Men age 75 years and older should not be screened for prostate cancer, and younger men should discuss the benefits and harms of the PSA test with their clinicians before being tested, according to a new recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (2008; 149:185-91).

Blockage by the selective inhibitor abiraterone acetate of cytochrome P (CYP) 17 is safe and has significant antitumor activity in castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to a phase I study from the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom. The data confirm that castration-resistant prostate cancer commonly remains dependent on ligand-activated androgen receptor signaling, study authors say.

A recent review of the literature has found that hormone deprivation therapy may have subtle adverse effects on cognition in patients receiving the treatment for prostate cancer, researchers will report in an upcoming issue of Cancer.

The first of two phase II clinical trials of sipuleucel-T (Provenge), an investigational active cellular immunotherapy for prostate cancer, has been launched.

Past diagnostic radiation procedures may be associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer among younger men, according to researchers from the United Kingdom.

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, enacted July 15, prolongs Medicare’s reimbursement safeguards (first enacted in 2003) for brachytherapy seeds given to hospital outpatients through Dec. 31, 2009. The new extension ensures that Medicare will not implement possibly restrictive reimbursement caps during this period.

Using an engineered common cold virus, UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center researchers delivered a genetic payload to prostate cancer cells that allows scientists to identify diseased cells encroaching into the lymph nodes. This discovery could aid oncologists in earlier detection and treatment of metastasis, according to Lily Wu, MD.

Compared with conservative management of the disease, androgen deprivation therapy does not appear to be associated with improved survival in elderly men with localized prostate cancer, according to a study in JAMA (2008; 300:173-81).

A panel of seven biomarkers can predict with 86% accuracy which prostate cancer patients will experience recurrence and progression of prostate cancer, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas reported in Clinical Cancer Research (2008; 14:3785-91).