EAU 2024: Prostate Cancer Patient Highlights
More than 9,000 clinicians and researchers gathered at the 2024 European Association of Urology Annual Congress to share the latest research findings. These meetings are important because, ultimately, many of these developments will eventually improve patient care.
Urologic oncologist Dr. Zachary Klaassen, Associate Professor in the Department of Urology at Wellstar MCG Health, joins us to discuss key highlights for patients from on screening, localized disease, advanced disease, and survivorship.
- Screening: there are several large European trials that are working to fine-tune stratified screening strategies. This might include, for example, a PSA followed by another test (kallikrein), MRI, then biopsy depending on the results of each test.
- Localized prostate cancer: Clinical trials of high risk disease have shown that neoadjuvant treatment (i.e. a treatment given before definitive treatment, such as radical prostatectomy) improves pathologic outcomes, such as, how much disease was in the prostate when after removal. However, it has not been shown to improve clinical outcomes such as biochemical recurrence.
- Metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer: In the real-world setting, 60% of deaths in newly diagnosed patients with mHSPC occur within the first two years after diagnosis. This highlights the need for treatment intensification, e.g., not just treating men with ADT alone, but with ADT + an androgen receptor signaling inhibitor (ARSI) OR ADT + ARSI + chemotherapy.
- Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer: As initial treatment of mCRPC, combination therapy with a PARP inhibitor + an ARSI works well, especially in patients with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 However, there are more side effects, such as anemia.
- Survivorship: A survey of partners of prostate cancer patients shows that spouses and significant others are profoundly affected, and that more rigorous counseling on the disease and potential impacts is needed before treatment.