A member of the advanced prostate cancer on-line support group who is the wife of an advanced prostate cancer survivor in New Mexico just informed us that Trailblazer (the MAC that controls New Mexico reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid) has said they will not pay for her husband to get Provenge. They were also told by their doctor that he can’t get Medicare/Trailblazer to pay for Jevtana even though he meets the FDA approved label for failed chemotherapy.
She posted: “Jevtana for prostate cancer, Medicare doesn’t want to pay for it. We also learned today that Provenge will not be covered by Medicare & we will have to pay cash for it.
Die or use up all your retirement savings.”
She is very upset as these were his last treatment options that have demonstrated any survival advantage.
Both Provenge and Jevtana have been approved by the FDA.
This is outrageous.
Joel T Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.
HIFU has been a common primary prostate cancer treatment in Europe for quite a while. Currently, in the United States, there are a number of clinical trial sites evaluating HIFU as a primary treatment. Like all other primary treatments there is a significant failure rate causing men to move on to salvage therapy.
In Europe it isn’t uncommon for men who have failed HIFU treatment to undergo another course of HIFU as a salvage therapy.
At the Hôpital Universitaire Pellegrin, Bordeaux, researchers decided to evaluate an alternative, salvage radiotherapy (SRT) as a treatment following HIFU failure for localized prostate cancer. Read More→
New Drug for Advanced Prostate Cancer
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New Drug for Advanced Prostate Cancer
Biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after primary therapy (PSA only) remains a significant problem. Deciding on the best treatment options for men who have failed primary therapy without documented evidence of metastatic disease remains limited and controversial.
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), the usual next step for biochemical recurrence does prolong the time to further disease progression. The use of ADT is strongly associated with very bothersome and some potentially fatal dangerous side effects. Side effects include metabolic syndrome, hot flashes, confusion, erectile dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance (Traish et al., 2009a,b,c). Clearly, nontoxic and economical therapeutic alternatives that prolong the interval between primary treatment failure and initiation of ADT would clearly be beneficial to both improving the quality of life and possibly extending survival. Read More→
Current knowledge makes it very difficult to predict which men will experience biochemical recurrence (BCR) after salvage radiation therapy (SRT) for recurrent prostate cancer (PCa). We are also lacking in novel targets for adjuvant therapies. At the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Florida, Jacksonville, FL., researchers evaluated the association of B7-H3 expression in primary PCa tumors and BCR after SRT. Read More→
