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Future Directions in Smart Prostate Cancer Screening – Highlights from the 6th Annual Global Summit on Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Future Directions in Smart Prostate Cancer Screening – Highlights from the 6th Annual Global Summit on Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Posted by | Aug 2023

Faina Shtern, MD, discusses future directions in smart prostate cancer screening and highlights from the Sixth Annual Global Summit on Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer. Dr. Shtern explains prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer and guidelines for reducing risks associated with it. She mentions “smart” PSA screening, and she stresses the importance of novel quantitative approaches to risk management.

Dr. Shtern outlines advances in noninvasive diagnostic tools such as liquid biomarkers, testing for germline mutations in men with family history, and imaging. She displays a list of major international clinical trials studying integration of PSA, liquid biomarkers, and MRI and summarizes the ongoing PROBASE and BARCODE 1 trials, which may help define the role of genetic profiling in targeted screening.

Dr. Shtern outlines the IP1 PROSTAGRAM Study comparing MRI, PSA, and ultrasound. She reviews major international clinical trials studying integration of PSA, liquid biomarkers, and MRI (e.g., REIMAGINE Study).

She addresses micro ultrasound (microUS), explaining it provides improved visualization vs. standard US, has comparable diagnostic accuracy to MRI, and is supported by institutional series as an option to MRI-US fusion prostate biopsy. She cites the ongoing OPTIMUM trial seeking to confirm equivalence with MRI in a randomized prospective study and evaluate the benefit of adding MRI fusion to microUS prostate biopsy.

Finally, Dr. Shtern discusses a study on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, examining combined MRI/PET before prostate cancer diagnosis, explaining it may improve differentiation of GG1 vs. GG2 disease but emphasizing the need for further research.

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Identification of Localized Disease

Identification of Localized Disease

Posted by | Jul 2023

Peter F. Orio III, DO, MS, discusses the process of identifying localized prostate cancer. Dr. Orio emphasizes that prostate cancer is a spectrum of disease, rather than a binary, as prostate cancer is not necessarily confined to the prostate organ alone, and that the ultimate goal of treatment is reduction of harm to the patient’s future self.

Dr. Orio reviews the current screening, imaging, and testing steps to identifying localized prostate cancer, including the best candidates for screening. He notes that mandatory DREs discourages patients from coming in to the urologist, and suggests that screening should eliminate them.

Dr. Orio offers the more sensitive and less invasive PSA tests in combination with MRIs as an alternative first step in screening. He concludes by offering PSA – MRI – Fusion Biopsy – Germline Testing – FHX – FNX Imaging as the new path for screening and identifying localized prostate cancer.

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Review of the New Standard in Treatment and Global Issues: Androgen Deprivation Treatment (ADT), Chemotherapy, Androgen Receptors Inhibitors, and Androgen Synthesis Inhibitors

Review of the New Standard in Treatment and Global Issues: Androgen Deprivation Treatment (ADT), Chemotherapy, Androgen Receptors Inhibitors, and Androgen Synthesis Inhibitors

Posted by | May 2023

Marc B. Garnick, MD, Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, reviews current literature on the treatment of prostate cancer. Dr. Garnick focuses specifically on Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT,) Chemotherapy, Androgen Receptor Inhibitors, and Androgen Synthesis Inhibitors.

In this presentation, Dr. Garnick explores the current landscape of Advanced Prostate Cancer Treatments, the use of triplet therapies in combating metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mCSPC), and the possibility of avoiding ADT by combining advanced imaging techniques with Metastases-Directed Therapy (MDT).

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