Changing Paradigms-Integrating Novel Therapeutics Into the Standard of Care

Prostate cancer affects 1 of every 6 men in the United States, but with continuing improvements in strategies and therapeutic agents, death rates have been falling since 1991. Management of prostate cancer, which often requires an interdisciplinary approach, varies greatly, depending on tumor stage, rate of tumor progression, and life expectancy.

Last month, world-renowned thought leaders assembled at the 4th Annual Interdisciplinary Prostate Cancer Congress in New York City, New York, to explore how to integrate novel therapeutics into the standard of care.

This full-day continuing medical education (CME) activity, jointly sponsored by the University of Cincinnati and ArcMesa Educators, assembled urologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists from across the US and addressed hormonal therapies, imaging and staging, surgical advances, radiation therapies, and emerging multimodal therapies.*

The program cochairs were Leonard G. Gomella, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Other panel members included E. David Crawford, MD, of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; Robert Dreicer, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine; Howard M. Sandler, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; and A. Oliver Sartor, MD, of Tulane Medical School in New Orleans.

Because of the diverse presentation of the disease in patients with prostate cancer, as well as the continued progress in treatment options, devising an ideal standard approach to care is an enormous challenge. But the panel agreed that the care of patients with prostate cancer often involves a thoughtful integration of modalities and a casebased approach.

*Grant support for the CME activity was partially supported by educational grants from: Centocor Ortho Biotech Services LLC; Dendreon Corporation; Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; and sanofi-aventis U.S.