Many of us who are fighting advanced prostate cancer struggle with the perplexing side effects of non-steroidal antiandrogens (like Casodex). These side effects include gynecomastia (breast enlargement) and breast pain. In most cases as we use these drugs our breasts grow, become very sensitive and/or painful. In my case my breasts have grown to the [...]
Yesterday, I was given the honor of being named as one of the ten “influencers” in prostate cancer. The honor was extended by sharecare.org (twitter- Sharecare ?@SharecareNow ). Sharecare is active in many health issues, their prostate cancer expert’s page can be seen at: I am joined by some remarkable people; John McHugh, M.D. - [...]
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 [...]
All of us in the prostate cancer world know that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) has announced its recommendation against routine PSA screening for men. There remains much debate and unhappiness in both the medical community (urologists and oncologists) as well as in the prostate cancer community itself. There remains a lot of [...]
Cancer related fatigue (CRF) is a common problem suffered by many cancer survivors, including men with advanced prostate cancer. Whether the fatigue is a result of the cancer or of the treatment doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you are fatigued and unable to live your life as you wish. CRF can affect us [...]
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an old standby for the treatment of men with metastatic or advanced prostate cancer. We have long known that testosterone plays an integral role in the progression of prostate cancer, thus we often use it as an initial treatment for men who become metastatic. ADT is used both for men [...]
There has been an on-going debate on the advanced prostate cancer on-line support group about the issue of the efficacy of Provenge in light of the expectation of a person's increasing PSA number while getting the treatment. For many men with advanced prostate cancer this is a reason they elect to pass on this treatment [...]
If you are contemplating any sort of medical procedure during the month of July, preceed with cauction. July is the perfect storm, a time in which many unnecessary medical mistakes are to be made, especia in hospitals. July is a time when part-timers, temporary workers and newbies, none of whom know how to work with [...]
This month has been very tough for the prostate cancer community. Earlier, prostate cancer took from us John Arnold who was both a consummate educator about prostate cancer and now it has taken another prostate cancer fighter, Fred Gersh. Fred passed away in the morning of April 6 after having been hospitalized for about [...]
