I often try and steer a little clear of the most controversial of issues effecting those of us with prostate cancer, but despite personal opinions, the recent health care reform passed in the United States requires discussion. The reform legislation, besides representing the most sweeping social policy change in the U.S. in decades will have [...]
According to a study issued by Health Grades, an independent health care ratings organization, patients at highly rated hospitals have a 52 percent lower chance of dying compared with the U.S. hospital average! The study also found that hospitals that have received the Stroke Certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) [...]
The following was sent to me as a comment to a prior post. Instead, I think the comment warrants being put up as its own separate post. It is written by a urologist who has requested that I only use his initials instead of his full name. I would like to thank you for your [...]
The old adage, prostate cancer is the cancer that you die with not the cancer you die from has been around for a long time. No question compared too many other cancers prostate cancer does progress more slowly than many other cancers. But, is this adage true? Men with prostate cancer have competing mortality risks [...]
There has been a lot of criticism about the recent guidelines on PSA testing that has been issued by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Many of us with advanced prostate cancer are appalled with these guidelines and feel it is just another example of the ACS abandoning men with cancer over the powerful breast cancer [...]
According to Reuters a group of three non-profits, including a California nonprofit organization, has filed papers suing fish oil manufacturers and pharmacies that sell the popular supplement, fish oil. They the manufacturers and pharmacies did not properly disclose the toxicity of the fish oil. The legal claim, filed Tuesday in a San Francisco Superior Court, [...]
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Edolphus Towns, will hold a hearing entitled: “Prostate Cancer: New Questions About Screening and Treatment” tomorrow, Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. This is the first Congressional prostate cancer hearing in 11 years and, in the midst of debate on a health reform [...]
Currently, there is “Dear Colleague Letter” being circulated by two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jim Marshall (GA) and Peter King (NY) asking for support for increased funding for the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) — part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense. The letters are circulated [...]
We know that docetaxel chemotherapy (chemo) extends life, but which men might hope to experience an increase in survival? The Department of Urology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India performed a small study designed to evaluate the efficacy of docetaxel/prednisone and zoledronic acid in the treatment of men with hormone refractory prostate [...]
In a Town Hall discussion, “Ablating Testosterone in Prostate Cancer and the Concomitant Negative Effects”, Fred Saad, MD, FRCS, Director of Urologic Oncology, Professor of Surgery/Urology, U of M Chair in Prostate Cancer; University of Montreal discussed the negative effects that bone loss resulting from hormone therapy (ADT) poses to our life expectancy. His over [...]
