By: Dan Sperling, MD Perhaps because I am a radiologist, I have been asked by prostate cancer patients whose urologists are recommending proton beam or IMRT if radiation can cause rectal cancer. In a sense, this is a tricky question because there is a difference between “causality” and “correlation.” Radiation is everywhere around us. Here keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD Did you know that, according to one study, more than 50% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer turn to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as a health resource?[i] And the same study reports that many of them do not even tell their doctors. Men who take vitamins, minerals, herbs and other keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, M.D. As I write this, I’m preparing to attend the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). As a radiologist who specializes in detection, diagnosis and focal treatment of prostate cancer, my work and that of urologists overlaps considerably. I have previously written about my commitment to professional collaboration between medical specialties, keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD I recently spoke with a Florida patient whose healthcare coverage is through a PPO. Two years ago, the urologist he sees through his PPO performed a TRUS biopsy two years ago that found two small areas of early stage cancer. He chose to go on Active Surveillance, and monitor using PSA. keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD I was a bit shocked when I came across an older research study titled “Two Consecutive Sets of Transrectal Ultrasound [TRUS] Guided Sextant Biopsies of the Prostate for the Detection of Prostate Cancer.”[i] I could hardly believe my eyes—two consecutive TRUS biopsies? The study is from 1998, and it gave me keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD Two well-respected clinical institutions, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM), have been conducting clinical trials on Focal Laser Ablation (FLA). They are considered interventional trials, meaning that a treatment is under investigation. Here is a little description of what each center is doing: a) NCI, under keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD Over two years ago, I filed away an article from the New York Times that got my attention—but as my practice grew, I didn’t think about it. I recently ran across it, and in revisiting it I found I had to agree with the writer, Tara Parker-Pope.[i] (The writer is the keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD It’s exciting to be involved in medicine at this point in history when it seems like practically every week some new breakthrough makes life better and longer for patients. Think about it: a discipline like surgery has been around since ancient times, but it took thousands of years to overcome the keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD Energetic walking during the day and good sleep at night may be beneficial in preventing prostate cancer. If you find yourself wondering how, you’re not alone, because the connection isn’t obvious. Common wisdom suggests that prostate cancer patients who embrace healthy nutrition, regular exercise, and stress management generally do better than those keep reading
By: Dan Sperling, MD “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” So said Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician whose famous oath for new doctors established important medical ethics. Wouldn’t it be great if diseases like prostate cancer could be cured—or altogether prevented—by eating the right foods? The plant pigment lycopene, found in keep reading
