Tag: Prostate cancer

Imagine it’s 1995. The PSA blood test has recently been deployed for widespread screening. You’re 73 with a mild heart problem. Your doctor suggests you have a PSA test as part of your annual physical. It comes back at 13.5 ng/mL. After a 6 needle TRUS biopsy (yes, a standard sextant biopsy back then meant keep reading

“We got it all and you’ll never have to worry about prostate cancer again.” Those are the sweetest words for patients with prostate cancer (PCa) who decide to have a radical prostatectomy (RP), meaning surgical removal of the entire gland. “Never again” is the hope and the expectation, and most of the time that prediction keep reading

What could be better than searching for buried treasure for many years, then finally discovering it? The answer might be, finding buried treasure when you didn’t even know you were looking for it! In the world of prostate cancer, an unexpected treasure was discovered when a diabetes drug, metformin, appeared... keep reading

Does PSA screening reduce PCa mortality, or doesn’t it? We know that PSA is not specific for cancer, since many prostate conditions can cause a rise in PSA blood levels. We also know that an elevated PSA can lead to a conventional TRUS-guided biopsy, and that such biopsies can either miss prostate cancer or... keep reading

How much do you know about your ancestors’ health history, and the health history in your spouse or partner’s ancestry? One of the most precious legacies you can give your children is knowledge that will empower them to make informed lifestyle and healthcare decisions. Many daily choices can help prevent cancer. Educating yourself and your family can boost motivation to form wise habits such as... keep reading

We all grew up with the concept of majority rule. It’s the idea that when more than half the people decide on something, everyone is compelled to abide by it. Or, whichever group has the most supporters determines everyone’s fate, including their own. It generally works for organizing government and deciding issues. However, majority rule keep reading

More and more prostate cancer patients and their doctors are turning to Active Surveillance (AS). Data shows that for carefully chosen low risk patients, AS is a way to hold off on treatment like surgery or radiation without significantly increasing the chances of death from prostate cancer... keep reading

Before a prostate cancer patient makes a final decision to have focal laser ablation, I go over the details of MRI-guided FLA and what to expect after treatment. I remind each person that it’s important to monitor for PCa recurrence. After any focal treatment (cryo, HIFU, Focal Laser Ablation, MRgFUS, TULSA) PCa can either come back in the treatment site—called treatment failure, meaning the treatment did not destroy all the cancer at the site—or recur in a different location... keep reading

As ancient as the Mediterranean diet may be, it is very much a current event. It is promoted as one of the healthiest—if not THE healthiest—food programs on earth. Now another centuries-old diet is making headlines: the Atlantic diet. It is named after Portugal and northwest Spain, whose traditional cuisines include Atlantic fish and shellfish, and locally sourced plant foods. keep reading

The entertainment value of a good suspense movie lies in keeping the audience guessing. Is the bad guy actually dead? Has the evil ghost actually left the haunted house for good? Why is the possessed person’s head still spinning if the demon was actually cast out? Moviegoers who are into such films happily pay for keep reading