Dr. Barata sobre las Necesidades no Cubiertas de los Pacientes con Cáncer de Próstata

Pedro Barata, MD, MSc, director, GU Medical Oncology Research Program, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, associate professor of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses remaining unmet needs for patients with prostate cancer.

Barata: We are making a lot of progress in the treatment of prostate cancer, but the truth is, we are not finished yet. We still cannot talk about a cure when we talk about the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Fortunately, patients are benefiting from the treatments they receive. Therefore, there is a great challenge [even with] the great advances happening now. How do we cure patients, and how do we manage patients who have diagnosis of bone metastases?

Right now, for patients who have a diagnosis of bone metastases, the overall survival [OS] is around 5 to 7 years. We were much worse a few years ago, when we were talking about [an OS] of 4 years, and now we are talking [about] much more than that.

As we [develop] new treatments, we will have the opportunity to set [new] goals…which means that for patients with a slightly lower number of metastases, we can treat them elegantly. The emergence of treatments like that means localized radiotherapy treatments, where you have a target and you go there, radiopharmaceuticals, and others. That will contribute to improving the outcomes of patients with prostate cancer.