Tag: radiation

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

Wouldn’t it be great if a patient with metastatic cancer could simply have the primary tumor treated—then all the others would miraculously start to disappear? Well, we don’t yet have the such clinical wizardry, but it looks the body itself has such a capacity! It’s called the abscopal effect (pronounced ab-SCOPE-ul). Studies are now revealing 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

The use of an injectable hydrogel spacer to help minimize toxic effects of prostate cancer (PCa) radiation on the rectal wall has become a standard of care. By implanting the hydrogel into the tissue between the prostate and the rectum, a wider space is created, which “may significantly reduce the [radiation] dose received by the rectum and the risk of rectal toxicity [side effects, see explanation in the blog below].” How well does it work? keep reading

Who is the world’s leading prostate cancer expert? How does one even begin to answer that question? There are so many great minds dealing with prostate cancer from so many angles: biology, urology, radiology, oncology, pathology and more—it’s impossible to identify a single authority on the subject. However, when great minds work together, powerful consensus keep reading

In recent years, there’s been a huge groundswell of Active Surveillance (AS) for low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients. In fact, it’s considered the preferred PCa management strategy for men with lower-risk disease. There are two primary factors at play: 1) patient resistance to undergoing definitive whole gland treatments that can impair urinary and sexual function, keep reading

If you had prostate cancer (PCa) and opted to be treated with either prostatectomy (surgical removal) or whole-gland radiation, what sign of recurrence would you watch for? You’d be sure to have an annual PSA blood test. Why? Because after whole-gland treatment, it is expected that your PSA will drop to zero (or very close keep reading

Rising healthcare costs are even more concerning today than in 2014, when we posted the blog below. At the same time, advances in medical technology have continued at a steady pace. This is especially true for the ever-increasing applications of multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) in prostate cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. keep reading

Beyond doubt, PSA screening for prostate cancer (PCa) has saved hundreds of thousands of lives since the blood test was introduced in the mid-1990s. However, the classical screening strategy involved a pathway from a suspiciously high or rising PSA directly to... keep reading

Proton beam therapy for prostate cancer has been struggling with insurance issues because it is significantly more costly than conventional radiation types, yet has not demonstrated better cancer control. However, in the minds of many patients, it offers a better chance at cure... keep reading