Episodes
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A new paper in the Journal of Clinical Oncology is reporting that the bowel and urinary side-effects of proton therapy (a high tech and very expensive type of radiotherapy), are no better than side-effects after standard high-quality radiotherapy (called IMRT). Quite a fuss on twitter when this paper came on line last week including from a fair few urologists, one of whom described proton therapy for prostate cancer as "a black eye for American healthcare"! (Thanks Scott!).
We chat with lead author Dr James Yu (Hartford, USA), and favourite GU Cast radiation oncologist Prof Shankar Siva to make sense of it all. And what does this mean for proton therapy in places like Australia who currently have no proton therapy facility.
Even better on our YouTube channel
Links:
JCO paper -
Professor Neil Fleshner (University of Toronto) drops into the GU Cast studio in Melbourne for an intriguing discussion! First we cover off the underrated topic of cardiac risks in patients starting androgen deprivation therapy and how we can reduce these for the benefit of our patients. Then we talk to Neil about entrepreneurship and his journey into very successful business ventures in recent years. He has some inspiring stories and some great advice for frustrated clinicians out there!
This episode is a Themed Podcast supported by our Bronze Partners, Cipla Australia.
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A big medical oncology love-in in the GU Cast studio today!! Professor Enrique Grande was visiting from MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Madrid to chat all about some of the sensational advances we have seen in metastatic bladder cancer in recent times. And we were also joined by old friend Professor Andrew Weickhardt from Austin Health in Melbourne to educate ourselves on what is an antibody drug conjugate and how does EV work. Plus lots of laughter!!
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Axel Merseburger (Chief and Professor of Urology, Lubeck, Germany) was in Australia recently and popped into the GU Cast studio for a chat. Axel was at the USANZ ASM recently and also on a speaker tour supported by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, so we put together this Themed Podcast to pick his brains on high-risk prostate cancer and mHSPC in 2024.
This Themed Podcast is supported by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Gold Partners of GU Cast.
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Declan and Renu bring you lots of highlights and interviews from the Urological Society of Australia & New Zealand (USANZ) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) which took place last week in Adelaide. Almost 1000 delegates descended on this beautiful part of the world, famous for its beaches and wineries.
Hear from Robert Nam, Paul Anderson, Nathan Lawrentschuk, Alan McNeill, Axel Merseburger, Dixon Woon, Michael Choong, Jo Cresswell, Anthony Ta, and Shane La Bianca who is Convenor of #USANZ25.
GU Cast Conference Highlights are supported by Bayer Pharmaceuticals (China), GU Cast Conference Highlights Partner.
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Needle through the rectum or needle through the skin?? Transrectal vs transperienal prostate biopsy is certainly a hot topic in prostate cancer, with the vast majority of men having their biopsy through the rectum rather than through the skin. It is quick, cheap and easy (for the urologist and the health system), but leaves the patient at risk of serious harm from infectious complications, at least according to historic reports.
Today Declan and Renu chat with Dr Jim Hu, Urologist at Cornell University in New York, and leader of the PREVENT trial, a randomised study of transrectal vs transperineal biopsy which has just been published in European Urology. We are also joined by Associate Professor Jeremy Grummet, Urologist at Alfred Health in Melbourne, and long-time advocate of transperineal biopsy. Did this trial finally establish transperineal as the new standard of care for men undergoing prostate biopsy?? Tune in to find out!
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Links:
PREVENT trial in European Urology -
Two of the highest profile presentations at the recent ASCO GU Meeting were the plenary presentations of the CONTACT 02 trial, and the Keynote-564 trial. Generally speaking, these were well received; indeed quite enthusiastically received in some quarters! Not however in the quarter of prolific oncology commentator and Haematologist/Oncologist & Professor of Epidemiology, Dr Vinay Prasad! “Unethical” and “sh**ty” are just some of the terms he used to describe these in two episodes of his podcast, “Plenary Session”. Declan and Renu take Vinay to task for some of the somewhat personal attacks he makes on colleagues, but do enjoy listening to his critique, and indeed agree with many of his points!
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Links:
Plenary Session podcast on Contact 02
Plenary Session podcast on Keynote-564
Dr Vinay Prasad Twitter -
Renu caught up with lots of experts and friends at ASCO GU in San Francisco recently and brings you all the highlights. Hear from Toni Choueiri, Matt Cooperberg (on that debate on renaming low-grade prostate cancer), Todd Morgan, Neha Vapiwala, Morgan Roupret, Sophia Kamran, Morgan Roupret, Sam Washington, plus a great chat with Tyler Seibert while they were out for an early morning run around beautiful San Francisco.
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GU Cast Conference Highlights are supported by our Gold Partner, Bayer China. -
For all you enthusiasts of PSMA theranostics, we bring you another one of our fabulous ProsTIC/Prostate Cancer Foundation Global Webinars with some of the best minds in the business. This is the eighth of our collaborative webinars over the past four years and the focus today is bringing lutetium PSMA earlier in prostate cancer.
Two keynote lectures from Dr Oliver Sartor (Mayo Clinic) and Professor Louise Emmett (St Vincent's. Sydney)set the scene, focusing on brand-new data from the PSMAfore and Enza-P trials. We have an Asia-Pacific focus with a superb range of multidisciplinary panellists from across the region.
Co-Hosted by GU Cast’s own Dr Renu Eapen with Professor Michael Hofman from ProsTIC/Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. They are joined in studio by friends of the podcast Dr Louise Kostos and Dr James Buteau.
Even better on our YouTube channel where you can see the presentations -
A must listen (actually a must WATCH!!) episode of GU Cast if you have any experience with the side-effects of treatment of prostate cancer. Whether you are a patient or loved one, or a surgeon/radiation oncologist/medical oncologist, or a nurse or allied health professional - then this is for you.
Declan and Renu chat about "A Touchy Subject" with the wonderful Victoria Cullen.
This one much better enjoyed on our YouTube channel!
Links:
A Touchy Subject -
We reveal the three winners of our APCCC Travel Awards 2024! These three trainees will be heading off to Lugano for the world's best prostate cancer meeting which takes place from 25-27 April on the shores of Lake Lugano.
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A perennial topic on GU Cast!! But today we welcome a couple of very useful papers in European Urology Oncology which help us understand how PSMA PET/CT can help patient selection for pelvic lymph node dissection in prostate cancer. We are joined by Dr Giorgio Gandaglia from San Raffaele Hospital in Milano to discuss these two papers (links below).
We also hear about Declan's recent trip to San Raffaele as Visiting Professor, and he sits down for a wide-ranging chat with professor Francesco Monitorsi, Director & Professor of Urology at San Raffaele.
Even better on our YouTube channel
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Can PSMA reduce PLND? A systematic review
Optimal use of PSMA to select patients for PLND. Updated validation of the Briganti and MSKCC nomograms -
A quick message from Renu and Declan about our huge travel award giveaway to start the new year! Closing date Monday 15th Jan 2024
Full details on https://www.gucast.org/ -
A truly great Christmas tradition is when Toni Choueiri and his merry band of GU Oncology Fellows at Dana Farber, drop their list of the Top 10 GU Oncology papers of the year. And true to form, Toni's tweet on Christmas Day contains an immaculate list of GU highlights of 2023. A great mixture of tumour types, some brave choices with a Phase 1 study and a negative trial in there. And all the details beautifully summarised in their twitter thread (link below). And as ever, Declan and Renu were delighted to welcome Toni back to GU Cast to further disseminate this great list and discuss highlights and controversies.
Even better on our YouTube channel
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Toni's tweet with Top 10 GU Onc papers of 2023 -
Our final podcast of 2023 and it's a big one!! Huge festive giveaway with three fully funded GU Cast travel awards to attend the APCCC in Lugano (April 2024) up for grabs. Alastair Lamb zooms in from Oxford to discuss prostate cancer spatial transcriptomics. Kiaran O'Malley (Mater Hospital, Dublin) drops into studio for a festive drink, and GU Cast Partnership & Content Manager Katie Wendt also pops in to say hi.
That's it for 2023! Declan and Renu wish all our listeners and viewers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We'll be back early in 2024.
This episode very enjoyable on on our YouTube channel
Links:
More details on GU Cast APCCC Travel Awards
APCCC website
More from Alastair and colleagues on spatial transcriptomics in this nice explainer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdzF0-PFXhc -
Dr Ashish Kamat (MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston), joins Declan and Renu to discuss a very nice paper recently published in European Urology Oncology overviewsing the role of lymph node dissection (LND) in GU oncology. Really nice piece of work led by Dr Amanda Myers along with a bunch of well known names in urologic oncology. A very succinct summary of LND in bladder, upper tract urothelial, renal, prostate, penile and testicular cancer. Check out the link below to find the full paper
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Links
Myers et al paper -
It has becoming a familiar refrain around the world , and is certainly good news for the prostate cancer community! This week, another androgen receptor pathway inhibitor (ARPI) became reimbursed for men with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer (mHSPC) in Australia. Darolutamide is already available for men with non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and is now also available for men with mHSPC in combination with androgen deprivation therapy and chemotherapy. Therefore we continue on our mission at GU Cast to educate ourselves about the use of ARPIs in mHSPC. And yes, even simple urologists like us can get up to speed with these drugs!
Declan and Renu are joined by fellow Urologist Associate Professor Joseph Ischia, one of our favourite prostate cancer experts. And a great podcaster himself! Check out the back catalogue of "Talking Urology" using the links below.
Plus what is a "jiffy stent"??? \
This Themed Podcast is supported by Bayer, Silver Partners of GU Cast.
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Link:
https://www.talkingurology.com.au/ -
SABR supremos Piet Ost and Shankar Siva join us to discuss the management of lymph node-only recurrence following primary treatment of prostate cancer. And of course our resident PSMA PET/CT guru Michael Hofman also turned up as himself and Piet love debating the merits of PSMA!
How and when shoudl we image for biochemical recurrence? What are the limits of SABR? WHat about systemic therapy? It's all in this episode with great leaders in the field.
Recorded on site at Peter Mac on the fringe of the 2023 SABR Symposium. With your usual hosts Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy
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Prof Fred Saad (University of Montreal) drops in to chat about the interesting condition that is non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC). Which men are at risk of developing metastases? When should we use an AR pathway inhibitor? Why PSMA PET/CT should NOT be used. And hear his thoughts on "dabbling" in prostate cancer!
Also joined by Professor Shankar Siva and Dr Louise Kostos from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Hosted as ever by Dr Renu Eapen and Professor Declan Murphy.
Fred was on a speaker tour in Australia supported by Bayer Pharmaceuticals and this Themed Podcast is supported by Bayer, Silver Partners of GU Cast.
Update - we mentioned that darolutamide was the only ARPI listed for reimbursement in Australia (true at time of recording). We can update that all TGA approved ARPIs for nmCRPC are now reimbursed in Australia.
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What a great ESMO for GU Oncology!! Declan caught up with some plenary speakers in Madrid to discuss the biggest topics. PSMA theranostics with Louise Emmett (ENZA-P) and Oliver Sartor (PSMAfore); ARPIs in biochemical recurrence with Steve Freedland (EMBARK), Morgan Roupret and Boris Hadaschik. Plus the latest negative immunotherapy trials in prostate cancer with Christian Gratzke.
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