Treating advanced prostate cancer typically involves surgery — to reduce levels of testosterone, which fuels the growth of tumors — or giving drugs that blockade the androgen receptor (AR), which responds to testosterone by stimulating cancer-growth genes. While these measures can keep the disease at bay initially, resistance almost always occurs as the androgen receptor … Read more
Prostate cancer screening options are available but are not necessarily recommended for all patients. There are positive and negative factors to consider when screening for this cancer, and options should be discussed with a doctor. Who should be screened for prostate cancer? The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that people with prostates … Read more
Drugs that contain radioactive isotopes — forms of chemical elements that emit radiation — are known as radiopharmaceuticals. Radioisotopes have been used to treat cancer as far back as the 1940s, but the field has really taken off just in the past few years as researchers explore their potential in cancer. How are radiopharmaceuticals used … Read more
The management of advanced prostate cancer is rapidly evolving with the application of precision treatments based on genomic testing of tumors’ altered DNA. With recent biomarker-driven drug approvals and increased clinical use of genomic testing, there are a number of opportunities to expand upon this framework. Researchers are calling for increased collaboration and new strategies. … Read more
Throughout our lifetimes, our bodies are constantly repairing or replacing our billions of cells. During this process, mistakes routinely happen, but generally one mishap in the duplication procedure is not an issue. This mistake will simply often cause the cell to die. However, in rare instances, a cumulation of errors can help the cell bypass … Read more
For designers of targeted drugs, the biggest bullseye in prostate cancer has been the androgen receptor — a specialized net on prostate cells that snares androgen molecules to spur the cells’ growth. Drugs that block, or inhibit, the receptor can halt the cancer, but not all patients benefit from them, and nearly all those who … Read more
When he was 67 years old, Barry Polsky said “I do” for the first time in his life when he married his wife, Randi. One year later, the retired high school teacher and lifelong baseball fan was offered one of his dream jobs as a tour guide at Fenway Park. And earlier this year, at … Read more
African Americans have a 60 percent higher incidence of prostate cancer compared to other ethnic groups, and a 150 percent higher risk of dying from it — in part because African Americans tend to have a more aggressive form. They are also more likely to develop prostate cancer at an earlier age and to have … Read more
Medically reviewed by Himisha Beltran, MD Prostate cancer, when diagnosed early, can be a very treatable disease. Even advanced prostate cancer has treatment options. But some advanced, metastatic prostate cancers become resistant to standard therapies by shapeshifting into a different type of cancer, called small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer. These neuroendocrine tumors tend to be … Read more
Cancer is often fueled by hormones, including the male sex hormone testosterone, which spur tumor growth in most forms of prostate cancer. Doctors can defuse this destructive relationship, typically with drugs (or sometimes surgery), but frequently, the tumors adapt or evolve, devising ways to incite cancer growth even in the absence of hormone-driven signals. These … Read more
Carcinoma of the prostate is a type of prostate cancer that occurs when normal prostate cells begin to grow uncontrollably. Carcinomas begin in the epithelial tissue—the thin tissue, like skin, that covers the linings of internal organs. Other cancers typically form in the body’s connective or supportive tissues (sarcomas), blood-forming tissue like bone marrow (leukemia), … Read more
Leigh Ellis, PhD, once seemed destined for a career intercepting passes as a professional rugby player. Now, the Dana-Farber researcher is devising plays to intercept prostate cancer cells before they become metastatic. These tactics could also potentially slow other genitourinary diseases, including kidney cancer. Ellis’ laboratory works to better understand the underlying genetic and epigenetic … Read more
Prostate cancer is a disease that forms in the tissues of the prostate, a male gland just below the bladder which is partly responsible for making the fluid that is part of semen. Prostate cancer forms within cells in the prostate. The disease takes a variable course from patient to patient. Some prostate cancers spread … Read more
Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer forms in the prostate, a gland located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum in males. In the United States, a man has a one in five chance of being diagnosed with this disease in his lifetime. But there are still a lot of … Read more
A recent discovery about prostate cancer suggests potential new targeted therapeutic strategies for this disease.
Long-term studies of men with low-risk prostate cancer have demonstrated that active surveillance is safe and that a majority of patients can successfully forego surgery or radiation for over 10 years.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer both involve enlargement of the prostate, the walnut-sized gland that produces fluid that makes up a portion of semen. The prostate sits below the bladder and surrounds the urethra, the tube that carries urine out of the body. When the prostate increases in size, whether due to BPH, … Read more
In 1947, when Dana-Farber Cancer Institute founder Sidney Farber, MD, set out to find a drug treatment for childhood leukemia, cancer treatment took two forms – surgery to cut out cancerous masses, and radiation therapy to burn them out. Cancers that couldn’t be removed or irradiated – either because of their position in the body, because … Read more
Prostate cancer can be treated by immunotherapy, and it was the first form of cancer for which a vaccine therapy — a treatment that stimulates the immune system to attack a disease — was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Provenge That vaccine, called Provenge, was cleared by the FDA in 2010 to treat … Read more
Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer forms in the tissues of the prostate, a male gland just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. Prostate cancer is rare in men younger than 50 years of age, and the chance of developing prostate cancer increases as men get older. In the United … Read more