Publications by authors named "Bobby C Liaw"

Background: Statins may provide a compounded effect on ART by decreasing cholesterol levels thus decreasing de novo androgen synthesis and tumor cell viability. We investigated the clinical efficacy of concurrent statin use on outcomes of patients with mCRPC taking ART.

Methods: A single-institution retrospective analysis of patients with mCRPC receiving ART from 2010 to 2021 was performed.

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Background: In the phase III SPARC trial, satraplatin, an oral platinum analogue, demonstrated anticancer activity in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Repeat biopsies are uncommon in mCRPC, limiting the feasibility of tissue-based biomarkers. This phase II study sought to evaluate the feasibility and utility of blood-based biomarkers to identify platinum-sensitive mCRPC.

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Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) or immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), either alone or in combination, confers a significant overall survival (OS) benefit for metastatic RCC in the first-line setting. However, guidance for optimal treatment selection in elderly patients remains limited.

Methods: A database search was performed to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating first-line regimens for patients with advanced RCC older than 65 years old.

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Purpose: Data quality and standardization remain a challenge when analyzing real-world clinical data. We built a clinical research database, using machine learning and natural learning processing, and investigated factors influencing testosterone recovery (T-recovery) in patients with localized prostate cancer (LPC) after initial androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

Methods: Medication and treatment-associated dates missing in structured tables were extracted from patient notes using ConceptMapper, an automated data extraction tool, standardized and curated in Sema4 clinical research database.

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Advances in therapies have led to the approval of six therapeutic agents since 2004, each demonstrating overall survival benefit in randomized studies, and these have significantly improved the outlook for men facing metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). More recently, efforts have been directed at trying to effect change at earlier phases of the disease. Apalutamide (ARN-509), a second-generation androgen receptor antagonist, recently received approval in the nonmetastatic (M0) CRPC space.

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Non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) encompasses a diverse group of diseases, with research yielding different histologic findings and genetic profiles with each distinct subgroup. Simply mirroring the management techniques of clear cell RCC and borrowing from its growing armamentarium of therapeutic agents, while somewhat productive at first, but will ultimately be limiting. Further investigation into the molecular pathogenesis of disease, similarities and differences between specific subtypes, and mechanisms of resistance to therapeutics will help identify new targets, stimulate development of novel agents, and improve clinical trial offerings for non-clear cell RCC (nccRCC).

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The increasing potency of therapies that target the androgen receptor (AR) signalling axis has correlated with a rise in the proportion of patients with prostate cancer harbouring an adaptive phenotype, termed treatment-induced lineage crisis. This phenotype is characterized by features that include soft-tissue metastasis and/or resistance to standard anticancer therapies. Potent anticancer treatments might force cancer cells to evolve and develop alternative cell lineages that are resistant to primary therapies, a mechanism similar to the generation of multidrug- resistant microorganisms after continued antibiotic use.

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Treatment of advanced prostate cancer has changed considerably in recent years, but the vast majority of advances have been made in patients with metastatic castration-resistant disease. There have been relatively fewer advances in the earlier, hormonally responsive stage of metastatic disease. Since the empiric establishment of androgen deprivation therapy as first-line therapy for metastatic prostate cancer decades ago, there have been multiple studies looking at variations of suppressing testosterone, but the overall paradigm has not been strongly challenged until more recently.

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