Ian M. Thompson, Jr, MD

The ideal utilization of focal therapy is to treat a smaller prostate cancer in which you can ablate, excise, or render inconsequential a tumor that affects a relatively small fraction of the gland.

For the clinician who is facedwith treating individual patients,the article by Ornstein and Petricoinmight raise the famous questionfrom the Wendy’s commercial:Where’s the beef? When we hear ofthese Star Wars technologies and complexexplanations, we are often frustrated.On the one hand, we havenothing to offer our patients right now,and on the other, our patients readabout these technologies and expectthem to be applied right now.

Quality of life (QOL) and health status data obtained from the Veterans Administration Cancer of the Prostate Outcomes Study (VA CaPOS) have the potential to add substantially to information available from other observational databases and

Despite a heightened focus of the medical and research community on prostate cancer, many important questions about this disease remain unanswered. These include questions about the possible prevention of prostate cancer, as well as the optimal treatment approaches for localized, locally advanced, metastatic, and hormone-refractory disease. A whole host of prospective, well-designed clinical trials are currently in progress that should answer many of these questions. This review briefly explores some of these unresolved issues and describes ongoing trials designed to address them. [ONCOLOGY 11(8):1-11, 1997]

The changing clinical dynamics of prostate cancer have resulted in a broadening of the research focus of the Genitourinary (GU) Cancer Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG). Beginning with an emphasis on hormone-refractory disease in its early years, SWOG prostate cancer trials now cover the entire spectrum of the disease: localized, locally advanced, metastatic and hormone-refractory disease. As the world's largest GU cancer research group, the GU committee of SWOG has pioneered studies in combined androgen therapy for metastatic disease, quality-of-life (QOL) assessments for patients with localized and advanced disease, adjuvant therapy models, and prostate cancer chemoprevention. The committee has also formed the GU Global Group, whose purpose is to convene the chairs of the GU committees of all the major national and international oncology cooperative groups. Meeting semiannually, this group discusses activities within their respective organizations, plans collaborative strategies and protocols, and establishes global strategy in prostate cancer clinical research. The future directions of national and international prostate cancer trials will build on this broad foundation of well-conceived, logically sequenced studies. [ONCOLOGY 11(8):1155-1170, 1997]

The value of prostate cancer screening remains controversial because of the high prevalence of the disease and the fact that many tumors detected through screening are not destined to lead to morbidity or mortality, rendering