Prostate Cancer News - 28th September 2009 - Heart Disease, heat shock protein-27 as a predictor for prostate cancer survival, Docetaxel
General Prostate Cancer and Lifestyle News
The Chron reports that the Astra Zeneca drug Zoladex and other hormone blocking prostate cancer drugs may lead to a slight raise in the risk of heart disease. The report is based upon findings by Mieke Van Hemelrijck and colleagues from the Kings college in London. In a presentation in Switzerland, the group reported on a cohort study that involved over 30,000 patients. All of the men were taking hormonal treatments for their cancers. They found that there were an additional 10 deaths due to heart disease for every 1000 patients; an overall 1% increase. The findings also found that patients who were receiving hormonal treatments for their prostate cancer had a 31% greater chance of having heart disease, and a 24% increase in th likelihood of having a non fatal heart attack.
The BBC reports on the findings of a group of researchers from Liverpool university in the UK. They have identified a protein (heat shock protein-27 ) that is able to predict the likelihood of of prostate cancer survival. The study found that people who tested positive for heat shock protein-27 were twice as likely to die as those who did not. They put forward the use of the protein as a way of testing whether a patients prostate cancer is aggressive or not.
A study in Switzerland has correlated prostate cancer survival rates with income levels. The cohort study of over 2,700 prostate cancer suffers registered at the Geneva cancer register was carried out by Elisabetta Rapiti and her colleagues at the university of Geneva, and are discussed by David Sampson of the American Cancer Society in this article. The researchers split the patients into three groups based upon their social-economic backgrounds and found that those from the lower income brackets were much less likely to undergo early cancer screening, which is related to the fact that when they were first diagnosed with the condition that they were more likely to have an advanced form of the condition. This resulted in those from the lower social-economic backgrounds having a two fold increase in likelihood of dying from prostate cancer.
Latest Prostate Cancer Research
Mohammad and colleagues from the Indiana University in the USA report in the journal Anti-cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry about agents that target prostate cancer bone metastasis. Once a cancer has gotten into the bones it is incurable, however, they speculate that bones, with their unique microenvironment may offer new targets for therapeutic interventions. They put forward that these targets may reduce the number of serious skeletal morbidities, but state that much research will need to be carried out into the subject to develop any possible treatments.
Lee and Aragon-Ching from the George Washington University write an article in the December issue of Anti-cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry about prostate cancer being the most common non-cutaneous cancer in the USA. They mention the use of Docetaxel as a treatment, but mention that it is not wholly effective, they go on to review the use of cytotoxic compounds used in combination with taxanes, platinums and microtubule-targeting agents that are currently being researched.
Featured Prostate Cancer Resource Site
This weeks recommended site deals with the subject of brachytherapy and comes from NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). The article covers recommendations for the use of high dose rate brachytherapy combined with external-beam radiotherapy for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. The site has many in depth prostate cancer pdf that can be downloaded.
Recommended Reading
Staying on the subject of brachytherapy, the PCG takes a look at the side effects of brachytherapy treatments (link me). It mentions the common problems such as urinary defects, impotence, and migration of seeds.