I just passed my annual stress test—the Prostate Cancer Research Institute (PCRI) conference. Lots of work, but certainly worth it--we had over 700 attendees from 41 states and 9 countries. I was proud of all the 20 speakers, and particularly grateful for the contribution of Mark Moyad, MD who did a stellar job moderating. Dr. Moyad and I reviewed some of the conference highlights on Sunday morning. They include reports on the following:
1. PET scans improve prostate imaging according to Dr. Dusing from Kansas City University
2. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines recommend Active Surveillance for Low-Risk prostate cancer according to Dr. Klotz from the University of Toronto
3. Multiple new chemotherapy combinations and agents—Carboplatin, Avastin, Xeloda, Custersin and Jevtana—are active against advanced prostate cancer according to Dr. Scholz.
4. Ipilimumab, an new immune treatment from Bristol Myers Squibb can induce dramatic remissions in advanced prostate cancer according to Dr. Kwon from Mayo Clinic.
5. A variety of very promising new agents—MDV-3100, TAK-700, XL-184—are in late stage trials. Provenge, another new agent that works by stimulating the immune system is already FDA approved according to Charles Drake from Johns Hopkins.
The PCRI also announced at the conference, the launch of the Prostate Cancer Blue Community (PCBC); a web based prostate cancer community that is overseen by the PCRI helpline. The PCBC has discussion forums about the conference and the different types of prostate cancer that we have broken down into Shades of Blue so that men can connect with other men in their same category of prostate cancer. The PCBC can be accessed at www.pcribc.org.
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