NEW ORLEANS – Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. One in every six men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.
New Orleans will be the first place in North America to test a cutting edge treatment, and if you have been affected by prostate cancer, you might qualify up for the free study.
Tulane Medical Oncologist Oliver Sartor was displaying some bone scans of a man with advanced prostate cancer to show it had progressed and spread to his bones.
When given a special radioactive drug, all the places where the bone was infected with cancer, brightly lit up. Dr. Sartor said the MRI confirmed what the bone scan shows.
"So this is normal bone here," said Sartor, pointing to a bright white area on the MRI. "Then this area is missing," he said, pointing to an area on the scan that is gray in color indicating cancer.
Sadly the patient in the bone scans, who was a doctor, did not make it.
There is a high percentage of people in the New Orleans area who get prostate cancer.
"We have a significant percentage of African-Americans in this community and African-Americans are diagnosed younger with prostate cancer, more often with prostate cancer, and more often with advanced prostate cancer," said Dr. Sartor.
If a man doesn't have regular check ups, the prostate cancer may have spread to the bones by the time it is diagnosed. But there are times too when treatment, such as radiation or surgery, are not successful and then the cancer spreads as well.
"Initially the treatments are with hormonal therapy and that will typically control the disease for a period of time, but unfortunately, once it's spread into the bones, the hormonal therapy doesn't cure," explained Dr. Sartor.
Men with advanced prostate cancer, who are getting the currently approved treatments, only live on average about 18 months. But now there may be some new hope. Sartor is an international expert in treating cancer with certain types of radioactive therapy, and he is heading up the North American wing of a clinical trial out of Europe that is testing Alpharadin. In smaller studies it has shown some promise in extending the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.
"It circulates in the blood stream and because these areas of bony metastasis, the spread to bone, cause a reaction in bone, it goes to those spots selectively and that's the cool thing about it," said Sartor.
Sartor said that means it is only killing cancer, and not killing good tissue. So far the side effects are minimal.
"It's brand new. This is the first trial in the United States that's available for this type of therapy," said Sartor.
New Orleans is the very first place in the country to sign up patients for the investigational drug and already people are calling from other cities hoping to get in the clinical trial.
To see if you qualify for the study call the Tulane Cancer Center at 988-7869.
