Category: Prostate Cancer

The tug-of-war continues between prostate cancer patients who want to be treated with proton beam therapy (PBT) vs. their insurance companies. As you can read from the blog below, payers are denying PCa coverage due to the high cost of the treatment coupled with lack of evidence showing superiority over conventional radiation therapies... keep reading

Here’s the back story: there is a British clinician/researcher, Hashim Ahmed, whose published articles I respect. His publications often include Mark Emberton, another esteemed British urologist, so when both names turn up in the same group of authors on a published paper, it grabs my attention. This is the case with a 2020 multicenter study keep reading

There’s an exciting new development in treating metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) that no longer responds to hormone therapy. Such cancer is clinically called metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or mCRPC. There is currently no cure when PCa reaches this stage, but new drugs and immunotherapies can prolong life. Researchers are exploring and testing therapies that destroy keep reading

The quote, “Aging is not for sissies,” is attributed to actress Bette Davis but no doubt millions of senior citizens can easily get on board with that sentiment. After age 65, chances of disease and accidents begin to increase, including chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke are the most common), falling, depression, anxiety, dementia keep reading

I’ve said it before, and I’ll undoubtedly say it again: multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) can avoid unnecessary biopsies. In a previous blog, “A PROMIS is a Promise for Multiparametric MRI,” I cited the results of the PROMIS study in which 576 men initially had an mpMRI scan, then underwent 2 types of needle biopsy (ouch!) so keep reading

Multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) has sparked a revolution in prostate cancer (PCa) detection, diagnosis and image-guided treatments. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) does not even begin to compare with the anatomic definition and tissue characterization provided by high-resolution, 3D mpMRI scans. This breakthrough technology has been a godsend for patients in such areas as Avoiding unnecessary needle biopsies keep reading

It has been suggested that in multifocal prostate cancer (PCa), focal therapy to the largest (index) lesion is sufficient, because secondary non-index lesions are unlikely to contribute to disease progression.[i] In the world of urology, the belief that prostate cancer (PCa) is a multifocal disease has long dominated diagnosis and treatment decisions. Thus, treating PCa keep reading

Do you ever worry about the quality of the air you breathe or the water you drink from public sources? What about urban overcrowding? Noise pollution? Light pollution? There is no doubt that man-made factors can play a causal role in genetic errors that lead to disease. Many studies have demonstrated an association between poor keep reading

Flomax. Avodart. Proscar. Do these drug names sound familiar? If you have seen a doctor for benign prostatic hyperplasia—or BPH, for short—the chances are good you’ve heard about them. Maybe you’re already taking one of them, or even a combination. Results of a new, large-scale study suggest these medications are linked with risk of cardiac keep reading

“In the 100 years from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century, a combination of circumstances stimulated men to seek new routes, and it was new routes rather than new lands that filled the minds of kings and commoners, scholars and seamen.”– Encyclopedia Britannica When the 15th century launched the Age of Discovery, it was actually keep reading