The summer is coming to a close and I am back, ready to again take on the world. I had the fantastic opportunity of spending almost two weeks in Alaska, a land that is so different from the lower 48. I have to say that I have a new found respect for those individuals who [...]
When the press discusses medical mistakes they are usually referring to mistakes made in a hospital, but guess what, mistakes are often made in a doctors office. These mistakes are not counted in the statistics often quoted. Twelve year old data from the Institute of Medicine sites the horrific statistic that each year between 44,000 [...]
In an updated study published in the New England Journal of Medicine men who had a radical prostatectomy did not enjoy the experience of a reduced all-cause mortality or prostate cancer mortality compared with those men who had only observation through several years of follow-up. The subject men had localized prostate cancer often detected by [...]
Men with locally advanced prostate cancer have a better survival chance if they receive radiotherapy along with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). This data was presented at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2012 conference. Professor Malcom Mason from Whales University discussed a trial he conducted that demonstrated that for a man diagnosed with [...]
Science and good medicine is not always what it seems. We all believe that if something is logical it must be true, but often the most logical assumptions we make do not stand up to good scientific inquiry. Many of us choke on the fact that Provenge extends life while it has no effect on [...]
In a study conducted by Choueiri et al. published in Cancer it was suggested that men who have prostate cancer that was treated by a radical prostatectomy (RP) who then had a long time to a biochemical recurrence (BCR) or a long PSA doubling time after a BCR have no higher overall risk of death [...]
My very dear friend and advocate supreme, Jan Manarite, from PCRI has sent me an update on MDV3100 (enzalutamide). As usual her information is important, so I thought I would pass it on today. • She points out that once the FDA approves MDV3100 (I am going to work on the assumption that it will [...]
Finally, we are getting a little common sense discussion about the role of PSA screening. Not to beat a dead horse, but as we all know the United Sates Preventive Task Force (USPTF) changed their rating of the PSA test from a D to a F. The result of this change is that many doctors, [...]
What are our goals as advanced prostate cancer survivors and what are the goals of our oncologists? Often they are not the same! This misalignment between our expectations and those of our clinicians is common, but inexcusable. These issues become clear when we look at issues surrounding our quality of life. The treatments for advanced [...]
One of the more common myths about hormone therapy (ADT) to treat prostate cancer is that its effectiveness will last only for one and a half to two years. For some men this might be true, but it is not a reality in today’s prostate cancer landscape. What makes this myth worse is that it [...]
