remarked that the technique aids in analyzing the effects of cancer at a very early stage of diagnosis. According to the findings of the researchers in the journal called Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, the new technique needs only a microlitre of fluid and this can be extracted with the help of a needle.

This technique will take some more time to be put into practice as the researchers are still going on with their regular studies and experiments. However, they hold a firm belief that this technique will definitely prove to be of immense benefit in the near future.

Selenium, a trace mineral, forms an essential component of our heart muscle and immune system. It can be found in animal protein, fish, vegetables and Brazilian nuts. It holds fort steadfastly against cancer, thyroid malfunction, infertility and arthritis. A chunk of this is attributable to its anti-oxidant properties. In fact, researchers also suggest that selenium possesses properties that metamorphose cancer genes.

Selenium occurs in the soil in natural form and thus it is easily absorbed by crops and altered into bioavailable variety for human use; barring the East Coast, US boasts of selenium-rich soil. Selenium is most useful to human body in its L-selenomethionine avatar. In contrariety, Selenite is not as easily absorbed by the body.

A 2003 study undertaken in France probed into the size of thyroid gland as compared to the consumption of selenium. Selenium level was found to be inversely proportional to the size of thyroid. A larger thyroid obviously brings home the threat of goiter. The research also concluded that selenium may reduce the risk of both goiter and other thyroid related diseases.

High selenium level in bloodstream, can also palliate the replication of HIV virus and the study came out with a startling revelation that those with low levels selenium were twenty times more likely to pass away with AIDS.

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) conducted a study that suggested a decrease by 50 percent in number of cancer deaths with the help of selenium supplement. The statistics included cancers of the lungs, prostate and colon.

A double blind, placebo-controlled cancer prevention trial, pertaining to random data was published in 1997. The study was undertaken in the University of Arizona. Over 1300 patients with basal cell cancer were provided with 200 mcg of selenium a day between the years 1983 to 1991. It was found that cancer mortality diminished significantly. Selenium group brought fourth a reduction of 28 deaths as compared to control group. Also incidences of cancer were significantly reduced – 77 in selenium group compare to 117 in the control group. There was not a single case of toxicity reported. This brought the researchers to a conclusion that supplementation of selenium could be an effective aid against various forms of cancer including lung, prostate and colon cancer, with skin cancer being an exception.