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Newsbytes Archive - 1

Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (pcaw.org) has compiled newsbytes on the prostate. Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is September, and Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, the period set aside for free or low-cost screenings, runs September 21-27, 2015. Information about the Prostate is added weekly. Also see Archives 2 and 3. Disclaimer


Newsbytes

Fewer Men Estimated to Die From Prostate Cancer

Recently released figures have indicated an estimated 26,120 men will die of prostate cancer in 2016, a 5 percent drop from the 2015 estimate. Based on these facts, a man will lose his prostate cancer battle every 20 minutes. In 2016, an estimated 180,890 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, an 18 percent decline from 2015 estimate

Advances in the treatment of prostate cancer have lead to a steady decline in deaths from the disease, but despite this good news, detection rates have fallen significantly in recent years. This is due to recommendations against PSA testing, causing more patients to be diagnosed in late stage disease and limiting their options for treatment.

We’re concerned that lack of early detection will lead to increases in deaths in the coming years and urge continued focus on advancing diagnostic tools and technology focused on finding prostate cancer early and determining aggressive from indolent disease.
Source: zerocancer.org/file/learn/newsletter/Advanced-Prostate-Cancer-Newsletter.pdf?erid=12698885&trid=6b37f811-4526-42ba-90f4-42a30c4e2ab1

Castration Alternative Works Well, Spares Libido

An alternative to castration appears to be just as effective in promoting survival in men with advanced prostate cancer while resulting in reduced side effects such as impotence, a new study reveals
Source: www.oncology.com/v2_MainFrame/1,1614,_12%7C00263%7C00_20%7C001%7C00_18%7C006711%7C00_19%7C006712,00.html

Herbs Take a Whack at Prostate Cancer: Men with fewest options seem to benefit most

A mixture of Chinese herbs may offer hope to men with prostate cancer that hasn't responded to conventional medicine. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of men nationally are using the herbs, marketed as PC-SPES, say medical experts. PC stands for prostate cancer and SPES are the first four letters of the Latin word for hope. The herbs seem to work as well as conventional hormone therapies, which reduce testosterone and arrest the growth of prostate cancer, though with some dangerous side effects, says a new study by California researchers. But more exciting, they say, is that the herbs halted the growth of cancer for some men who previously had not responded to hormone therapy at all.

Mayors Launch Coalition for Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education

The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) has recently launched the Coalition for Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education. Supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations, the program will promote awareness and informed decision-making about prostate cancer, especially among African-Americans.

The Coalition was started thanks to the efforts of Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb. For more information, contact Richard C. Johnson, Director of USCM Health Programs, 1620 Eye Street, NW, 3rd floor, Washington, DC 20006 or 202.861.6753 or rjohnson@usmayors.org

Prostate Cancer Climb - January, 2001

In early 2001, a group of men dedicated to fighting prostate cancer will climb Mount Aconcagua, Argentina , one of the highest peaks in the world. Located in Mendoza, Argentina, Mount Aconcagua rises 7,000 meters above sea level and offers climbers breathtaking beauty as well as serious climbing challenges.

Nine climbers and 12 trekkers will scale the mountain. All of them have been personally touched by prostate cancer. A few are prostate cancer survivors. Many have close friends or relatives in treatment for the disease. Several have lost loved ones to prostate cancer. All of them are "amateur" climbers - and are spending this year getting ready for this physically taxing challenge. The climb will take almost three weeks, and will be professionally led by SUMMITS Adventure Travel, a premier leader in the climbing industry.

The Prostate Cancer Climb is the inspiration of Dr. Terry Weyman, who lost his father to prostate cancer 10 years ago. The project is primarily a volunteer effort, and is affiliated with the Prostate Cancer Research Institute in order to provide the structure, accountability and recommendations on allocation of funding necessary for success.

Each climber will raise money to cover their individual costs for the climb, approximately $5,000 each. They will also solicit pledges for the "Prostate Cancer Climb" fund. Corporate, community and individual pledges are also being solicited to help reach our goal of raising $1,000,000 to help fight prostate cancer.

This is a low-overhead project, with the primary goal being to raise $1 million to benefit prostate cancer research and public education. The overall budget of the Prostate Cancer Climb is $1.3 million. It will take approximately $300,000 to produce the climb (inclusive of climbers' costs) and the remaining $1 million is the amount that will be donated to research and education about prostate cancer. www.prostatecancerclimb.com/

NFL Support Breast Cancer Research

On Tuesday, October 24, 2000 the NFL's Breast Cancer Awareness Day, the NFL will donate $5 for every person that logs onto www.nfl.com and then clicks on "NFL For Her". They will donate up to $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. (Editor: We appplaud this act by the NFL but sure wish they cared that much about the equal number of men who will die this year because there is no cure and very little funding of research regarding prostate cancer.) Learn More

Grosse Pointe is Gross

Grosse Pointe is a thinly veiled spoof of Beverly Hills 90210 from a behind-the-scenes viewpoint and airs on the WB Friday evenings. In the 10/13 episode one of the actors, who is played as being a bit too old for the character he plays, decides to become a spokesman for prostate cancer. He is seen showing off a poster for a benefit run with a picture of him on it. The name of the run is 'Lift Your Legs for Prostate Cancer'. Later in the show one of the female characters 'encourages' him by saying "Good luck with that ass cancer thing". Finally, there's a fake PSA at the end of the show where the male character and another male actor exchange the following dialogue:

Male Character: "The normal prostate is the size of an apple seed."

Male actor: "However, left unchecked, cancer can cause it to grow to the size of a peach pit."

This material offensive and insulting to men in general and prostate cancer sufferers in particular? The most galling thing about this is that the show thinks they are being edgy and offbeat by offering this kind of humor. Can you imagine the reaction if they had made similar jokes about breast cancer or AIDS? There would be no need for this email because the show would be off the air by now. Hal McCown

If you want to express your displeasure, www.wb.com/pages/help/help_feedback.jsp

Prostate Cancer - What the choices are and how they can affect your life

A story in this issue of U.S. News & World Report talks about the dilemmas that early detection of prostate cancer brings with it a blessing and a burden, forcing more and younger men to weigh the difficult treatment options. (Editor:  Has the medical community stepped out of the fight as incident rates and deaths of men continue increasing?)

Urine Test Might Detect Prostate Cancer

With HMO's often recommending against tests for prostate cancer, and organizations like the American Cancer Society saying, discuss the options with your health care professional to see if it is appropriate, while they remain adiment that women get exams for breast cancer, research on a cancer that is expected to strike one out of every six men in the U.S. plods along, severily under-funded. A report, from the American Association for Cancer Research in San Francisco, however, reports on a project that is going on at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "It is likely that there are cancer cells in the body fluids years before cancer is clinically detectable."  They have shown that finding cancer cells in urine is feasible and the technology used to detect small cancers when we have only a few cancer cells in the body is only going to get better.

Are Men With Vasectomies At Greater Risk For Prostate Cancer?

Ellen: After researching vasectomies on your Web site, I am worried. On the National Cancer Institute's link I found a claim that vasectomies are associated with higher rates of prostate cancer. My husband is scheduled for a vasectomy tomorrow; there's nothing like last minute research!

Dr. Dean: It's funny that you're doing the research and he's not.

Ellen: Well, he asked me to.

Dr. Dean: Ah-ha, chicken. I can definitively say to you that vasectomies do not cause prostate cancer. He should have no fear whatsoever about that. But at one point there was research that suggested a connection.

A couple of studies did find that men with vasectomies had more prostate cancer. Of course, the National Cancer Institute was very interested in these studies, but once news goes into a database on the Internet, it can stay there forever.

Our Web site is huge. The last time I checked we had 40,000 pages, because we want to share information with you. However, keeping material updated can be a challenge.

With further searching, I think you will find that subsequent studies indicate that "detection bias" skewed the earlier reports. Here is how detection bias works.

A man getting a vasectomy will see a urologist. As part of the pre-vasectomy physical, the urologist is going to put his finger where the sun don't shine and examine the patient's prostate. Therefore, prostate cancer is going to be detected more often in men getting vasectomies than in other men. Thus, it appears that men getting vasectomies have more prostate cancer.

There is some research, that is still inconclusive, indicating that primates (monkeys) with vasectomies, may have higher cholesterol levels and greater risk factors for heart disease.

We have NOT found vasectomies to increase heart attacks in humans. Nevertheless, because primates are so close to us, the question, however minimal, lingers.

The question wouldn't stop me from having a vasectomy if I needed one. When I did need one, I didn't do it; and that's why I've got so many kids. And, of course, I'm glad I did.

I tell you in all honesty, Ellen, that when a couple wants permanent birth control, a vasectomy for a man is a much smarter way to go than for the woman to have a tubal ligation. So, I congratulate him. www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?id=12091

FDA Approves New Treatment for Advanced Prostate Cancer Patients

The FDA has approved Bayer and Algeta's drug Xofigo (radium Ra 223 dichloride, formerly known as alpharadin) to treat men with symptomatic late-stage (metastatic) castration-resistant prostate cancer that has spread to bones but not to other organs. It is intended for men whose cancer has spread after receiving medical or surgical therapy to lower testosterone.

Xofigo binds with minerals in the bone to deliver radiation directly to bone tumors, limiting the damage to the surrounding normal tissues. It is the second prostate cancer drug approved by the FDA in the past year that demonstrates an ability to extend the survival of men with metastatic prostate cancer.

Patients who are interested in finding out where and when newly FDA approved drug Xofigo will be available can call 1-855-696-3446 or visit the website www.xofigo.com
Source: Pres release

FDA Approves Expanded Use of Prostate Cancer Drug Zytiga

The approved use of the drug Zytiga has been expanded to include treatment of men with late-stage, hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer before they undergo chemotherapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

Zytiga was initially approved in April 2011 for treatment of prostate cancer patients whose disease had progressed after treatment with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel.

The drug decreases production of the male sex hormone testosterone. In prostate cancer, testosterone stimulates prostate tumors to grow. Drugs or surgery are used to reduce testosterone production or to block the hormone's effects.

However, some men have what's called "castration-resistant" or hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer, which means that prostate cancer cells continue to grow even with low levels of testosterone, the FDA explained in a news release.

The expanded approval is based on a study of 1,088 men with late-stage, hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer who took either Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) or an inactive placebo in combination with another drug called prednisone.

Median overall survival was just over 35 months for patients who took Zytiga and about 30 months for those who took the placebo, the FDA noted.

The most common side effects among patients taking Zytiga included fatigue, joint discomfort, swelling caused by fluid retention, hot flush, diarrhea, vomiting, cough, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, urinary tract infection and bruising.

This expanded approval of Zytiga was made under the FDA's priority review program, which offers an accelerated six-month review for drugs that may offer major advances in treatment or provide a treatment when no adequate therapy exists.

"Today's approval demonstrates the benefit of further evaluating a drug in an earlier disease setting and provides patients and health care providers the option of using Zytiga earlier in the course of treatment," Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the FDA news release.

Zytiga is marketed by Pennsylvania-based Janssen Biotech Inc.
Source: health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/12/10/fda-oks-expanded-use-of-prostate-cancer-drug

New Biopsy Method Could Improve Prostate Cancer Testing

Robert Meier knows what it’s like to have a blind prostate biopsy. It took four times before the 58-year-old high school art teacher was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“These biopsies can be extremely painful and I was put in the hospital several times so they could be done under general anesthesia,” said Meier, of Visalia, Calif. “It takes about a month to recover.”

But researchers are reporting a new method that could put an end to painful prostate biopsies that miss the tumor. They’ve combined magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, with ultrasound in a way that can guide a skilled doctor right to a prostate tumor.

Dr. Leonard Marks, a professor of urology at the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues report their method in the Journal of Urology. They say it helped them identify prostate tumors in 53 percent of 171 men who volunteered to try it.

The findings could help solve one of the biggest problems of prostate cancer. There’s a blood analysis called a PSA test that can help doctors guess that a man may be developing prostate cancer. Prostate specifc antigen or PSA is made only by prostate cells — and they produce a lot more of it when they are cancerous.

But the prostate also naturally enlarges as men get older, which can send PSA levels up. And inflammation — caused by an infection or even something as simple as a bicycle ride, can also send levels up.

Because the walnut-sized prostate gland is so hard to reach, doctors have to do a so-called blind biopsy. They take a few chunks of tissue and hope they get a piece of any tumor so they can decide how aggressive the cancer is. But they can completely miss the tumor and get healthy tissue.

That’s what happened to Meier. His PSA started rising in 2008, but repeated biopsies showed no sign of cancer.

“The doctor I was going to did three rounds of biopsies and he never could find it,” Meier said in a telephone interview.

Some men might be comfortable with so-called watchful waiting. But others are anxious when they think they may have cancer but don’t really know — and Meier was one of them. He went to a doctor in Santa Barbara for a second opinion, and got yet another biopsy. It was negative.

“Every time they did a biopsy they couldn’t find anything,” Meier said.

So the second doctor started treating Meier for an enlarged prostate. But the PSA kept going up. “I new in my mind something was wrong,” Meier said.

By 2011 his PSA was nearly 18 — a huge rise from a “normal” reading of 4. Meier was referred to UCLA. He had an MRI in Marks’s lab, and it showed a tumor.

Using standard technology, a urologist would still have to guess where the tumor was to get a sample so a pathologist could determine if it was likely to spread. The new technology that Marks helped develop combines the MRI image of a suspected tumor with ultrasound, so the urologist can guide the biopsy needle right there.

Marks got a piece of Meier’s tumor, and it was an aggressive type.

“It had gone out of the prostate gland a little bit and gone into what’s called the seminal vesicles,” Meier said.

Meier had his prostate surgically removed, as well as two dozen surroudning lymph glands. “As of now it looks pretty good,” he said.

The 171 men in the UCLA study were all being watched for possible prostate cancer, or were under observation for slow-growing tumors. While most prostate tumors grow slowly, some become aggressive and spread quickly, and it's often hard to tell what type a man has.

Men with early state prostate cancer can choose from a range of treatments, including surgery, guided radiation and a treatment using radioactive “seeds” that kill prostate tissue.

Prostate cancer is the biggest cancer killer of U.S. men, after lung cancer. It’s diagnosed in more than 240,000 men a year and kills more than 28,000, according to the American Cancer Society.

Most men with prostate cancer will never develop symptoms, and a biopsy is the only way to take a look at the tumor cells and decide how dangerous the cancer is. Because of the uncertainty, last May the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that routine PSA screening be stopped. It said too many men were getting painful biopsies and even surgery and radiation that were not necessary.

Several studies have shown early screening hasn’t lowered the prostate cancer death rate, and one study projected that a million men had been treated needlessly for the disease between 1986 and 2000.

“Because of an elevated PSA level, some men may be diagnosed with a prostate cancer that they would have never even known about at all. It would never have lead to their death, or even caused any symptoms,” the American Cancer Society says.“Treatments like surgery and radiation can have urinary, bowel, and/or sexual side effects that may seriously affect a man's quality of life.”

Targeting biopsies won’t solve the problems caused by PSA screenings, but they can help doctors and patients decide sooner whether a man really does need treatment for his cancer.

Marks and colleagues said if a tumor looked dangerous on an MRI, the biopsy usually confirmed that it was.

“Biopsy findings correlate with the level of suspicion on MRI. Targeted prostate biopsy has the potential to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer and may aid in the selection of patients for active surveillance and focal therapy,” Marks’s team wrote.
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50149531/ns/health-cancer/#.UMic8UKRDGs

Warning: Selenium may cause diabetes

Bayer claimed that “emerging research” suggested that the mineral selenium in One A Day might reduce the risk of prostate cancer. But according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “emerging research” did no such thing. In fact, a seven-year, $118-million study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men. That massive trial, which involved 35,000 men, was abruptly halted when it became clear to researchers that selenium was not protecting the men from prostate cancer and may have been causing unexplained cases of diabetes.

Men with advanced prostate cancer earn $100 for taking online survey

If you're qualified to participate in an online survey for men with advanced prostate cancer, you'll be paid $100 to complete it. The survey takes about 20-25 minutes to complete.

The goal of the survey is to understand the range of issues, concerns, and perceptions among men with advanced prostate cancer. If you've 1) been on your current hormonal therapy for five years or more or 2) your physician switched you to a different hormonal therapy because your PSA started to rise while you were taking a previous hormonal therapy, we need your help in completing this survey.

The survey is strictly for market research purposes and your individual answers will be kept completely confidential. There will be no sales follow-up and your personal information will not be shared with anyone.

Participant quotas are limited, so see if you qualify for this online survey right now clicking on www.surveysbw.com/healthsurvey3

More Sexual Partners may Increase Risk of Prostate Cancer

Men should already know that sex with multiple partners, especially unprotected sex, can increase their risk of contracting HIV and various venereal diseases. They also can add that it may raise their odds of getting prostate cancer in middle age, according to a study published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010704093535.htm

Vasectomy Does Not Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Contrary to some earlier studies, a new study funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that men who undergo vasectomies are no more likely to develop prostate cancer than are men who do not.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020619074253.htm

Hot flashes aren't just for menopausal women these days

Hot flashes no longer discriminate because of age or gender. New-wave drugs that tweak hormones - estrogen and its male cousin, testosterone - have turned up the heat on an age-old phenomenon. Men and women getting medical treatment for a variety of reasons - breast and prostate cancer prevention and fertility enhancement, for example - now break out in a sweat when they least expect it.
Source: www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/8612575.htm

Selenium may slow advanced prostate cancer

Men with higher levels of a nutritional mineral in their blood appear to have a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a new study. The researchers led by Dr. Haojie Li of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, showed that higher levels of the mineral selenium in the blood are associated with a decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer, indicating that selenium could slow prostate cancer tumor progression.
Source: www.cancerfacts.com/Home_News.asp?NewsId=1671&CB=14&CancerTypeId=4

Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Study

Call 1-888-742-7876 to find out more information about a clinical research study to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer in men who are at increased risk.

Calculate Your Odds Against Prostate Cancer

Researchers have created an online calculator that provides prostate cancer patients with personalized 10-year survival predictions. Developed by the Josephine Ford Cancer Center and the Artificial Neural Networks in Prostate Cancer Project, the calculator makes its prognosis based on a patient's age, race, clinical measures and the kind of prostate cancer treatment he's receiving. Survival probability estimates are based on data from over 1600 men with clinically localized prostate cancer.
Source: www.prostatecalculator.org  

Valera Seeks FDA Approval for Prostate Cancer Implant

Valera Pharmaceuticals has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Vantas(TM), Valera's long-acting implant for treating prostate cancer. Vantas(TM) has been designed for the continuous 12-month administration of Histrelin, a luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) for the palliative treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.

New Results in Breast and Prostate Cancer Models Show Potential of ARIUS Antibodies-Tumor Suppression and Increased Survival Following Treatment ARIUS Research Inc.

ARIUS Research Inc. announced today that the proceedings of the 94th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will publish successful pre-clinical study results for three of their novel anti-cancer antibodies. AR7BD-33-11A and AR1A245.6 have met a number of significant endpoints including preventing development of breast and prostate cancers in tumor prevention models and halting tumor growth in a different, established tumor model. These antibodies also significantly improved survival in animal models of human cancer. A third antibody, AR7BDI-58, suppressed development of another kind of breast cancer.
Source: Canada NewsWire

Inhibitors of Novel Cancer Target Attack Tumor on Two Fronts-AACR Proceedings Highlight Research of LPAAT-beta Inhibition By Cell Therapeutics, Inc. in Human Cell Models

In a plenary minisymposium on intracellular signaling published in the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Cell Therapeutics, Inc. presented data on a novel cancer target, LPAAT-beta. The data suggest that the inhibition of LPAAT-beta may impede the growth of tumors on two fronts, by restricting the growth of supporting tissues such as blood vessels and by removing a cofactor essential to tumor cell growth and proliferation. Existing therapies typically use a single mechanism to fight cancer, whereas, LPAAT-beta inhibitors appear to have a dual function. In the published proceedings, CTI highlighted research on signaling pathways which showed that inhibition of LPAAT-beta by genetic knockdown with RNAi or with specific inhibitors of the enzyme leads to tumor cell death through apoptosis. CTI's research also suggests the enzyme plays an important role in cell types that are critical in the formation of the support tissues (stroma) and the abnormal blood vessels which support tumor growth and provide tumor blood supply. "The discovery of a gene product that has critical functions in the regulation of the Raf and other cancer-related pathways as well as in the tissues supporting the tumor is intriguing and suggests LPAAT-beta inhibition may be particularly effective in treating cancer where therapies that use only a single mechanism for fighting cancer have failed," said Jack W. Singer, M.D. and Research Program Chair of CTI.
Source: PR Newswire

HRT Patches for Men: They help in prostate cancer fight

Hormone patches normally worn by women to relieve menopausal symptoms are helping men fight prostate cancer. They cut the supply of the male hormone testosterone, which can encourage the growth of cancer cells, according to experts.
Source: Daily Mail. www.ustoo.org/screamoutput/index.html

External Beam Radiotherapy can Relieve Metastatic Bone Pain

"We have performed a clinical study to evaluate the relationship of response to EBRT in terms of pain relief and improvement in quality of life (QoL). We were also interested in the incidence of acute toxicity with EBRT. We have prospectively evaluated 75 patients (median age 68 years, range 64-79 years) with bone metastases from prostate cancer treated with EBRT, radiographically documented from June 1999 to September 2000," wrote G. Di Lorenzo and colleagues, University of Naples.
Source: Cancer Weekly, www.ustoo.org/screamoutput/index.html

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The 1990 Unofficial Census reported more than 20.5 million Americans wear diapers.11 million of them adults.

Approvimately 90% of adults can be treated or cured of incontinence but haven't sought professional help.


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