Posts

New Rulebook for Prostate Cancer Trials:

Image
  What PCWG4 Means for You Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group (IPCSG) Member Newsletter San Diego, California May 2026 Issue Clinical Trials & Research Update   Prepared for IPCSG Members by the Newsletter Staff • Published May 2026 Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) An international panel of more than 40 prostate cancer specialists has issued a landmark update — the Prostate Cancer Working Group 4 ( PCWG4 ) report — that rewrites the standards used to design and conduct clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer. Published in February 2026 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology , PCWG4 replaces stigmatizing "castration" language with biology-based terminology, formally integrates the powerful PSMA-PET scan into trial rules, refines how progression is measured so patients are not pulled from beneficial treatments prematurely, and demands that patient quality-of-life ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prostate Cancer in your Genes

Image
 Interactive Figure Your DNA May Already Know How Aggressive Your Prostate Cancer Will Be Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group  |  Patient Education Series A landmark VA-led study introduces a new genetic score that predicts cancer aggressiveness — and could soon change how active surveillance is managed. Prepared for the IPCSG Newsletter  |  May 2026  |  Source study: medRxiv preprint, doi: 10.64898/2026.05.07.26352488  |  Note: preprint, not yet peer-reviewed. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) A new genetic score called PRSagg , developed from DNA data on nearly 40,000 veterans, can predict how aggressive a man's prostate cancer is likely to be — independent of PSA, age, or biopsy grade. In the largest validation study of its kind, men with the highest PRSagg had more than twice the risk of their cancer spreading (metastasis) compared to men with the lowest score. Crucially, this...
Post a Comment
Read more

Insurance Considerations for Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer

Image
A Rose by Any Other Name An IPCSG Newsletter Feature — companion to "What Men Need to Know Before Saying 'Yes' to a Genetic Test" Companion piece: This article picks up where the previous IPCSG feature on germline genetic testing left off. That article addressed the question of insurance timing for untested family members contemplating a genetic test before any diagnosis. This one addresses the question many already-diagnosed members ask: now that I have the diagnosis on my chart, what does that actually mean for any new insurance I might want to buy? "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." — Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II Juliet was wrong, at least about prostate cancer. The name very much matters. A pathologist's report that uses the word "cancer" to describe a microscopic finding of pure-pattern-3 prostate adenocarcinoma — a condition that may never affect the man'...
Post a Comment
Read more