Sometimes some of us just simply decide that we will not start any treatment or continue a treatment protocol simply because we don’t want to have treatment. This type of decision is different from our deciding that a specific treatment has too many side effects for the potential upside it might provide. Researchers set out [...]
Not terribly surprising, but recent research shows that less than one-third of all cancer survivors of adult cancers in the United States ever had conversations with their healthcare providers about their psychosocial needs. The latest study showing this was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 This study was a large population-based study of 1777 [...]
According to a study published in the Feb. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology adults with cancer can experience improvements in their emotional distress levels and in their quality of life through the use of psycho-oncologic interventions, such as relaxation, individual and group psychotherapy, and psychoeducation. Hermann Faller, M.D., Ph.D., of the University [...]
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an old standby for the treatment of men with metastatic or advanced prostate cancer. We have long known that testosterone plays an integral role in the progression of prostate cancer, thus we often use it as an initial treatment for men who become metastatic. ADT is used both for men [...]
Recognizing Stress Life without prostate cancer can be very stressful….but life with prostate cancer is guaranteed to be stressful. From the moment you are diagnosed your life changes, including your stress level. Our stress level results from an accumulation of various stress factors such as heavy workload, poor communications, multiple frustrations, coping with situations in [...]
The question of today’s post is do men with advanced prostate cancer develop treatment regrets concurrent to their development of morbidity issues ( i.e.- myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, angina, diabetes, stroke, circulation problems, inflammatory bowel disease, or amputation)? To answer this question researchers evaluated 795 men from the Comprehensive, Observational, Multicenter, Prostate Adenocarcinoma Registry [...]
A very interesting study appears in the April issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. The study concluded that when a married couple deals with cancer, either partner’s psychological distress might have a significant negative impact on the other. It did nor matter which of the partner had the cancer diagnosis. “Whether it is my [...]
