This particular topic may be the most important. A few have tried to put the discussion about its importance on the table (ref. this document published by the AUA back in 2005), but perhaps old habits die hard? General cancer conferences are mandated by the Commission on Cancer (CoC). You can’t be a community cancer [...]
Over treatment is the big issues thrown out there in any discussion about why men shouldn’t screen. So a couple of years ago the concept of Active Surveillance began to gain broader conceptual adoption. It’s generally considered to be a good smart option for maybe as many as half of men who are diagnosed, provided [...]
Without getting into any details about side-effects, from what I understand, a lot of prostate cancer patients experience them, and many exit treatment feeling unprepared for the physical and psychological burden associated with them. What’s worse, some “don’t want to talk about them” even to the extent of living with side-effects for years without being [...]
I'm going to go ahead and answer that with a big YES! But with the caveat that the breadth and scope of our awareness has to expand if we have any hope of ever comprehensively addressing the issues that surround this awful disease. Knowing it's there does scarcely little good with no clear path for [...]
1) Start building personal medical file by getting every copy of medical procedure done on you, including the biopsy results, blood works, MRI, Bone scan and others. Patient have a right to demand a copy for each procedure and this will serve as your personal reference in the future to keep track of your own [...]
NOTE: I ADDED INFORMATION TO THIS STORY AFTER I INITIALLY PUBLISHED IT. PLEASE CONSIDER THIS NEW INFORMATIONIT CAREFULLY. The Wall Street Journal Health Blog entry today (Surgery for Prostate Cancer: Comparing Different Techniques, by Jacob Goldstein) concerns the results of a study recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association which compared the [...]
I must say I found the following article in USA Today ( 4/1/09, by Liz Szabo) , bonechilling. A British study confirms what I've said many times: that when it comes to performing minimally-invasive radical prostatectomy or laparoscopy (which includes robotically assisted surgery, *although that was not the subject of this study*), NO amount of experience on the [...]
I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed in the article Prostate Cancer: Men Deserve Better, European Association of Urology, March 17, 2009 (exerpts below). . But talk is cheap. The question is, how do we bring about real change (change we can believe in!)? That's a lot to ask -- but heck, we are worth [...]
I want to pass on some information that newly diagnosed men absolutely should consider. It is from the excellent blog "Palpable Prostate" by A. Black. The gist of this is that for intermediate- and higher-grade PC pts (GL 7+, PSA 10+), *open* surgery for PC is considered preferable to laparascopic (which includes robotic) surgery by [...]
These are from Curtis Palmer, originally posted in alt.support.cancer.prostate. Enjoy, and send me your own. Curtis wrote: "Biopsies are no joke, but a physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his male patients while he was performing their biopsies. I must say I was excited to see this, because there is a [...]
