JULY 31: PROSTABLOG NZ: Prostate cancer patients who think drinking calcium-fortified trim milk is a good way to maintain health need to read this.
JULY 31: David Leonhardt, NEW YORK TIMES: The “prostate cancer test” will determine whether President Obama and Congress put together a bill that begins to fix the fundamental problem with our medical system: the combination of soaring costs and mediocre results. READ MORE>
JULY 31: NZ MINISTRY OF HEALTH: A set of guidelines for registered working in cancer control has just been published by the New Zealand Ministry of Health. READ MORE>
JULY 31: MEDICAL NEWS TODAY: Trusted health care sources and continuity of care may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer deaths in African-American men, according to a study published in the current issue of the journal Cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 31: INDIAN NEWSLINK: NZ politician Dr Jackie Blue (a National list MP) is urging men in the country’s Indian communities to avail themselves of cancer screening. READ MORE>
JULY 31: MEDPAGE TODAY: Smokeless tobacco does not increase the user’s risk of cancers – other than oropharyngeal and prostate cancer, according to an industry-sponsored review of data from 89 studies. READ MORE>
JULY 31: URO TODAY: If population-based screening and testing were adopted in the UK, five times as many men would be diagnosed with prostate cancer, a new study has concluded. READ MORE>
JULY 31: URO TODAY: What’s the most accurate way your specialist can predict your fate when you first learn you have prostate cancer? Using something called a nomogram, according to latest analysis. READ MORE>
JULY 31: URO TODAY: Knowledge of the molecular and cellular changes that occur during the transition of hormone-naïve to castration-resistant prostate cancer is increasing rapidly. This might provide a window of opportunity for (future) drug development, and for treating patients with these potential devastating states of disease, say Dutch researchers. READ MORE>
JULY 31: URO TODAY: Higher levels of immune cells called CD68(+) macrophages found in patients having androgen deprivation therapy may be associated with greater risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a study in Quebec. Patients with elevated abundance of CD56(+) Natural Killer cells had lower risk of prostate cancer progression. READ MORE>
JULY 31: URO TODAY: Researchers have investigated whether whole-pelvis radiotherapy in combination with interstitial brachytherapy – thus covering the pelvic lymph nodes – improves treatment outcome in high-risk prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 30: ELEMENTS 4 HEALTH.COM: Researchers have provided a possible mechanism to link high dietary consumption of genistein-containing foods with lower rates of prostate cancer metastasis and mortality. READ MORE>
JULY 30: HULIQ NEWS: Men who have a regular, ongoing relationship with a health care provider are more likely to receive prostate cancer screening and less likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 30: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: A new study has attempted to assess whether data based on PSA doubling times can be used as effectively to make early treatment decisions. READ MORE>
JULY 30: PR NEWSWIRE.COM: Oncologists expect to prescribe the new vaccine for advanced prostate cancer, Provenge, to 54 percent of patients with asymptomatic hormone refractory metastatic prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 30: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: The European Association of Urology issued new guidelines on pain management for patients with urologic conditions this year. READ MORE>
JULY 30: SCIENCE DAILY: A team of scientists has developed a computer model that predicts cancer recurrence in an individual based on how the tumour changes size in response to the first rounds of radiation therapy. READ MORE>
JULY 29: URO TODAY: Analysis of an enzyme in men’s urine may provide a new way to diagnose metastatic prostate cancer, a new study suggests. READ MORE>
JULY 29: URO TODAY: Just how prostate cancer finds a way to defeat hormone therapy is been clarified by a new study. READ MORE>
JULY 29: WALL ST JOURNAL HEALTH: Prostate cancer screening and treatment will come under the microscope in the great US government examination of where the health care dollar goes. READ MORE>
JULY 29: URO TODAY: The theory of a stem-cell origin of cancers offers some clues about who may be the ideal candidates and what may the right tumors for primary surgery, for metastatectomy, and for neoadjuvant or adjuvant strategies. READ MORE>
JULY 29: URO TODAY: New York researchers have discovered a new gene fusion that is highly expressed in a subset of prostate cancers. The results may lead to more accurate prostate cancer testing and new targets for potential treatments. READ MORE>
JULY 29: GARY SCHWITZER BLOG: There’s a very important study published in the July 27 Journal of Clinical Oncology – but if you read different news stories – or at least their headlines – you’d never know they were all about the same study. READ MORE>
JULY 29: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: There are some important limitations to conclusions drawn from a new study that suggest a low death rate among men newly diagnosed with low- or intermediate-risk localised prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 29: PROSTABLOG NZ: Don’t waste your time eating raw tomato if your aim is to stave off prostate cancer, a leading NZ scientist says. READ MORE>
JULY 29: PROSTABLOG NZ: Facebook now has a new New Zealand group for those interested in prostate cancer, started by Prostate Cancer Foundation executive committee member Nick Jack. READ MORE>
JULY 28: JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY: Few patients will die from prostate cancer within 15 years of radical prostatectomy, despite the presence of adverse clinical features, according to a new study of 13,000 US men. READ MORE>
JULY 28: URO TODAY: If patients are stratified correctly according to pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative factors, satisfactory recovery of erectile function may be expected after surgery, says a new Italian study. READ MORE>
JULY 28: EXAMINER.COM: Zyflamend is a herbal preparation found to reduce risk of prostate cancer in phase 1 clinical trials, according to a study by the Center for Holistic Urology at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia. READ MORE>
JULY 28: EUREKALERT: Men with early stages of prostate cancer who delay radical treatment in favor of an approach of “expectant management” do not have high levels of anxiety and distress, according to a new study published in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. READ MORE>
JULY 28: URO TODAY: In prostate cancer salvage cases, cryoablation is the therapy of choice for localised prostate cancer, say German researchers. This is the result of standardisation of the procedure, definition of freeze-thaw cycles and structured training programmes. READ MORE>
JULY 28: UK PRESS ASSOCIATION: A survey of British GPs carried out by the UK Prostate Cancer Charity revealed 20% of doctors questioned disagreed men should have access to the PSA test. READ MORE>
JULY 28: PROSTABLOG NZ: When you go out into the sun and get all that beneficial Vitamin D on your skin – don’t go home and wash it off in the shower, says top NZ immunology scientist Dr Richard Forster. READ MORE>
JULY 27: PUB MED: A trial involving men with hormone-refractory (advanced) prostate cancer who were treated with Provenge (a cellular immunotherapy product called Sipuleucel-T) had a “survival benefit” and only modest side effects, say the Washington researchers. READ MORE>
JULY 27: URO TODAY: Higher pre-treatment blood serum levels of calcium, albumin and haemoglobin are good prognostic factors for patients with metastatic prostatic cancer on hormone treatment, irrespective of tumour grading. READ MORE>
JULY 27: URO TODAY: A combination approach to hormone and radiation treatment for men with localised but high risk prostate cancer works better than so-called mono-therapy, a new study has found. READ MORE>
JULY 26: PROSTABLOG NZ: Advice for prostate survivors – drink pinot noir red wine from a cool climate like Central Otago in NZ’s South Island, pomegranate juice and soy milk.
JULY 25: PROSTABLOG NZ: Barry Young, long-serving president of the NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation, was re-elected for his sixth term today, but this may be his last.
JULY 24: EMEDIST.COM: How hormone-dependent prostate cancer advances to the incurable hormone-independent stage has been discovered by researchers at Ohio State University. READ MORE>
JULY 24: URO TODAY: Erectile dysfunction drug tadalafil improved performance and satisfaction significantly for men in a US trial, compared with those given a placebo. READ MORE>
JULY 24: RENAL & UROLOGY NEWS: A protein that shows up in the urine of men with prostate cancer, but not those who don’t have it, may be an effective screening test by 2011, UK researchers believe. READ MORE>
JULY 24: RENAL & UROLOGY NEWS: Primary cryo-ablation of the entire prostate gland – treatment which uses freezing – is an effective option for prostate cancer patients, according to researchers. READ MORE>
JULY 24: US ARMY TIMES: Prostate cancer rates among US military people have risen much faster than in the general population, possibly as a result of troop exposure to depleted uranium in weapons, but perhaps also because of free screening. READ MORE>
JULY 24: URO TODAY: High intake of secondary vegetable substances found in soy, called isoflavones, may protect against prostate cancer, according to findings in a study of multi-ethnic populations in California and Hawaii. READ MORE>
JULY 23: REUTERS HEALTH: The outcome of treatment for early prostate cancer depends on the patient’s sexual, bowel and urinary function at baseline. These factors also influence the type of treatment the patient will receive. READ MORE>
JULY 23: URO TODAY: More than half of men use erectile aids after treatment for prostate cancer , especially when they are significantly bothered by dysfunction. This is most pronounced after radical prostatectomy and in men with significant comorbidity. READ MORE>
JULY 23: URO TODAY: Prostate cancer patients may not recall information given to them early after diagnosis and may make unreliable evaluations of its value to them due to their psychological state, an Australian study finds. READ MORE>
JULY 23: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Researchers in Califorinia have done detailed detailed analysis of the relationship between socio-economic status and prostate cancer among African-Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics, and Asian/Pacific Islanders. READ MORE>
JULY 23: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: A retrospective study of more than 11,000 men treated in numerous medical centres/hospitals in Japan suggests that – at the time the patients were being treated – many prostate cancer patients were still being diagnosed with more advanced forms of prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 22: NEW YORK TIMES: At least five kinds of treatment are available to fight slow-growing, early-stage prostate cancer, but clinical questions remain over which results in the best patient outcome, a former US congressman writes in the Times’ letters-to-the-editor section. READ MORE>
JULY 21: NEW YORK TIMES: “After a very long winter of radiation and hormone treatment for my prostate cancer — a winter that sometimes felt as if it might never end — I, too, find myself giddy with the rush and optimism of spring,” writes New York Times editor and prostate blogger Dana Jennings. READ MORE>
JULY 21: JOURNAL OF UROLOGY: Treatment or non-treatment decisions about prostate cancer can be made once a cancer is found – but not knowing about it in the first place surely burns bridges, says an article on three big randomised studies of screening. READ MORE>
JULY 21: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: America’s prostate cancer organisations – including Prostate Cancer International – have again taken joint action to bring our voices together to focus on important issues that affect prostate cancer in the ongoing health care reform debate. READ MORE>
JULY 21: HERALD-TRIBUNE.COM (Florida): A debate between radiation therapy specialists and those using proton therapy has hotted up in the US. READ MORE>
JULY 20: URO TODAY: Erect penis length decreases significantly after the implantation of an inflatable penile prosthesis, new research shows. READ MORE>
JULY 20: PROSTABLOG NZ: New Zealanders have until August 21 to make submissions to the world’s only current parliamentary inquiry into prostate cancer screening. READ MORE>
JULY 20: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: The computer workstation with software used to calculate post-implant dosages for brachytherapy treatment at Philadelphia’s Veterans Hospital was unplugged from the hospital’s network for a year, an inquiry into the hospital’s cancer treatment scandal has heard. READ MORE>
JULY 20: REDSTATEECLECTIC.COM: Men with prostate cancer in Britain have a 57% mortality rate while in the US only 19% die and the death rate is declining rapidly because of early detection. READ MORE>
JULY 19: URO TODAY: Neither red wine nor total alcohol consumption are associated with prostate cancer risk, according to analysis of moderate drinkers among a health research group of 84,000 Californian men. READ MORE>
JULY 19: URO TODAY: Obese white men in the US show PSA levels much lower than those with normal weight, but more research is needed to find out if ethnic minorities show similar trends. READ MORE>
JULY 19: TVNZ: Campaigners against adding folic acid to bread in NZ have drawn a counter-attack from folate supporters, who say the dangers – including prostate cancer risk – have been exaggerated. READ MORE>
JULY 19: SUNDAY STAR-TIMES: The NZ government’s plan to put folic acid – a suspected prostate cancer risk – in the country’s bread will be abandoned at tomorrow’s meeting of Cabinet, the paper predicts. READ MORE>
JULY 18: WORLD-BIGGEST-NEWS.COM: Controversial drug thalidomide does not improve survival for lung cancer patients, UK scientists say, but it is still being investigated as a treatment for prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: A new study finds no clear evidence that any definition of PSA dynamics – pre-treatment PSA velocity (or doubling time) – substantially enhances the predictive accuracy of a single pre-treatment PSA alone. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: To date there has been no accepted standard for second-line chemotherapy in docetaxel-refractory patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. This study evaluated experience with mitoxantrone plus prednisone (MP) in this setting. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: A lowest point (nadir) PSA value of less than 1.5 two years after radiotherapy for prostate cancer is an indication of good long-term outcomes. Patients with higher nadir levels at two years after treatment should be evaluated to see if the disease has spread, and earlier salvage treatment should be considered. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: Selenium is known as a prostate cancer protector: a new US research looks at its effects. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: In incontinence treatment called ProACT is a less invasive treatment compared to the standard artificial urinary sphincter, the male sling and bulk injections, a Dutch study shows. READ MORE>
JULY 18: URO TODAY: A new gene test called the “4-gene RT-PCR test” can be used to detect Gleason grade 3 and grade 4 cancer cells in prostate tissue and may be useful as an adjunct to the pathology examination of prostate tissue taken at biopsy or prostatectomy. READ MORE>
JULY 18: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Latest research on whether PSA tests gives enough information to predict long-term cancer risk shows they may be a signal, but “not enough to light a fire”. READ MORE>
JULY 18: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Researchers are claiming that their Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) score – using information at pre-treatment stage – accurately predicts long-term prostate cancer risk, but Mike Scott warns that another large-scale study may be needed before such a claim can be accepted. READ MORE>
JULY 18: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Most of the published literature does not meet strict criteria for reporting post-radical prostatectomy recovery rates of erectile function, a new study shows. READ MORE>
JULY 18: STUFF: A 49-year-old Christchurch father dying from prostate cancer is surviving on food bought by friends because his insurance company refuses to pay out on his life policy, claiming he failed to mention his father was diagnosed with the disease at a young age. READ MORE>
JULY 18: PROSTABLOG NZ: “Apologies it has taken me so long to put finger to keyboard and update you on the goings on within the RFP team,” writes one of the crew (unnamed) from Rowing For Prostate, following the team’s epic 81-day row across the Indian Ocean. READ MORE>
JULY 17: PROSTABLOG NZ: We’ve arrived! Prostablog has been “adopted” by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand as its blog and there is now a link to us from the foundation’s website. READ MORE>
JULY 17: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Longer duration of continuous androgen deprivation therapy appears to increase risk of fragility fractures and diabetes, but not cardiac problems, according to a study of more than 19,000 prostate cancer patients in Ontario, Canada. READ MORE>
JULY 17: CANCERSRISK.COM: Early this month witnessed a major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer when a team of medical professionals operated on a British patient with a surgical robot. Believe it or not, he is indeed the first individual to get his prostate removed by incurring a whopping £2 million on the gadget. READ MORE>
JULY 17: AL.COM: MOBILE, Alabama: The Mobile County Health Department is offering free prostate cancer screenings, by appointment, through July 31. READ MORE>
JULY 17: HERALD TRIBUNE.COM: In his letter “Prostate cancer article needs clarification,” Dr. Michael J. Dattoli claims that intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is the preferred option for treating prostate cancer. Not surprising, since that is what he does at his center, writes Mark H. Ebell, deputy editor, American Family Physician, and associate professor, College of Public Health, University of Georgia. READ MORE>
JULY 17: ELEMENTS4HEALTH.COM: It’s no wonder that men who have read the recent stories circulating about soy are confused. Some stories claim that soy foods, such as tofu and soy milk, can lead to breast growth. Other stories tout the benefits of soy, suggesting soy may help protect against prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 17: URO TODAY: New US research has looked at the changes prostate cancer has on quality of life: these findings provide validation of the specific deleterious effects of cancer and an evidence base for future research and clinical interventions aimed at understanding and remediating these effects. READ MORE>
JULY 17: URO TODAY: Urinary incontinence is more common after prostatectomy than after brachytherapy or external beam radiation therapy, whereas voiding and storage urinary symptoms were more prevalent after brachytherapy than after prostatectomy. READ MORE>
JULY 16: URO TODAY: Open nerve-sparing retropubic prostatectomy combines excellent long-term cancer control rates with superior functional outcome and a low morbidity, says a new German study. It is still the most common surgical approach for the treatment of localised prostate cancer…and ongoing refinements allow further improvements in functional outcome and morbidity. READ MORE>
JULY 16: LOVE VIXENS.COM: More than 700,000 men worldwide are affected by prostate cancer each year with cases most common in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Northern/Western Europe. READ MORE>
JULY 16: URO TODAY: Adjuvant high-dose intensity-modulated radiotherapy after prostatectomy is safe and survival without biochemical relapse (rising PSA) is excellent, according to the results of a Belgian study of 104 patients. READ MORE>
JULY 16: URO TODAY: For testosterone suppression and PSA decline, new treatment degarelix compares well with standard hormonal therapy, for example, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist such as leuprolide. In fact, degarelix was associated with a faster testosterone suppression and PSA decline than leuprolide. READ MORE>
JULY 16: URO TODAY: Circulating tumour cells have been recently accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration as a prognostic tool in advanced prostate cancer. However, a number of questions remain about the use of the test. READ MORE>
JULY 16: DOMINION POST: A UK scientist and one from Norway have challenged Otago University professor Murray Skeaff’s report from a Prague conference that a study due out soon will clear folic acid of its potential links to prostate cancer. They say he omitted to mention a Norwegian study presented to the meeting – which found an overall increased risk of cancer in two trials (including deaths) – and point out the Prague conference on Homocysteine Metabolism last month voted by majority to oppose mandatory fortification of foods with folic acid. READ MORE>
JULY 16: DOMINION POST: Any decision to mass-medicate a population cannot be taken lightly, says the paper in an editorial today. First, there are safety concerns: two peer-reviewed US studies have linked excessive folate to higher rates of prostate cancer in men and inflammatory bowel disease in children. There has also been concern that in elderly people, high levels of folic acid might mask low levels of B12, which can lead to neurological damage. READ MORE>
JULY 16: SCOOP: TVNZ has announced the four charitable organisations – including the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ – will get free on-air advertising for the next two years. The TVNZ Community Support Foundation sponsorship provides charities with free air time worth up to $50,000 a month, which allows the recipients to promote their services and drive fundraising activities. READ MORE>
JULY 15: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Eight-year outcome data are now available for patients with Gleason score 8-10 prostate cancer treated with brachytherapy, external beam radiotherapy, and androgen deprivation therapy. The authors conclude that 8-year outcomes after this combination regimen show favourable biochemical and distant control, as well disease-specific survival rates for patients with Gleason scores of 8-10. READ MORE>
JULY 15: URO TODAY: Robot-assisted radical cysto-prostatectomy is a minimally invasive option in men with complex surgical anatomy and multiple co-morbidities. Short term follow up indicates good clinical and pathologic outcome and physiologic benefit of minimally invasive surgery. However a larger cohort with long term follow up is needed to assess the longer term cancer treatment efficacy of RRCP. READ MORE>
JULY 15: DOMINION POST: New Zealand has effectively been given the green light to axe rules forcing bakers to add folic acid to bread from September. The office of Australian parliamentary secretary for health Mark Butler told Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper it was New Zealand’s call whether to proceed with the trans-Tasman standard, agreed in 2007. READ MORE>
JULY 14: DRUGS.COM: Men with aggressive prostate cancer who have brachytherapy alone are more likely to die than those who receive a combination of treatments, new findings show. READ MORE>
JULY 14: URO TODAY: Researchers conclude heavy, daily drinking increases the risk of high-grade prostate cancer and that heavy drinking made finasteride ineffective for reducing prostate cancer risk. READ MORE>
JULY 14: PROSTABLOG NZ: The UK scientist leading the research project that is about to report on folic acid risk factors and prostate cancer is Robert Clarke at Oxford University, says Otago University’s Professor Murray Skeaff. READ MORE>
JULY 14: NZ HERALD: Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson says she will seek a review of the use of folic acid in bread – but not until a month after bakers have started adding it. READ MORE>
JULY 14: TVNZ: There is no evidence of an increased cancer risk from plans for bakers in New Zealand and Australia bakers to fortify their bread with folic acid, a leading scientist says. A big “state of the art” scientific study which has not yet been published, “shows that there is no increase in cancer risk with high-dose folic acid,” said Professor Murray Skeaff, a specialist in human nutrition at Otago University. READ MORE>
JULY 13: URO TODAY: On occasion, urologists will encounter subtypes of prostate cancer other than adeno-carcinoma. One such subtype is ductal (or endometrioid) prostate cancer (CaP). Ductal CaP is characterised by the presence of tall, pseudo-stratified columnar cells with abundant cytoplasm arranged in a papillary pattern. READ MORE>
JULY 13: URO TODAY: Research shows that once-daily tadalafil is effective in men with erectile dysfunction and symptoms of enlarged prostate (BPH), with erectile function improvements comparable to those for the general erectile dysfunction population. READ MORE>
JULY 12: TVNZ: Green Party MP Sue Kedgely has again raised the possible danger of folic acid causing prostate cancer, weeks before a new NZ law will force bakers to include folic acid in all bread as a “vaccine” against birth defects. TV presenter Paul Holmes – a prostate cancer survivor – today interviewed Kedgely and food safety Minister Kate Wilkinson, who says she can do nothing. SEE HERE>
JULY 12: ELITESTV.COM: BAD, a pro-apoptotic (death cell) protein of the Bcl-2 family, has recently been identified as an integrator of several anti-apoptotic signaling pathways in prostate cancer cells – and is thus a promoter of tumour growth. READ MORE>
JULY 12: PROSTATE REPORT.ORG: The results of a preliminary study at Istanbul University, Turkey, indicate that a non-invasive magnetic induction technique for assessing the resonance of tissues may be useful as a screening tool for prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 12: NOTTINGHAM PROSTATE CLINIC BLOG: Men who are more sexually active in their 20s and 30s may run a higher risk of prostate cancer. A Nottingham University study quizzed 800 men on how often they had sex or masturbated, and the researchers conlude that higher levels of sex hormones could lead to a bigger sex drive and cancer, the journal BJU International reports. READ MORE>
JULY 12: JEZEBEL.COM: “I think maybe he got prostate cancer because he was an adulterer, although I realise there’s no scientific proof of this,” wrote Celia to US agony aunt Dorothy Parker. READ MORE>
JULY 12: MEDICAL NEWS TODAY: A new 12-month hormone therapy treatment administered by an implant has been launched in the UK for men with advanced prostate cancer. The Vantas® (histrelin) implant is a small and flexible device, made from the same materials as soft contact lenses. Vantas® is the first 12-month implant to treat prostate cancer to be available in the UK. READ MORE>
JULY 12: ASSOCIATED PRESS: Johnson & Johnson says it has completed its $US893.7 million acquisition of Cougar Biotechnology Inc, a development stage company that is testing a potential vaccine for prostate cancer. Los Angeles-based Cougar is conducting two late stage clinical trials of abiraterone acetate as a treatment for prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 12: CANCER MONTHLY.COM: Magnolol, a substance taken from the root and bark of the magnolia tree, is a potent killer of prostate cancer cells, according to a study in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. Because it does not damage healthy cells, magnolol could be a promising new therapy for prostate cancer, as well as other types of cancers. READ MORE>
JULY 12: URO TODAY: A German study shows prostate cancer can be re-sected trans-urethrally with reasonable oncological results. Post-operative survival at 10 years was 96% for pT1, 91% for pT2, and 85% for pT3 patients in the study of radical trans-urethral re-section of prostate cancer (TURPC). READ MORE>
JULY 12: SUNDAY STAR-TIMES: Prominent Labour local body politician Mike Lee (59) revealed today he has “mid-range aggressive” prostate cancer and is undergoing external beam radiation and hormone therapy. The Star-Times today reveals the story of how this hit him at a time when his position of chairman of the Auckland Regional Authority was under severe pressure, following the organisation’s disastrous backing of a David Beckham soccer match in Auckland last year. READ MORE>
JULY 12: URO TODAY: Bone loss begins at 6 months with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). A single infusion of zoledronic acid in patients receiving ADT reduces bone mineral loss and maintains bone mineral density (BMD) at least at 12 months during ADT. Further study is needed to determine the best dosing schedule to prevent ADT-induced bone loss in men with hormone-naive prostate carcinoma. READ MORE>
JULY 11: LOCAL12.COM: A new blood test is in the works which could better help doctors diagnose prostate cancer. But experts at the University of Cincinnati say there’s a few things men need to know about it. READ MORE>
JULY 11: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: It may not seem “rational” to large numbers of people not to treat some cancers aggressively. READ MORE>
JULY 11: ASSOCIATED PRESS: One in three breast cancer patients identified in public screening programs may be treated unnecessarily, a new study says. Doctors and patients have long debated the merits of prostate cancer screening out of similar concerns that it over-diagnoses patients. READ MORE>
JULY 11: INDY STAR: The blood test is no big deal, but the digital rectal exam is something many men simply refuse to do. It’s unpleasant, a cancer survivor agrees, but he persists: “Sure, that’s a guy’s worst fear. I didn’t like it, either. But I’m alive.” READ MORE>
JULY 11: URO TODAY: To assist men with prostate cancer who are treated with the active surveillance option, health professionals must develop an awareness of how prostate cancer affects the man’s physical and psychological outcomes. READ MORE>
JULY 10: PROSTABLOG NZ: “It’s sad that medical professionals in NZ are so scared of possible side effects from a treatment like Ketoconazole, that they refuse to even acknowledge it, even if it has been proven to be effective overseas.” READ MORE>
JULY 10: ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER.COM: Yesterday’s New York Times article about health care reform and the overly inflated cost of the American health care system should ring large and loud alarm bells in the prostate cancer community. READ MORE>
JULY 10: PROSTATECANCER BLOG: Twitter’s first Prostate Cancer Survivor Chat will be held on Thursday, July 16, from 4-5:30pm. Join the discussion with hashtag #pcachat. It will be facilitated by Malecare Prostate Cancer Support. Please follow @prostatenews or http://www.twitter.com/prostatenews to stay in touch on this new event. READ MORE>
JULY 10: URO TODAY: The loss of PSA expression in tissue samples of prostate cancer is associated with adverse pathologic features and clinical outcome, but is not an independent prognostic factor for PSA recurrence after prostatectomy. However, in the biopsy scenario and in subgroups of patients, it might be a useful parameter for predicting extra-prostatic tumor extension. READ MORE>
JULY 10: URO TODAY: Use of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists has decreased in the US Medicare and Veterans Health Administration populations since 2004 without a compensatory increase in the use of alternative forms of androgen deprivation therapy.
The shift in practice patterns is likely due to a decrease in Medicare reimbursement for these drugs, an increase in the use of intermittent therapy and increased recognition of the adverse effects associated with androgen deprivation therapy. READ MORE>
JULY 10: PROSTABLOG NZ: IT might be the fourth boat over the finish line, but Rowing For Prostate (above) has indeed scored second place in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race. READ MORE>
JULY 10: PROSTABLOG NZ: A capsize early in the race across the Indian Ocean cost the Kiwi rowers in Rowing For Prostate all their electronics, says one of the crew, Mat Hampel. He revealed this during an interview on Radio NZ’s Morning Report early today, a few hours after the boat made it to Mauritius after 81 days at sea. HEAR THE INTERVIEW>
JULY 9: PROSTABLOG NZ: It now seems certain the Rowing For Prostate crew today finished the Indian Ocean Rowing Race – but where they were placed remains something of a mystery. READ MORE>
JULY 9: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: An analysis has come up with a mean, per-patient cost of just over $US13,000 for managing the care of a newly diagnosed prostate cancer patient for the first year after his diagnosis in the US. READ MORE>
JULY 9: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: In the New York Times today, David Leonhardt looks at prostate cancer management as an economist, not as a patient. He focuses on something we all understand but tend not to want to deal with – which is the sheer cost of treating all the men who probably don’t need treatment with whatever the latest form of gizmo is today (surgical robots, proton beam therapy, other forms of high-tech radiotherapy, etc). READ MORE>
JULY 9: Stiftung Prostrata, a Swiss trust focused on research into prostate cancer, has launched an eye-catching series of print advertisements encouraging men to take a blood test. What at first appears to be a series of men in their underwear turns out to be a demonstration of the power of early detection. SEE MORE>
JULY 9: NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: Letters to the editor have been flooding into the New England Journal of Medicine since it published the results of the two big randomised prostate cancer screening trials (March). READ MORE>
JULY 9: NEW YORK TIMES: “My body, that once-sturdy vessel, sustained a lot of damage in the past year to be rid of its cancer,” writes NYT editor and prostate cancer patient Dana Jennings. “Incontinence and impotence, deep fatigue and weight gain were among my most constant physical companions.” READ MORE>
JULY 9: FORBES: Even when they get identical medical treatment, black Americans with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer tend to die earlier than patients of other races, a finding that suggests biological or genetic factors may play an important role. READ MORE>
JULY 9: NEW YORK TIMES: The prostate cancer test will determine whether President Obama and Congress put together a bill that begins to fix the fundamental problem with the US medical system: the combination of soaring costs and mediocre results. If they don’t, the medical system will remain deeply troubled, no matter what other improvements they make. READ MORE>
JULY 9: SEATTLE TIMES: Free prostate-cancer screenings are available in the US city of Seattle this week. READ MORE>
JULY 9: URO TODAY: Men receiving androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer are at risk for bone loss and should receive appropriate bone density monitoring and preventive advice about calcium, vitamin D, exercise, and fall prevention. READ MORE>
JULY 9: URO TODAY: - as a primary treatment for high-grade Gleason prostate cancer practised over a wide spectrum of users – provides definable biochemical and local control for hard-to-manage patients with aggressive disease. READ MORE>
JULY 8: PROSTABLOG NZ: New Zealand boat Rowing For Prostate is within a day of finishing its epic 80+-day slog across the Indian Ocean and is expected to finish fourth tomorrow. READ MORE>
JULY 8: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: A second Phase I clinical trial has been announced for GTx-758 – an oral luteinizing hormone inhibitor – which is designed for first-line treatment of advanced prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 8: VITABEAT.COM: The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the generic version of prostate cancer drug Casodex manufactured by AstraZeneca. The drug checks the growth of prostate cancer by controlling the actions of the male hormone androgen. READ MORE>
JULY 8: HULIQ NEWS: New research into prostate cancer drug finasteride – earlier thought to cause more aggressive cancer in some patients – suggests doctors can be less cautious about using it. READ MORE>
JULY 8: URO TODAY: Research shows the Stephenson nomogram is an important tool to predict prostate cancer progression after salvage radio-therapy (SRT) following radical prostatectomy. It adequately predicts cancer progression with reasonable accuracy. However, the overall modest performance of the model used indicates there is still room for improvement in predictive models for disease progression after SRT. READ MORE>
JULY 8: ABOUTLAWSUITS.COM: A Vietnam veteran and former Special Forces officer has presented a claim against the federal government in connection with botched cancer treatments performed by what has been referred to as a “rogue” cancer unit at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. READ MORE>
JULY 8: WALL STREET JOURNAL: President Obama may be pushing the US towards a “medical-rationing” system like that in the UK, administered by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE. READ MORE>
JULY 7: SCIENCECODEX.COM: A new prostate cancer “homing device” could improve detection and allow for the first targeted treatment of the disease. READ MORE>
JULY 7: BACKOGNIZE.COM: The whole battle between prostate cancer morality and the necessary science to help cure people will certainly turn into a raging debate in the future. Ultimately, the outcome will determine how well we handle other emerging diseases and whether or not we will do whatever it takes to combat them. READ MORE>
JULY 7: URO TODAY: Age at diagnosis among men with prostate cancer continues to drop, according to new research. READ MORE>
JULY 6: PROSTABLOG NZ: While Kiwi boat Rowing For Prostate probably (we don’t know for sure) has fewer than 200 miles to go in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race, the women’s four, Pura Vida reported in tonight with just 27 miles to go. READ MORE>
JULY 6: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: “What is all too often ignored in the discussion about prostate screening is the right of the individual man to make up his mind what he wants to do once he has received an unbiased and straightforward assessment of the available data,” writes Mike Scott. READ MORE>
JULY 6: NURSING TIMES.NET: UK research that found reasonably favourable results from high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment in 172 men with localised prostate cancer (cancer that had not spread) looks promising, but long-term studies are needed. READ MORE>
JULY 6: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Is Gary Kao a renegade physician, or a sacrificial lamb – or maybe just a doctor who was allowed to get in over his head? Kao is the only person whom officials have identified in the unfolding scandal over substandard radioactive seed implants at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. READ MORE>
JULY 5: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Now he’s had a chance to read the full report from a group of UK doctors detailing their experience with high-intensity-focused ultrasound treatment, NPCI administrator Mike Scott has changed his views of the outcome.
” The following commentary reports with greater accuracy and in more detail on the same article, dealing with the same series of 172 HIFU patients, as was previously discussed on this web site on July 2 this year, ” he writes. READ MORE>
JULY 5: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: It is clear from a new study that prostate cancer patients taking anticoagulant therapy, for whatever reason, have a significant risk of bleeding as an adverse effect associated with external beam radiotherapy. READ MORE>
JULY 5: LA TIMES: Will vaccines ever become more than small players in the medical treatment of cancer? READ MORE>
JULY 5: URO TODAY: Obese men, especially those with a small prostate volume, may have lower baseline prostate specific antigen and, thus, be at higher risk for having prostate cancer undetected in a prostate specific antigen screening test. READ MORE>
JULY 4: McLEANS.CA: The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will review whether it’s discriminatory that Canadian men must pay for prostate specific antigen tests—as they do in most other provinces—while women receive free pap exams and mammograms. READ MORE>
JULY 4: EMAX HEALTH: Prostate cancer patients who receive brachytherapy and remain free of disease for five years or greater are unlikely to have a recurrence at 10 years, according to a study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. READ MORE>
JULY 4: SCIENCE DAILY: Cancer experts at Johns Hopkins say a study tracking 774 prostate cancer patients for a median of eight years has shown that a three-way combination of measurements has the best chance yet of predicting disease metastasis. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: Patients with a positive surgical margin less than 1mm appear to have similar recurrence rates as those with no margins, although longer followup and validation studies are necessary for confirmation. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: Fifteen or more biopsy cores are best for patients with a prostate volume greater than 53cc and PSA higher than 18, according to researchers in Israel. Three consecutive biopsies using that approach should be enough to give doctors confidence cancer is not present. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: US researchers claim to have developed a patient-specific, biology-driven tool to predict outcome at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: Prostatic glandular elements – which are keys for accurate biopsy analysis – were absent in a significant number of prostatic biopsy samples and patients examined in a Turkish study. This inadequacy was most prominent in apical and far lateral biopsy specimens and found to be operator-dependent. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: Salvage radical prostatectomy is a reasonable treatment option in recurrent prostate local disease with prostate-specific antigen < 10 ng/ml and life expectancy greater than 10 years. READ MORE>
JULY 4: URO TODAY: Expense is the main reason men don’t go ahead with erectile function rehab, according to a study of sexual medicine practitioners. READ MORE>
JULY 3: PROSTABLOG NZ: In what seems to be exquisite timing, NZ’s parliamentary select committee on health is starting an inquiry into prostate cancer screening – just as some of the best recent analysis of screening emerges in the US. READ MORE>
JULY 3: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Researchers have used data from the Geneva Cancer Registry to confirm that prostate cancer in men with PSA values less than 4 ng/ml at diagnosis is not necessarily harmless. READ MORE>
JULY 3: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Researchers have reported data showing that the historically conventional sextant (6-core) biopsy can not accurately diagnose prostate cancer in low-risk patients with unilateral, organ-confined (pT2a,b) disease. READ MORE>
JULY 3: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Results from a UK study show the potential of transrectal, whole-gland, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in patients with low risk, organ-confined prostate cancer. However, many of those treated likely fall into the category of men who don’t actually need treatment for their prostate cancer at all, and the risk for post-treatment erectile dysfunction after HIFU in this trial appears to be significant — at about 30 percent after 1 year of follow-up. READ MORE>
JULY 3: TVNZ: The Rowing for Prostate charity crew who had lost contact with race organisers in the Indian Ocean several days ago are safe and well. READ MORE>
JULY 2: GUIDE2.CO.NZ: Parliament’s health select committee has issued terms of reference for its inquiry into early detection and treatment of prostate cancer. READ MORE>
JULY 2: BOSTON GLOBE.COM: Prostate cancer is incredibly complex, and some of the effort aimed at promoting screening might be better spent trying to understand why some prostate cancers are relatively aggressive and others relatively slow-growing, writesan associate professor at Harvard Medical School. READ MORE>
JULY 2: AP: An oncologist blamed for botching cancer treatments at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center says he’s not the rogue physician he’s been portrayed to be. READ MORE>
JULY 2: NEW YORK TIMES: “As I was being treated for an aggressive prostate cancer this past year — surgery, hormone therapy, radiation — I experienced an unexpected side effect: post-treatment letdown,” writes Times reporter/editor Dana Jennings. READ MORE>
JULY 2: JACKSONVILLE NEWS.COM: Sound familiar? The Obama government wants to trim the nation’s annual $US2.4 trillion health bill, so an Institute of Medicine committee has released a list of 100 priorities it recommends for “comparative effectiveness” research. READ MORE>
JULY 2: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: A new — but very small and short-term study — has attempted to assess the baseline prevalence of cognitive impairment in older men treated with androgen deprivation therapy and changes in cognitive performance over time. READ MORE>
JULY 2: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Analysis of data from a community-based cohort of patients was not able to establish any relationship between body mass index and prostate cancer-specific survival or overall survival. The issue of whether obesity is connected to prostate cancer risk and survival continues to be controversial. READ MORE>
JULY 1: PSYCHOLOGY-TODAY.COM: Looks like more sex wins. The studies showing sex increases prostate cancer risk involved a few hundred men, but a study showing that sex reduces risk involved 29,000. However, sex is only protective if men avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Many studies show that a history of STIs, especially gonorrhea and syphilis, approximately doubles prostate cancer risk. READ MORE>
JULY 1: NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Media coverage of a new medical journal article analysing the two randomised prostate cancer screening studies is not in anyone’s best interests – when the actual material on which the media coverage is based is inaccessible (not yet on line) to physicians and their patients. Some of the information is correct if placed in an appropriate context, writes sitemaster Mike Scott. But his website does not intend to comment any further “on this article — or the accompanying editorial — until we can read the actual materials in full, and comment with full context.” READ MORE>
JULY 1: PROSTABLOG NZ: NZ four Rowing for Prostate have done what every man with prostate problems probably wishes would happen to his prostate – disappeared. READ MORE>
