Will genetics soon guide drug treatment choices for the treatment of prostate cancer?
Avi Retter, MD, of the National Cancer Institute’s Medical Oncology Clinical Research Unit in Bethesda, Maryland, has been examining the ways in which an individual’s genetically determined metabolic predispositions predict response to drug therapies. Specifically, he and his colleagues are studying the relationship [...]

Continue reading " American Urological Association: Can Genetics Guide Drug Choice in Prostate Cancer? Not Yet "

Many physicians who treat men with prostate cancer routinely order bone scans in an effort to predict the likelihood of bone metastases. According to Gerald Chodak, MD, of the Prostate and Urology Health Center at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, a large number of these scans are unnecessary.

Continue reading " American Urological Association: Are Bone Scans Always Necessary in Early Prostate Cancer? "

Drug-Induced Bone Loss: An Increasing Problem for Men with Prostate Cancer
Because testosterone promotes the proliferation of many types of prostate cancers, suppression of its androgenic effects has become a primary target for prostate cancer drug therapies. Androgen-suppressing drugs, such as the widely used luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists reduce free testosterone, thus eliminating a major [...]

Continue reading " American Urological Association "

Median durations of response in the overall population were 5.7 months in the combination arm and 4.2 months in the monotherapy arm. Compared with patients receiving cetuximab alone, the cetuximab/irinotecan patients experienced a significantly longer median time to disease progression.

Continue reading " Treating Colorectal Cancer: TREATMENT part 3 "

Capecitabine. An alternative strategy to modulating 5-FU-based chemotherapy has been established through the development of oral fluoropyrimidine analogues. Capecit-abine (Xeloda, Roche), a fluoropyrimidine carbamate with antineoplastic activity, is an orally administered systemic prodrug of 5′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine, which is converted in the body to 5-FU.

Continue reading " Treating Colorectal Cancer: TREATMENT part 2 "

Surgery for Colon Cancer
Surgical removal of the involved segment of colon (colec-tomy), along with its blood supply and regional lymph nodes, is the primary therapy for colon cancer. The conventional and accepted treatment for curative resection of colon cancer is laparotomy with hemicolectomy for right-sided or left-sided lesions .
The technique of colon resection through an [...]

Continue reading " Treating Colorectal Cancer: TREATMENT "

A study was conducted to investigate the prognostic factors for colorectal cancer patients in order to improve future treat-ment. Patients who had undergone curative resection (n = 842) were divided into three groups according to age: young (40 years or younger), middle-aged (41 to 64 years), and older (65 years or above). Univariate survival and [...]

Continue reading " Treating Colorectal Cancer: PROGNOSTIC FACTORS "