Highlights on prostate cancer from urological and oncological congresses in 2007

Objective: This paper communicates the major new findings on prostate cancer (PCa) that were presented at the 2007 annual meetings of the European Association of Urology (EAU), American Urological Association (AUA), and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and discussed during a closed meeting in September 2007. Recent Findings: Sonoelastography-targeted biopsy may be an alternative to systematic biopsy for decreasing the number of biopsy cores. Twelve cores appear to be optimal for a systematic biopsy. Discontinuing aspirin before a biopsy is not mandatory. In patients with poor-risk PCa, long-term, adjuvant androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) to radiotherapy is recommended. Patients with a prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) > 12 mo, <= 50% positive biopsy cores, a biopsy Gleason score <= 7, and previous low-dose rate brachytherapy are at increased risk of an organ-confined relapse of PCa and may be treated with salvage radical prostatectomy. Patients with T04N0-2M0 PCa who are not suitable for local treatment and have a PSA > 50 ng/ml and/or a PSADT <= 12 mo should receive immediate ADT. Toremifene citrate may increase bone mineral density in men receiving ADT. An elevated C-reactive protein level may be a predictor of poor survival in hormone-refractory PCa patients receiving docetaxel-based therapy. Conclusion: It can be concluded that many interesting new data on PCa were presented at the 2007 oncological and urological congresses, some of which may have an impact on clinical practice, whereas other data raise new questions that will have to be answered by further research. (C) 2008 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.