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 [...]
There is an article in today's New York Times in which the author describes his thought processes as he went about first choosing a treatment and then a doctor after he was diagnosed with PC. Trouble is the guy is a newbie who doesn't know anything but thinks he does . But didn't we all?? I think [...]
All serious illnesses cause emotional distress. But prostate cancer patients may be even more vulnerable. This is because treatments for PC often cause erectile dysfunction (in at least 50% of men who've had RP, for example), which is highly correlated with depression. Also, some men who've undergone treatment have been left with distressing side effects [...]
This was a good week for prostate cancer. First there was a front-page article in the Sunday New York Times which reported that the drug finasteride (Proscar) may, if taken regularly, lower one's risk of developing prostate cancer by 30%. Then there was a study by Dr. Ornish of UC San Francisco, (excellent hospital), which [...]
This is a follow-up to the previous posting. Please read that first. Following is an editorial by Dr. Michael Blute of the Mayo Clinic urology faculty. He is commenting on a study by Dr. Hu which compared laparascopic and open surgery. I am going to cite the entire article almost verbatim and I have emphasized parts that I [...]
I was going to share with you an opinion piece in which several doctors from the Mayo Clinic comment on a study by Dr. Hu of Harvard, which compared outcomes for laparascopic (which includes robotic) and traditional open surgery for prostate cancer. I had some resistance to posting this information because I know it's not what people want [...]
You may have heard that Hamilton Jordan, chief-of-staff to Jimmy Carter, died yesterday of cancer at the age of 63. You may not have known that Jordan battled four cancers, including lymphoma, prostate, skin cancer and mesothelioma. In spite of all this, Jordan wrote a book called "No Such Thing As A Bad Day" speaking about himself. Jordan [...]
I always advise newly diagnosed men to get a second opinion on their biopsies from a very experienced person. That's because Gleason scores are notoriously inaccurate. For example, dear husband's biopsy slides were interpeted by three different pathologists and he was assigned three different Gleason scores. (First biopsy ordered by urologist, second done by hospital pathologist [...]
[For an introduction to this article, please read the previous posting.] Sandwich Generation caregivers Minnesota Public Radio, April 17, 2008 by Nanci Olesen "I can hold her hand and you can feel that there's something much deeper than words can ever express, so that's how we communicate. But she's slipping away." Mary Louise Clary is [...]
An article in yesterday's "Science Times" caught my eye: A Conversation with Daniel Gilbert: The Smiling Professor, by Claudia Dreifus (Published: April 22, 2008.) A scholar who studies "the nature of happiness" at Harvard, Daniel Gilbert, found out and reported what I already knew: That most of us humans are unbreakable. Basically, we can adapt to anything. If [...]
