Informed Prostate Cancer Patient Support

The Clues Hidden in Failed Prostate Cancer Trials IPCSG Newsletter  •  Treatment Advances What the “Failures” Are Finally Teaching Us A patient-friendly review of the science — Summer 2026 BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):    For fifteen years, the checkpoint-inhibitor drugs that revolutionized melanoma, lung, and kidney cancer failed one prostate-cancer trial after another — six large Phase 3 studies came back negative. But hidden inside those “failures” was a small group of men who had dramatic, lasting remissions. By studying those rare responders one cell at a time, researchers have now identified why most prostate tumors resist immunotherapy (immune-suppressing “SPP1” macrophages) and what lets a few tumors melt away (unusual killer T-cell populations). Today, only men whose tumors carry specific genetic signatures — mismatch-repair deficiency (dMMR), high microsatellite instability (MSI-H), or high tumor mutational burden (TMB) — have an FD...

Researchers Uncover a Promising New Way To Stop Prostate Cancer From Spreading IPCSG Newsletter ● Research Watch Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group  |  Treatment Advances Swedish and international researchers report a laboratory-stage drug that blocks the molecular signal aggressive prostate cancer uses to invade and metastasize—while leaving healthy signaling untouched. A patient-focused summary of Flodbring Larsson et al., Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy , published June 17, 2026. BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front Researchers at Umeå University (Sweden), with collaborators in London and Uppsala, engineered a fully human antibody called mAbF11 that targets a receptor, TβRI , which aggressive prostate cancer cells hijack to spread. In laboratory cells and in mice, the antibody shrank tumors and blocked metastasis to lymph nodes —working about as well as docetaxel chemotherapy, but without the weight lo...

Second PSMA PET Scan Finds Hidden Prostate Cancer in 56% of Patients Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group  •  Imaging & Recurrence A patient-friendly look at new evidence that a repeat PSMA PET scan is often not redundant — and how to think about the numbers. Bottom Line Up Front If your PSA is climbing after surgery or radiation but your first PSMA PET scan came back "negative," that scan is a snapshot in time — not a verdict. In a new study of 210 men whose first scan showed nothing, a second PSMA PET scan later found cancer in 56% of them , and the new information changed the treatment plan for nearly half . The men most likely to benefit had a higher PSA or a PSA that doubled in under 12 months . The practical message: a single clear scan doesn't close the book. Keep tracking your PSA, and talk with your care team about the right time to look again. What the researchers found The study was published in the July 2026 issue of The ...

Why the digital rectal exam fails prostate cancer screening IPCSG Newsletter · Screening & Early Detection The gloved-finger prostate check is quietly disappearing from routine screening — and the data explain why. An IPCSG patient-education review · broadly sourced from clinical trials, meta-analyses, and official guideline releases Bottom Line Up Front For decades the digital rectal exam (DRE) — the doctor's gloved-finger check — was a standard part of a prostate check-up. Large, modern studies now show it is a poor stand-alone screening test : it misses most early cancers, and adding it to a PSA blood test does not improve detection. In Germany's PROBASE trial, DRE performed on 6,537 men aged 45 flagged 57 for biopsy but confirmed cancer in only 3 — roughly 1 in 2,000 . A pooled analysis of tens of thousands of men found DRE's "positive-test-means-cancer" rate is no better than PSA's, with no bonus from combining the tw...

Effect of [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET-CT in the diagnosis of prostate cancer in men with equivocal or clinically high-risk non-suspicious findings on multiparametric MRI (PRIMARY2): a multicentre, non-inferiority, phase 3, randomised controlled trial - The Lancet Oncology Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group · Research Brief PRIMARY2, the first randomized trial of PSMA PET before biopsy, reshapes the workup for men with a worrisome PSA but a reassuring MRI. for the IPCSG Newsletter Filed July 2026 Reading time ~11 min BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front For biopsy-naïve men who have a high-risk PSA picture but a non-suspicious or borderline MRI , adding a gallium-68 PSMA PET-CT scan cut the number needing a prostate biopsy roughly in half — without missing meaningful cancers. In the phase 3 PRIMARY2 trial (660 men, seven Australian hospitals): 49% avoided biopsy entirely when the PSMA scan was clean, and stayed on PSA monit...