At the 2025 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, researchers from Japan reported marked differences between the populations of several key microbial species in the gut microbiomes of patients with metastatic prostate cancer that distinguished them from those with non-metastatic disease. This was in the PROMISE-JAPAN study with 869 Japanese patients.

After talking about his group’s new data, lead researcher Koji Hatano, MD, a urologist from Osaka University in Japan, discussed the insights this has given doctors into the metastatic process and potential ways of modifying it.

A numerical formula called the absolute percentage pattern 4/5 (APP4) combining risk factors, including Gleason grade, PSA, and digital rectal examination, is being used to select patients whose intermediate risk prostate cancer can safely be followed with active surveillance.

A research study using APP4 was reported at the 2025 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco. First author Ruben Del Castillo, MD, a radiation oncologist from the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, shared the details.

Masood Moghul, MBBS, a urologist and research fellow at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK, discussed his group’s findings from the Man Van study investigating a mobile, targeted, case-finding approach to prostate cancer detection with 3,379 patients conducted in Greater London.

Moghul told the 2025 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco how the study had addressed health inequalities and barriers to accessing health care that affect prostate cancer in high-risk underserved groups.

In the third episode of A Deep Dive Into HRD Testing in Ovarian Cancer, a three-part podcast series sponsored by AstraZeneca, we’re speaking with Dr. David O’Malley, and Bobbie R, an ovarian cancer patient. Dr. O’Malley will highlight how HRD testing empowers ovarian cancer patients to make more informed decisions with their doctors to help guide their treatment journey, and Bobbie will provide insight into her experience with HRD testing.

Dr. David O’Malley is a professor in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and the director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the OSUCCC – James.

Bobbie is a stage 3C ovarian cancer patient who lives in Rochester, New York. Bobbie is an animal rights activist, vegetarian, and exerciser who recently retired from the healthcare field, having worked as a registered nurse and owner of a healthcare staffing firm. Following her diagnosis in July of 2021, Bobbie participated in biomarker testing which indicated that she was breast cancer gene (BRCA) negative and homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) positive. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy as first-line treatment, Bobbie’s oncologist explained that she was eligible for a poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor due to her HRD status and on March 7, 2022, Bobbie started on a PARP inhibitor for maintenance treatment. As she continues treatment in 2024, Bobbie celebrates over 45 years of marriage with her husband and looks forward to traveling the United States, reading good books, and spending time with her dogs.

For more information, visit https://www.azprecisionmed.com/tumor-type/ovarian-cancer/hrd-testing.html

For patient resources, please visit TestForHRD.com.

This podcast does not necessarily reflect the opinions of AstraZeneca and are the spokespeople's opinions and experiences.

In the second episode of A Deep Dive into HRD Testing in Ovarian Cancer, a three-part podcast series sponsored by AstraZeneca, we’re speaking with Dr. Erin Crane who will highlight how HRD testing provides helpful information to ovarian cancer patients.

Erin K. Crane, MD, MPH, is a gynecologic oncologist with Atrium Health Levine Cancer in Charlotte, North Carolina. A graduate of the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY, Dr. Crane completed her residency at the University of Virginia and a fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Gynecologic Oncology. She is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Gynecologic Oncology and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Crane is a Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

For more information, visit https://www.azprecisionmed.com/tumor-type/ovarian-cancer/hrd-testing.html

For patient resources, please visit TestForHRD.com.

This podcast does not necessarily reflect the opinions of AstraZeneca and are the spokesperson's opinions and experience.

In the first episode of A Deep Dive into HRD Testing in Ovarian Cancer, a three-part podcast series sponsored by AstraZeneca, we’re speaking with Dr. Kathleen Moore about HRD testing in ovarian cancer and its clinical significance in helping aid precision medicine approaches.

Dr. Kathleen Moore is a Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Associate Director of Clinical Research and Director of the Oklahoma TSET Phase I Program at the Stephenson Cancer Center. A graduate of the University of Washington School of Medicine, WA, Dr. Moore completed her residency in gynecology at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA and completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, OK. She is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology as well as gynecologic oncology and hospice and palliative care.

For more information, visit: https://www.azprecisionmed.com/tumor-type/ovarian-cancer/hrd-testing.html

For patient resources, please visit TestForHRD.com.

This podcast does not necessarily reflect the opinions of AstraZeneca and are the spokeperson's opinions and experience.

Although one in five colorectal cancers having microsatellite instability and expressing the Werner Helicase (WRN) gene could be treated with drugs that inhibit WRN, the effectiveness of such an approach has been limited by resistance. However, researchers identified the Cys727 mutation as being solely responsible for WRN inhibitor resistance. This potentially opens the door to using WRN inhibitors in the cancer clinic by inactivating this resistance gene.

At the EORTC-NCI-AACR 2024 Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics Symposium Gabriele Picco, PhD, Senior Staff Scientist in the Translational Cancer Genomics Team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Genome Campus, reported findings about WRN resistance mechanisms that may clear the path to introducing WRN inhibitors to the cancer clinic to fight microsatellite unstable cancers. 

A tumor-agnostic classifier and screening tool was announced at ESMO Congress 2024 in Barcelona. It was created to make it easier and quicker to develop new drugs that have specific molecular targets, and thus have potential anti-cancer efficacy irrespective of tumor type or location.

The ESMO Tumour-Agnostic Classifier and Screener was the result of work by a multidisciplinary team of international experts led by the ESMO Precision Medicine Working Group. At the conference, Benedikt Westphalen, MD, a medical oncologist and molecular biologist who is Head of the Precision Oncology Program at the University of Munich in Germany, talked about the details with Oncology Times correspondent Peter Goodwin.