There has been much conversation surrounding the use of intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD) as opposed to continuous androgen deprivation (CAD) in men with prostate cancer who need hormone therapy (ADT). The question that has been at issue is if either method is superior to the other. There have been studies that have concluded that they [...]
There are a number of different flavors of hormone therapy (ADT) used to treat advanced prostate cancer. However, they could be summed up and put into two different categories. 1- The use of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist therapy (drugs like Lupron and Zoladex) along with short term antiandrogen (AA) flare protection 2- Degarelix, a [...]
My wife Wendy wrote a post to the advanced prostate cancer online support group where she discussed our recent experience re-entering the healthcare system to deal with a non-prostate cancer issue. In the post she shared that I have been diagnosed with a rare cancer, appendiceal cancer, specifically a mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. We have become very [...]
Choline-C11 PET/CT scans can identify the actual sites of recurrence of prostate cancer in men who have a rising PSA after receiving primary therapy. The question worth asking is if this type of scan might be able to be used for prognostic purposes. Knowing this might influence our treatment decisions as well as our basic [...]
I wanted to wish everyone a great Thanksgiving. Despite all the trials and tribulations we each must deal with we also must remember that we all have much to be thankful about. The fact that each of us have managed to reach this day is it self a gift worthy of our thanks. Sometimes it [...]
Yes, it is true, many clinical trial results are not published, especially negative results. This is even true for FDA approved drugs and treatments! Failing to publish, or actually hiding negative results and harmful side effects that occur in clinical trials is too common and jeopardizes each and everyone of us, including survivors of advanced [...]
Over this past week I have not been able to make any post to the blog. I apologize to anybody kept coming back to the blog and didn't see anything new. Two Sunday nights ago I was admitted to the hospital and had an emergency appendectomy the following Tuesday night. Due to my age and [...]
In the normal course of events node-positive prostate cancer has typically been excluded from clinical trials. This leaves our oncologists with little evidence to guide the management for those of us who have this flavor of prostate cancer. A recent anaylisis presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress begins to shed [...]
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and bone complications are the two near universals for men with advanced prostate cancer. A long-term follow up of fifteen (15) years after diagnosis of a population-based cohort of prostate cancer survivors proved to be very informative. The Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study, which enrolled 3533 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between [...]
Bayer Healthcare has announced that they will be resuming production of Xofigo® (radium Ra 223 dichloride) for new patients beginning on Monday, November 17th. Xofigo is the newly FDA approved radiopharmaceutical treatment for men with castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) with bone metastases without any known visceral metastases. On October 8, 2014 Bayer informed [...]
