The National Prostate Cancer Coalition (NPCC) has started the G.A.M.E. (Get All Men Educated) program after a recent report from the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups and Northwestern University. The report is a survey of 1,788 cancer survivors in the US in order to understand the range of awareness about cancer clinical trials. This is the link to the study Cancer Clinical Trials Awareness and Attitudes in Cancer Survivors. The G.A.M.E. program was started because the report showed that only 12% of men with prostate cancer know that clinical trials are an option.

    A statistical analysis of a questionnaire from 166 patients that evaluated demographics and attitudes toward clinical trials was conducted by Philadelphia doctors in 2 radiation oncology clinics. The questionnaire revealed that White versus non-White patients were more likely to gather information about clinical trials from the Internet (30.6% versus 11.3%, P = 0.007), and were more likely to use physicians as a source of information on clinical trials (50.0% versus 34.0%, P = 0.05). Non-White patients more likely to obtain information on clinical trials from other patients (24.5% versus 12.0%, P = 0.04), and more non-White patients believed they had been treated in a clinical trial without their knowledge (21.6% versus 9.3%, P = 0.032). More non-Whites needed a >50% chance of benefiting from a trial (64.4% versus 45.0%, P = 0.03) before enrolling. However, the study showed that both White and non-Whites were equally interested in learning about clinical trials (84.3% versus 84.9%, P = 0.92), and there was no statistical differences in outlook towards potential toxicities associated with treatment from a clinical trial. There was also no significant difference in the rate of previous or current trial enrollment (21.3% versus 34.0%, P = 0.08).

This article covers 5 clinical trials in various stages.

     The GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) Tumor Cell vaccine is part of the GVAX suite of vaccines from Cell GeneSys. The vaccine works through the injection of irradiated, non-growing prostate cancer cells that secrete GM-CSF. The GM-CSF acts to recruit the immune cells (specifically dendritic cells) to the site of the vaccine and produce an immune response. The immune response then acts to target any prostate cancer cell within the body. This vaccine is in clinical phase III trials and currently recruiting. The phase II trials, the time to disease progression in metastaticterm bone disease was almost doubled in treated patients.