Category: Prostate Cancer

A diabetic man aged 76 with no history of prostate cancer (PCa) comes to his primary care physician (PCP) for his annual wellness visit. (Sidebar: in the good old days they were called physicals, but in today’s Medicare world, they’re annual wellness visits—and yes, there is a difference but that’s for another day.) He fasted keep reading

No one can dispute the superiority of multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) over transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) for detecting and characterizing prostate cancer (PCa) before biopsy and treatment. The past five years alone have seen a rapid accumulation of research evidence that mpMRI makes it possible to save medical dollars by avoiding unnecessary biopsies and their risks. While keep reading

Suppose you suddenly became really curious about global prostate cancer statistics. You might start asking questions like: Where in the world is the highest incidence of prostate cancer (PCa)? What countries have the highest survival rates? Which modifiable lifestyle factors increase the chances of getting PCa? And so on… Your next logical question might be, keep reading

The often-quoted “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” was penned by the 18th century poet Alexander Pope. It certainly to developing new approaches to conquering prostate cancer (PCa). The greatest challenge to optimism may be the situation of men with metastatic castration-resistant PCa who hope for a breakthrough lifesaving cure while experimental immunotherapies and keep reading

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

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