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EDITORIAL

Prostate Cancer – Good News, Bad News Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the US, according to the American Cancer Society. Over thepast 20 years, the 5-year survival rate for this disease has increased from 67% to 99%. The most recent data show that the relative10- and 15-year survival rates are 92% and 61%, respectively. These marked improvements in survival are partly attributable toearlier diagnosis but also to improvements in treatment.A search of R&D Insight identified over 120 products in clinical development for prostate cancer (30 at phase III or preregistra-tion stage). However, one potential treatment expected to reach blockbuster status has had its progress to market stopped – at leasttemporarily – by a negative advisory committee review (p11) Analysts were anticipating a 2006 launch for Abbott Laboratories’Xinlay™ (atrasentan) prior to the nonapproval recommendation from the US FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. Thisdecision is a positive for those companies with competitor products in phase III – GPC Biotech, which is developing satraplatinfor hormone-refractory prostate cancer, along with Dendreon and Cell Genesys, which are developing therapeutic vaccines.Early diagnosis is the key for successful therapy. A study recently presented at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiologyand Oncology’s 47th Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, showed that over an estimated 10-year period, men who have an annualPSA blood test will have a 3.6% chance of dying from the disease, compared to 11.3% in the general population. And while someurologists claim that measuring PSA may not be effective in predicting risk of prostate cancer, a Johns Hopkins study of>2000 men confirms that PSA remains the best measure of the likelihood of cancer recurrence after surgery.Despite such positive news, there is still a need for new methods for diagnosing prostate cancer and predicting risk. In this issue,we report on research showing that a panel of 22 biomarkers can provide a more accurate screening test than PSA and a genemutation that may increase the prostate cancer risk by 3-fold in African-American men with a family history of the disease (p16).Tracey Wright, Editor

Pharmaceutical & Diagnostic Innovation 2005; Vol. 3, No. 10