Coming up on this edition, an interview with the Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute. We have a report on how urological diseases cost Americans $11 billion each year. And Bill Schmalfeldt shares a final report on his experience as a patient in a clinical trial. But first, Wally Akinso has a report about a blood test that might signal good news for folks suffering from throat cancer.

For those who have the appropriate software downloaded and would prefer to listen to this week’s podcast on your computer, here’s the link:

Date: 6/29/2007 | Time: 00:32:04 | Size: 29.3 MB
This podcast is updated every other Friday.

Danny Goldstein, a doctoral candidate in pharmacy in Israel, has developed a way of combining Taxol with Herceptin monoclonal antibody that overcomes the problem of the toxic emulsion normally required to make Taxol soluable. Goldstein’s nanoemulsion, used to create a Taxol-Herceptin combination and tested in mice, may allow superior, sustained delivery of this therapy to patients with advanced, mestatstic prostate cancer. Clinical trials will begin in about two years. Full story Nanotechnology Improves Chemotherapy-Antibody Combination, June 22.

San Jose Mercury News reports that a Los Gatos urologist was arrested June 20 “on charges that he falsely told three elderly men they had prostate cancer,” leading one 87-year-old victim
to have unnecessary brachytherapy. Brachytherapy is a form of radioactive surgery done by implanting radioactive pellets in the prostate. It can have serious side effects on urinationa and erectile function.

A link to a 5 hour video recording of the FDA Advisory Committee hearing held March 29 on sipuleucel-T (Provenge) for advanced, androgen independent prostate cancer. The video does not include the vote.

A full written transcript in .pdf including the voting is online at FDA, click here.

A crowd of about 70 people led by prostate cancer advocates marched and rallied in Washington, D.C. on June 4 to call on the FDA to Approve Provenge Now.

Thomas Farrington of Prostate Health Education Network addressed the group.

Raise a Voice organizer Jan Manarite introduced speakers including Tom Farrington and Dr. Mark Moyad.

The petition campaign was organized by malecare.com.

Visit Joel Nowak’s advancedprostatecancer.net blog,
Provenge Advocacy Hits the News

Organizer Jan Manarite receives a hug

from her son, who carried the message

"Help My Dad Live"

On June 5, campaigners met with FDA director Andrew von Eschenbach.

View ABC-TV video here. See photos of the rally (by brad.wick) and video of Mark Moyad’s speech.

Oncologist Dr. Howard I. Scher has received a death threat for opposing immediate FDA approval of Dendreon’s Provenge therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer. Another oncologist who opposes approval of Provenge without completion of an ongoing clinical trial, Dr. Maha Hussain, has received unspecified threats.

A team of urologists in Brussels estimate that a third of the men currently diagnosed with prostate cancer in their service could benefit from active surveillance, avoiding loss of quality of life. The Belgian doctors, led by Paul J Van Cangh, MD, are concerned that “widespread opportunistic PSA screening of prostate cancer has resulted in a large proportion of patients aggressively treated for low burden disease.” Reporting on the topic at this year’s annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Anaheim California, May 19-24, they say: “Increased concern about overtreatment has led to the development of active surveillance protocols. Here we have reviewed pathological characteristics, disease free survival, and quality of life of patients treated by radical prostatectomy (RP) who might have been elected for active surveillance.”

Full story: Measuring Damage from “Over-Treatment” Of Indolent Prostate Cancer — Quality of Life Could Be Spared by Applying Selection Nomograms.

Data presented today from an ongoing study designed to explore the biologic and clinical activity of cancer immunotherapy sipuleucel-T, or Provenge, in patients with early stage recurrent prostate cancer who have a rising serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, but who have not yet developed metastatic disease are not all that impressive. The study showed that sipuleucel-T did not significantly delay the time it took for a patient’s PSA to reach a value of 3 ng/ml, the primary endpoint of the study, but it did show a prolongation in prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT). An “early trend” toward slowing the time to metastatic disease for patients who received sipuleucel-T compared with those who received placebo “did not reach statistical significance.”

Read the full story

Charles (Chuck) Maack, a prostate cancer survivor and Program Director, for Wichita, Kansas Chapter Us TOO Intl., Inc., will be attending a meeting in Atlanta this September regarding “IMPaCT” (Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today). Chuck is also spreading the word about the PCRI conference in Los Angeles from September 7-9. Chuck writes:

IMPaCT is a gathering of over 600 research scientists who have received Department of Defense funding for prostate cancer research in the past. It appears this gathering will be to brainstorm innovative ideas for future prostate cancer research.

Jan Manarite of Raise a Voice Campaign writes:

Prostate cancer patients have been watching for the prostate cancer/Provenge story on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. I just got a call from Dr Moyad that ABC called the prostate cancer patient who was interviewed for that story, and informed him that it would air Monday night, June 4th. This appears to be a commitment. Did ABC wait for our June 4th DC rally?