Understanding and deciding on appropriate treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer can be confusing. All the treatments come with side effects and one never knows what the benefits might be for an individual. Even with good clinical trials, men with advanced prostate cancer still need to navigate a most unclear path. Provenge, ever since [...]
According to recent trials led by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) (UK) and The Royal Marsden (UK) combining Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) with the yet FDA unapproved investigational drug MDV3100 could increase the number of men, with advanced prostate cancer, who respond to treatment as well as the length of time they benefit. A new [...]
Xgeva (denosumab), which has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention fractures in men with advanced prostate cancer that has already migrated to the bone, has been rejected by the FDA to expand the use of the drug to delay the spread of tumors in men without metastases to [...]
Despite the fact that we have had good research for well over 15 years that show that early hormone therapy increases over all survival, some doctors still insist on delaying the start of hormone therapy. A UK randomized trial done in 1997 demonstrated a slight impact of immediate versus deferred hormone suppression in advanced prostate [...]
For those who might be interested in the April 23, 2012 edition of The New Yorker Magazine, Jerome Groopman has written an excellent article on the history and current state of Immunotherapy. The article is entitled "The T-Cell Army" and it is on page 24. Not only does the article review the history (going all [...]
I met with Dr. Kashif Shafique of the University of Glasgow who was the senior author of a research poster presented at the meeting. He and his colleagues look at the relationship between systemic inflammation and prostate cancer survival. Since there is some evidence that pre-treatment of systemic inflammation in men may be associated 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 [...]
According to an article written by Reuters some doctors have raised doubts about the efficacy of Provenge, known scientifically as sipuleucel-T. Prostate cancer vaccine Provenge has long incited passions unlike any other cancer therapy and the story seems to continue even to today. The current issue has been raised by Marie Huber, a trained scientist [...]
It is important to remember that confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength to curb the aggressive urges that our anger may bring and then to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness [...]
It is with great sorrow I must share the news of the death of John Arnold. John had been a long time contributor to the advanced prostate cancer support group. As he approach the end of his life and decided to enter into Hospice Care he, in his typical unselfish way, let us know that [...]
