Last month, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) investigators released study results that found new diagnoses of prostate cancer in the U.S. has declined 28 percent in the year following the draft recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) against routine PSA screening for men.

Led by first author Daniel Barocas, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Urological Surgery and Medicine, investigators identified new cancers diagnosed between January 2010 and December 2012 in the National Cancer Database. They studied the trend of prostate cancers diagnosed each month before and after the draft guideline, compared with new colon cancer cases.

The research revealed that 12 months after the draft USPSTF guidelines were published diagnoses of new low-risk cancers had fallen by 37.9 percent while colon cancer cases remained stable. During the same time period, the study identified a drop of 28.1 percent in diagnoses of intermediate-risk disease and 23.1 percent in high-risk prostate cancer.

“These findings suggest that reduced screening may result in missed opportunities to spare these men from progressive disease and cancer death,” said Barocas.

In other news, Astellas and Medivation, Inc. announced the first patients have been enrolled in TRUMPET (Treatment Registry for Outcomes in CRPC Patients), a prospective observational patient registry designed to better understand the unique needs and treatment patterns for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The registry will enroll and evaluate 2,000 patients diagnosed with CRPC from urology and oncology sites across the United States.

TRUMPET will follow patients with CRPC and participating caregivers for up to six years to gather information about the management of the disease, including patterns of care, treatment decisions and settings, and physician referral patterns. The registry will also track information about patient health-related quality of life outcomes, work productivity and treatment satisfaction.

"As a direct result of advances in therapies available to treat patients with CRPC, treatment decisions have become more complex than ever," said David F. Penson, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Urologic Surgery at VUMC. "TRUMPET will expand our scientific understanding of CRPC to help healthcare professionals, patients and their loved ones make more informed decisions about their care."