According to researchers at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, men with a mutation in their VAC14 gene are more susceptible to Docetaxil chemotherapy induced neuropathy and nerve pain. This debilitating side effect results from damage to the peripheral nerves and is felt by the man as weakness, numbness and pain most [...]
A man in the advanced prostate cancer online support group has asked, “Why the radiation (external beam to relieve bone pain from prostate cancer and to protect the bones from fractures) is given in so many "mini" doses rather than one or two larger doses. The answer is it doesn't necessarily have to be delivered [...]
Somehow I have been negligent and not let people know that I have written and posted a major update of my “Guide to Advanced Prostate Cancer.” As in the past, it is available as a free download from the Malecare web site. Helping me to update the book was prostate cancer survivor Craig Pynn and [...]
I really thought we had gotten over this problem, but an article appearing in a recent report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that the age old problem that often our doctors fail to supply adequate pain medications to advanced cancer survivors because a fear of drug addiction This attitude still hampers good survivorship [...]
Men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and bone metastases (BM) will often have debilitating pain that impacts every aspect of their daily functioning thus significantly diminishing their quality of life (QoL). Finding the best drug or treatment to control the pain will allow men to have a more complete and fulfilling life as well as [...]
According to Albert Camus, “Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.” The transition from patient under active treatment to being just an everyday cancer survivor can be a most challenging experience for many of us. Our surgical scars and the radiation burns have subsided and those that remain are [...]
We all know about the terror that has struck Boston. Two bombs exploded near at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and seriously injuring over 150 other individuals! One of the dead was an eight-year-old child. I know when I heard about the death of the child I prayed that this [...]
Currently as our advanced prostate cancer progresses and we develop bone and soft tissue tumors our pain increases significantly. Current treatment options for the palliation of this pain includes painkillers (including opioids and methadone), radiation and in rare incidents surgery. All of these options have significant limitations. Drugs eventually become less effective, especially for breakout [...]
More on Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) from the 2013 The last two abstracts that I want to speak about that were presented at the conference that pertained to Provenge speak to its efficacy. The first looks at changes in circulating tumor cells (CTC) and the second to the onset of the use of opioid painkillers. Abstract #40 [...]
Radium-223 Chloride (Alpharadin) is now available for the treatment of men with advanced prostate cancer who have symptomatic bone metastases (painful) and who are also castration-resistant (hormone-refractory). This is an expanded access program that will allow the use of Alpharadin prior to the formal FDA approval of the treatment. From the Clinical Trials Web Page [...]
