News from the ASCO GU Symposium, February 24, 2009

* The development of a personalized risk assessment tool that combines prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test results with additional prostate cancer risk factors to more accurately predict a man’s future risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with PSA test results alone
* A study finding that a novel molecular urine test that detects the fusion of two genes – TMPRSS2 and ERG – was highly accurate for detecting prostate cancer and may be able to help identify cancers that are likely to grow and spread quickly
* Research finding that positron emission tomography (PET) scanning is more accurate than computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for determining the extent of disease in patients with suspected metastatic bladder cancer
* Interim results from a Phase III study showing that a shorter, five-week course of radiation therapy using higher doses of radiation – known as hypofractionation – was just as effective and as well tolerated as standard seven-and-a-half-week radiation therapy for reducing the risk of prostate cancer recurrence

More available at News for Patients on Prostate and Bladder Cancer: Cancer Advances from the 2009 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium

Tags: Conference reports, Research Results //