Tag: prostate cancer

We all know the warning cry: high cholesterol levels can increase your risk of heart disease. But there’s a quieter warning for men only: high cholesterol levels are linked with aggressive prostate cancer (PCa). That’s the message of a June 2023 paper by Liu, et al. published in the International Journal of Cancer.[i] The article keep reading

For the right prostate cancer (PCa) patient, Active Surveillance (AS) is a good thing. Urologic professionals now see eye-to-eye on monitoring with a focus on “preventing overtreatment in patients for whom the benefit of treatment deferral outweighs the need for immediate oncologic control.”[i] That’s a technical way of saying, if you don’t have clinically significant keep reading

“The Human Pincushion”. Back in 2016, I posted a blog in which I referred to the conventional TRUS prostate biopsy as a pincushion. Why? Because it involved at least 12 needles placed in a gland roughly the size of a walnut. Not only did this often entail pain, it came with risk of infection, blood keep reading

Today’s world of prostate cancer is a far cry from what it was in your dad’s day. New knowledge about the disease includes a better understanding of prostate anatomy, prostate cancer genomics, the behavior of cancer cells, the role of lifestyle, etc. However, some old beliefs still linger. It’s time to put them to rest... keep reading

If your PSA is unusually high or your digital rectal exam finds an abnormality, how do you know if it’s prostate cancer? Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is now the universally preferred noninvasive method for identifying prostate cancer (PCa) prior to having a biopsy. In the years leading up to this, researchers worked toward agreement over keep reading

What’s not to love about fun facts? Most of the time they’re composed of trivia, but unlike the supposedly memorable dates you learned in high school history, fun facts tend to stick. For instance, here’s one about food: a single fast-food burger may have meat from 100 different cows! You might never have reason to keep reading

Prostate cancer (PCa) is considered an aging-related disease. The older a man becomes, the more likely he will develop it. It is the most common cancer in older men.[i] The Prostate Cancer Foundation says, “Although only about 1 in 456 men under age 50 will be diagnosed, the rate shoots up to 1 in 54 keep reading

Word has gotten out to prostate cancer patients about MRI-guided focal treatments. When focal laser ablation (FLA) could be done under in-bore MRI guidance, the real time high resolution images plus thermometric monitoring made FLA incredibly accurate and precise. Now there is another type of treatment guidance called MRI-ultrasound fusion... keep reading

It’s hard to think of a movie scene more grisly than an amputation without anesthesia. The hapless patient guzzles as much alcohol as possible, then bites down on a large stick on while one or more assistants hold him down. The screams, writhing, and sickening flesh sounds are usually enough to elicit groans and nausea keep reading

For years there was a gender-related gap in cancer risks related to mutations in the breast cancer (BCa) genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Research was primarily focused on women due to the incidence of BCa among them. That is now rapidly changing... keep reading