Prostate Cancer News - 28th October 2009 - Bicalutamide, MDV3100, Medivation, Astellas, IORT, electronic brachytherapy, intraoperative radiation therapy, NGEP, GSTP1
General Prostate Cancer and Lifestyle News
We will start this weeks roundup with news from the WSJ that Medivation Inc. has signed a deal with the Japanese firm Astellas Pharma Inc for the development and marketing of their new prostate cancer treatment (provisionally called MDV3100). Under the agreement Medivation received an initial payment of $110 million; will receive milestone payment up to $655 million, and get to keep 50% of all profits on sales in the USA. The MDV3100 drug is currently in phrase 3 trials. The drug is an oral anti-androgen and trials have demonstrated that it is more effective than bicalutamide, and can also combat bicalutamide resistant cancers. The MDV3100 prostate cancer drug acts in three ways: It inhibits testosterones ability to bind to androgen receptors; it interferes with the movement of the said receptors to prostate cancer cell nucleuses; and it inhibits the binding of DNA. Binding.
Reuters reports that XOFT are ready to push forward the use of electronic brachytherapy for use in IORT (intraoperative radiation therapy). The intraoperative radiation therapy is a treatment that is used after removal of a cancerous tumor to deliver a dose of highly focused radiation. Initially the use of electronic brachytherapy for IORT is aimed (and approved) for use in breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and skin cancer. It is possible that one day the technique or a derivative from it may be of use in prostate cancer brachytherapy procedures.
Reuters also reports on a registry that is being set up by RemedyMD in alignment with CER to track “survival, recurrence, side effects, longitudinal quality of life, and cost of various management strategies for localized prostate cancer”. It is hoped that the registry will provide the tools and data infrastructure to enhance the work of both clinicians and researchers who are involved in the prostate cancer fields. RemedyMD are hoping to find further partners so as to expand the dataset and make information readily available for use in research.
Latest Prostate Cancer Research
Research by Cereda et al from the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology at the NIH in the US has identified a new gene, NGEP, that is expressed in the prostate. The work is reported in the CII journal. The prostate specific gene is able to encode a small cytoplasmic protein (known as NGEP-S) or a larger membrane protein (NGEP-L). The group also identified a NGEP binding epitope; this was used to generate t-cell lines. They suggest that NGEP could be a potential target for use in immunotherapy of cancerous prostate cells.
There has been much research into the health benefits of green tea recently especially with regards to both prostate and skin cancers. Pandy and colleagues from the Case Western Reserve University report on how green tea polyphenols are able to re-express gluthathione-S-transferase pi (GSTP1) in prostate cancer cells. These findings are reported in the International Journal of Cancer. In people with prostate cancer epigentic silencing of GSTP1 occurs, so the findings that green tea polyphenols are able to alter both DNA methylation and chromatin modeling thus preventing the epigenetic silencing of GSTP1 in cancerous prostate cells may make compounds found in green tea ideal for the chemoprevention of the condition.
Featured Prostate Cancer Resource Site
(Today we recommend that you read the article on “a closer look at radiation treatment” from the Manitowoc Herald. The small but well written article references Dr. Robert Kohl, who describes the work of a radiation oncologist, and how radiation treatments such as external beam radiation therapy can be used to destroy cancerous cells in the body.
Recommended Reading
Today we recommend that you take a few moments to read through the prostate cancer watchful waiting section of this website. For many people who have been diagnosed with the condition it is expected that the cancer will spread too slowly to make treatment procedures necessary; however it is important that the growth of the prostate cancer is watched very closely to ensure that there is no sudden surge in proliferation that may make treatment necessary.