The Bush administration has begun the traditional post election changes of regulations and executive orders that often accompany a change in administrations. On Friday, the president narrowed the scope of services for poor people who rely on Medicaid's outpatient benefits. The administration claimed the purpose of the order was to clarified the definition of outpatient [...]
A federal court blocked a recent move of the Bush administration to allow Medicare to only pay for the least expensive treatment available without regard to the medical issues. The administration saw instituting this limitation as a way to cut costs to the financially strapped Medicare Program. The court decided that congress sets the Medicare [...]
I recently met a prostate cancer survivor whose doctor prescribed a new “miracle drug” to treat his loss of bone density caused by hormone therapy. He was given a prescription for FORTEO® and told that this drug has proven itself a better alternative to bisphosphonates, the normal treatment for bone density loss. Forteo® is a [...]
Go to a support group and one of the most common complaints you will here is about the number of times we need to wake up from our sleep and urinate. As we age, we all find that we are constantly beating our way to the bathroom and when you have had primary prostate cancer [...]
Normally, I don't duplicate my postings from internet listservs, but today I am going to make an exception. There was a posting today on The list called "Prostate Problems." The thread involved my post about the recent decision from the Social Security Administration to place a number of diseases on an accelerated approval list for [...]
Imagine these headlines in your local newspaper: JUMBO JET CRASHES KILLING ALL – 1,000 PEOPLE DIE! The front pages of all of our newspapers would scream about this massive tragedy of “epic proportions.” Now imagine that that a jumbo jet crashes and kills everyone on board every two weeks for an entire year. Every two [...]
A prominent attorney, Frederick Baron, who is dying of bone marrow cancer, has been granted his wish, to receive the drug Tysabri. After significant wrangling, The FDA and the Mayo Clinic found a legal basis to give him the drug in an emergency situation, even though Tysabri is not approved for any cancers. This decision [...]
Today, Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ:CGRB) unveiled the results from its ongoing Phase II clinical trial drug CB7630 (abiraterone acetate). The data was presented at the Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The clinical trial, which is centered at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas and was designed to look at the [...]
As advanced prostate cancer progresses it becomes inevitable that we will develop bone metastases. The treatments available are designed to slow disease progression, to relieve pain and to avoid the complications that result from bones being weakened by the cancer. Weakened bones become very susceptible to fractures, with prostate cancer the most likely sight for [...]
In today’s New York Times Gina Kolata wrote a very interesting article about the unreliability of MRIs for diagnostic purposes. She wrote from the perspective of orthopedic injuries, but since MRIs are main stays for us suffering with prostate cancer, there is an important message for us. Her story revolves around a running injury that [...]
