When it comes to men and women, the French declare “Vive la difference!” Long live the difference, which is heavily based in our body’s biochemistry, especially hormones. The primary androgen (male hormone) that makes men MEN is testosterone, and healthy masculinity is certainly worth celebrating. However, when it comes to prostate cancer (PCa), there’s a keep reading

Do you get an annual physical or wellness check? Is a PSA blood test part of it? If it isn’t, it might be because your doctor took to heart the 2012 bulletin from the US Preventive Services Task Force panel regarding PSA screening. That year, the USPSTF downgraded PSA screening to a D (not recommended keep reading

If you’re one of the men who see their doctor annually no matter what, skip reading the rest of this blog. However, if you’re like the more than 60% of men who shun annual check-ups, you will easily relate to what follows. It’s commonly recognized that women get annual check-ups and regular tests like mammograms keep reading

Let’s turn to the venerable Mayo Clinic’s suggestions on lowering your risk of getting prostate cancer (PCa). According to their web article, “Prostate cancer prevention: ways to lower your risk”: You might consider increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat each day by adding an additional serving of a fruit or vegetable to keep reading

NOTE: On 11/5/2020 I published an updated blog post on this topic. You can read it here. When you’re about to pop a prescription pill into your mouth, do you momentarily wonder if it might contain a tiny amount of something dangerous in addition to the active drug? You probably don’t. You trust the pharmaceutical keep reading

A glance back in history reveals that not so many years ago, a prostatectomy to remove prostate cancer was a long and bloody surgery. It meant days in the hospital, a month of recovery, and higher rates of incontinence and ED than today’s robot-assisted laparascopic techniques. In comparison, today’s minimalist focal treatments for appropriate patients keep reading

“Your biopsy results came back positive.” The news you feared is now out in the open. You can’t turn back the clock. You can’t deny it. You can’t wish it away. YOU HAVE PROSTATE CANCER. That surely seems like the bad news. If there’s good news, it’s that your cancer is still confined to the keep reading

Everyone knows about the law of unintended consequences, right? A good idea backfires. A classic example happened during British rule of colonial India. The city of Delhi was overrun by cobras – very dangerous poisonous snakes – and the governor was determined to get the situation under control. What better way to eliminate cobras than keep reading

Not long ago, I posted a blog on the ability of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to boost the effectiveness of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. This synergistic effect is very important for men with intermediate or higher risk cancer who can’t have (or don’t want) radical prostatectomy, since the greater the risk, the more likely keep reading

What’s the best way to deal with prostate cancer (PCa)? The obvious answer is, do something about it. For decades, “doing something” meant radical prostatectomy (RP). In other words, surgically remove it all. More recently, the pendulum has started swinging the other way in a surge toward active surveillance (AS). From 2010 to 2015, the keep reading