A very interesting article appeared in the Saturday, November 24, 2012 edition of the Washington Post. According to the article The New England Journal of Medicine which is among the most prestigious medical journal in the world regularly features articles over which pharmaceutical companies and their employees exert significant influence. The problem is simple, over [...]
I just cannot remember where I put my keys. What is my home telephone number? What is his name, you know the guy I sit next to everyday in the office? Sound familiar, maybe because you are on hormone deprivation therapy (ADT) to treat your advanced prostate cancer. This can explain why your normally intact [...]
In the prostate cancer world we often discuss treatment options, some approved by the FDA and some not approved. Among the treatment options bantered about are statins (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme a reductase inhibitor) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). According to the folklore both these drugs are associated with reducing the risk of prostate cancer and improved [...]
The Early Access Committee on which Malecare sits has been successful in adding an additional site in Long Island, New York to the Early Access Trial of Radium-233 Chloride (Alpharedin) for men with advanced prostate cancer who are castrate resistant and have at least two (2) bone metastases. If you are interested in this trial [...]
Medivation, the pharmaceutical company that owns Xtandi (formerly known as MDV-3100), the new androgen receptor antagonist to treat castrate resistant advanced prostate cancer has a number of active clinical trials, despite the fact that it has already been approved for use. The current FDA approval is specific; it has been approved for men who are [...]
At the October 28 meeting of the American Society for Radiation the final data from the ALSYMPCA trial were presented. The trial evaluated radium-223 (Alpharedin) in men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer that had spread to the bones. Alpharedin is part of a class of drugs called alpha-particle emitters that targets bone metastases. The good news [...]
Having hot flashes because of hormone deprivation therapy (ADT)? All of us dealing with advanced prostate cancer will be on ADT, it is the usual first line of therapy and it will continue until we die. Men who elect to have radiation to treat prostate cancer as their primary treatment modality will often have some [...]
How much money is a drug worth and how much money should we be willing to spend for it have been questions that have been increasingly asked by economists, doctors and cancer survivors. Last month in an Op-Ed article three doctors from Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Sloane) let the world know [...]
Many of us use supplements as either complementary or alternative medicines (CAMS) to treat our prostate cancer as well as advanced prostate cancer. If we interview a selection of men and ask what supplements they take there are a number of items we take that are fairly universal among us. They include pomegranate extract, green [...]
When facing a post prostatectomy biochemical failure (PSA only failure) the best way to treat is still not known. Preliminary data from Johns Hopkins [1] and Duke Universities[2] have recently provided some of the earliest evidence that salvage radiotherapy may prolong overall survival versus delay of intervention until time of symptomatic progression. Despite [...]
