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CPDR Database is featured in September issue of Oncology
November 1, 2004
Dr.
Judd W. Moul, former CPDR Director and currently Professor and Chief,
Division of Urologic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, recently
commented on an article in the September 2004 issue of Oncology (Moul,
JW. The Cooperberg/Park/ Carroll Article Reviewed. Oncology. 2004 Sept.
18(2) 1248-1256).
The article “Prostate Cancer 2004: Insights from National Disease
Registries” relates recent prostate cancer research from collaborations
between various national prostate disease database efforts including CPDR,
Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE)
and Harvard University.
In his review of the article, Dr. Moul discusses the usefulness of prostate-specific
antigen (PSA) doubling time (the time it takes for the PSA value to double)
of less than three months as an indication of prostate cancer-specific
death. He states that the article “Prostate Cancer 2004: Insights
from National Disease Registries” is important because it is the
first published report of any PSA-related biomarker that is strongly related
with the prostate-specific survival end point (death from prostate cancer).
Proof of the usefulness of prostate-specific doubling time and presentation
of this study in the literature, Moul states, is good exposure in terms
of improving clinical trials for current prostate cancer patients and
increased recognition of this fact by the FDA, which would speed up approval
of therapies and new drugs. It has already resulted in continued interest
in surrogate end points for prostate cancer outcomes by FDA officials,
and a meeting to that effect in September 2003 at the National Institutes
of Health.
This project studied 8,669 men picked from the three institutions’
comprehensive prostate cancer patient databases (CPDR, CaPSURE and Harvard).
These patients had undergone surgery to completely remove the prostate
gland (radical prostatectomy) or chosen external beam radiation as their
primary treatment. The basic goal of the study was to look at men who
had experienced PSA-only recurrence and examine PSA doubling time during
recurrence to see if this measurement was associated with the outcome
of both overall and cancer-specific mortality. The conclusion, or key
finding, was that a PSA doubling time of less than three months was directly
correlated to death from prostate cancer.
To view the entire review and the article go to www.CancerNetwork.com
The CPDR mission is fulfilled primarily through its three principal programs – the Clinical Research Center, the Basic Science Research Program and the National Multicenter Prostate Cancer Database– and through a robust education and training program that operates out of its Headquarters location, the Clinical Research Center, and the original laboratories at USUHS. CPDR is also committed to patient outreach, primarily through its affiliation with the WRAMC US TOO! organization and through a heavy schedule of health fairs in which it participates.
