Monday, September 24, 2012

Like prostate cancer, bladder cancer patients may benefit from anti-androgen therapy


Bladder cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of the protein CD24 have worse prognoses than patients with lower CD24. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that CD24 expression may depend on androgens – and that anti-androgen therapies like those currently used to treat prostate cancer may benefit bladder cancer patients.

MRI helps identify patients with prostate cancer who may benefit from active surveillance


In the quest to prevent prostate cancer overtreatment, "active surveillance" has emerged as a plausible option, encouraged for men whose tumors may not need immediate treatment and may never progress to more serious illness. A group of investigators from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report that adding endorectal magnetic resonance imaging to the initial clinical evaluation of men with clinically low prostate cancer risk helps assess eligibility for active surveillance. Their results are published in The Journal of Urology.