Leonard G. Gomella, MD

During the past year, changes in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer have sparked increased discussion and debate, with many patients and their treating physicians left wondering how to proceed appropriately.

In March, a one-day conference dedicated to the multidisciplinary management of prostate cancer will provide specialists with practical information they need to provide their patients with the best in diagnostic and therapeutic care.

The 5th Annual Interdisciplinary Prostate Cancer Congress (IPCC) will be held on Saturday, March 31, at the Intercontinental New York Barclay in New York City.

“It’s not just a urology-centric meeting,” said Leonard G. Gomella, MD, chairman of the Department of Urology at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and a program director of the upcoming IPCC conference. “It’s designed to cover all of the new aspects [of interdisciplinary care] that are going on with prostate cancer.”

This year, major topics include the heavily debated subject of how to use prostate-specific antigen testing in diagnosing patients with prostate cancer, and emerging bone-related therapies for treating prostate cancer including denosumab (Xgeva) and radium-223 (Alpharadin).

Gomella said the value of the conference for attendees is its focus on practical applications of these new developments. “When they go back to the patient setting, they can actually use [this information] in their daily patient care,” Gomella said.