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New guidelines on genetic testing and cancer
The American Society for Clinical Oncology has recently updated its guidelines on genetic and genomic testing for susceptibility to cancer. The entire guideline is available on line for any interested...
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Major new cancer clinical and genetic database to be built in Boston
According to an article published today in The Boston Globe, the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are working together to initiate development of a very large,...
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Promises about yet another genetic test for prostate cancer risk
According to a media release issued earlier today by the University of California San Diego Health System, a paper just published on line in European Urology describes how “a team of researchers … have...
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Genetic testing and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Genetic information is starting to become a key factor in the testing of selected men for their risk for certain types of prostate cancer, and for the potential value of certain therapeutic agents in...
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Genetic profiling and the future management of prostate cancer
A recent review article from Future Oncology, just posted in full on the Medscape Oncology web site, addresses the evolving topic of how we can translate our knowledge about genetic risk factors for...
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Genomic/genetic tests for risk for clinically significant prostate cancer
The precise ability of the various genetic/genomic tests now available to accurately analyze the risk for clinically significant prostate cancer based on biopsy tissue samples is an important factor...
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Medicare may soon cover Prolaris, Decipher tests for prostate cancer
Both Myriad Genetics and Genome DX Biosciences issued media releases today stating that Medicare contractors have issued draft coverage recommendations for tests used to assess the aggressiveness of...
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The complexity of assessment of prostate cancer risk
A new study just published online in the journal Cancer Discovery has helped to clarify — or perhaps “clarify” is the wrong word — just how complex risk for prostate cancer really is. This study,...
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How many “different” types of prostate cancer are there?
This, of course, is a rhetorical question. We really have no good idea how many “different” types of prostate cancer there are. And so what we are really dealing with here is how we are going to...
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“Direct to consumer” testing for selected genes and risk for prostate cancer
We have noted previously that individualized genetic tests sold directly to consumers and patients as tools to assess risk for prostate cancer (and other disorders) often don’t meet FDA guidelines for...
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Genetic ethnic ancestry and risk for prostate cancer diagnosis
It is becoming increasingly evident that there is a strong association between ethnic ancestry and risk for prostate cancer — at least among members of the US population. A new paper by Nyame et al.,...
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Individualizing precision therapy for advanced prostate cancer
There’s a very interesting article this week on the Hutch News pages of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (in Seattle, WA). It addresses the degree to which metastatic prostate cancer may be...
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Informed patient counseling and the effect on PSA testing
We know that a family history of prostate cancer and the presence of certain genetic/genomic markers are associated with increased risk for prostate cancer in general and for some types of clinically...
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Just how accurate are current genetic/genomic tests in the diagnosis and...
As we have pointed out regularly over the years, all prostate cancers are by no means the same. And a recently published paper in European Urology makes the inherent diversity in the subtypes of...
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The cost and the effectiveness of genomic testing for prostate cancer risk
As regular readers will be well aware, there are now several different tests available that can be used to assess risk for low- and very low-risk forms of prostate cancer at time of diagnosis (as...
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Patients with certain KLK-6 mutations at risk for aggressive forms of...
A newly published article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has suggested that men carrying a particular genetic mutation in the kallikrein 6 gene (KLK-6) have an increased risk for...
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Genetics, genomics, targeted therapy, and the costs of care
A new paper in a new journal argues that all men diagnosed with advanced forms of prostate cancer should now, routinely, be undergoing tumor and germline DNA profiling so as to guide enrollment into...
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How close are we really to “precision medicine” for cancer care?
A newly published paper in the journal JCO Precision Oncology confirms what many of us may have suspected — that the practical application of somatic tissue testing to clinical decision-making was low...
View ArticleGermline genetics and different responses to different types of ADT
Three articles in the October 12 issue of JAMA Oncology address the fact that a very specific germline mutation to the so-called HSD3B1 gene affects response to standard forms of initial androgen...
View ArticleCommercially available liquid biopsy data may be misleading
A newly published research letter in JAMA Oncology is entitled “Patient-paired sample congruence between 2 commercial liquid biopsy tests”. The two tests are both said — by the companies that market...
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