BACKGROUND Although androgen withdrawal can control prostate cancer for long periods in many patients, controversy exists regarding management when the tumor becomes androgen independent. Several options are now available. METHODS A review of the pertinent literature of the last 20 years was conducted to provide guidance in defining and managing hormone-refractory prostate cancer. RESULTS S...

Sipuleucel-T is an autologous cell immunotherapy for castrate-refractory prostate cancer, with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic prostate cancer. In this review we address the background of prostate cancer incidence and other available therapy onto which sipuleucel-T treatment has been added, with discussion of hormone-therapy, chemotherapy,...

A 67-year-old man was refered to our institution with a complaint of elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (54 ng/mL). Diagnosis was adenocarcinoma of the prostate with a Gleason score of 9, with bone metastasis (stageD2). He was treated with maximal androgen blockade followed by estramustine phosphate (EMP) because of the progression to hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC)....

Microarrays have been used to identify genes involved in cancer progression. We have now developed an algorithm that identifies dysregulated pathways from multiple expression array data sets without a priori definition of gene expression thresholds. Integrative microarray analysis of pathways (IMAP) was done using existing expression array data from localized and metastatic prostate cancer. Com...

Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. Treatment by radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy and anti-androgen drugs is successful in patients with localized cancer. However, prolonged androgen deprivation often leads to hormone refractory condition, associated with disease relapse. ErbB1 and ErbB2 activity has been correlated with androgen-independence. We determined...

The objective of this Phase II clinical trial was to determine the effects of chronic GM-CSF dosing on PSA levels in men with hormone-refractory or hormone-naïve prostate cancer. Six hormone-refractory and 10 hormone-naïve patients were recruited from an institutional practice and were treated with 250 and 125 μg/m(2) of GM-CSF, respectively, 3 times per week for continuous 12-week treatment cy...

Lycorine, a natural alkaloid extracted from the Amaryllidaceae plant family, has been reported to exhibit a wide range of physiological effects, including the potential effect against cancer. However, the anti-prostate cancer (PCa) efficacy of Lycorine remains unrevealed. In this context, we figured out Lycorine's anti-proliferative and anti-migratory properties for PCa treatment. Lycorine inhi...

PURPOSE Androgen ablation-refractory prostate cancer patients (stage D3) develop painful bone metastases and limited responsiveness to conventional therapies, hence the lack of universally accepted "gold standard" treatment for this poor prognosis clinical setting. We tested the safety and efficacy in stage D3 patients of the combination hormonal therapy, which combines administration of somato...

The treatment of prostate cancer patients usually starts with androgen ablation and followed by chemotherapy; however, in some cases the tumor develops resistant phenotype. Combination therapy is currently regarded as a cornerstone in cancer therapy to overcome the drug resistance. Herein, we investigated the combinatory effect of Docetaxel and Trastuzumab with a novel nanomedicine, BCc1. Also,...