Prostate Cancer
Money issues strain marriage after prostate cancer
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For men with prostate cancer, lost work income and increased health care costs can have a damaging effect on their marriage, Swedish researchers report.
It’s likely that the expenses involved in treating prostate cancer have an even larger impact on marital quality for men living in countries where health care is much more expensive than it is in Sweden, for example the United States, Gunnar Steineck of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Treatment for Early Prostate Cancer Associated with Type of Specialist Seen
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A new study analyzing men with localized prostate cancer shows that the specialty of the physician they see can influence the type of therapy they ultimately receive. The study, co-led by a urologist and a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, found that patients aged 65 to 69 years old who consult a urologist are more likely to undergo surgery to remove the prostate, while those who consult a radiation oncologist and a urologist, regardless of age, usually receive radiation therapy.
“These practice patterns are no surprise but are notable because specialists who treat prostate cancer tend to favor the treatment they themselves deliver, despite the fact that no one has shown one treatment for early stage prostate cancer to be better than another,” said Thomas L. Jang, MD, MPH, a physician in the Department of Urology, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and co-lead author of the study. “It is very important for patients to receive an unbiased, balanced perspective on the full range of treatments.”
Tomatoes fail as prostate cancer preventive
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A new study suggests that eating lycopene-rich tomatoes offers no protection against prostate cancer, contrary to the findings of some past studies. In fact, the researchers found an association between beta carotene, an antioxidant related to lycopene, and an increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
In a written statement, Dr. Ulrike Peters of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said the finding is “disappointing, since lycopene might have offered a simple and inexpensive way to lower prostate cancer risk for men concerned about this common disease. Unfortunately, this easy answer just does not work.”
MR Imaging Helps Predict Recurrence in Prostate Cancer Patients
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MR images taken of prostate cancer patients prior to treatment that show that the cancer has spread outside the prostate gland capsule help predict whether the cancer will return, according to a recent study conducted by radiologists at the University of California-San Francisco.
The study consisted of 74 men with biopsy-proven prostate cancer who underwent endorectal MR imaging of the prostate, said Antonio Westphalen, MD, lead author of the study. Tumor size, stage and extracapsular extension (cancer spread outside the prostate gland capsule) were all recorded.
First gene test for diabetes risk now available
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The world’s first genetic test to assess the risk of developing type 2 diabetes has been launched by Iceland’s Decode Genetics Inc.
The biotech company, which uses studies of the Icelandic population to find the genetic basis of common diseases, said on Sunday it would charge $500 to test for a genetic variation linked to a twofold risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Low education predicts lower quality of life for prostate cancer patients
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Among men who have received similar treatments for prostate cancer, those with less education –– particularly those who did not graduate from high school –– experience a significant drop in their quality of life after treatment compared with men who have more education, according to a study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC).
“These men did not start out with a lower quality of life before cancer,” says lead author Sara J. Knight, PhD, a staff psychologist at SFVAMC. “What’s surprising is that after treatment, they have clinically significant problems across the board –– mental and emotional as well as physical –– in managing their lives.”
Researchers find genetic links to prostate cancer
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Scientists have identified several genetic risk factors for prostate cancer, shedding new light on the cause of a leading worldwide cancer killer among men that hits U.S. blacks especially hard.
“The importance of it is that this is the first real evidence of the genetic basis of prostate cancer,” said Dr. Brian Henderson, dean of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and one of the researchers of the study released on Sunday.
DNA test will detect prostate cancer risk
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The first genetic test that allows young men to assess their risk of developing prostate cancer in later life could be available as early as next year, scientists said yesterday.
Several teams of researchers have identified a total of seven genetic risk factors that account for about half of prostate cancers in the general population.
Prostate Brachytherapy Causes Fewer Side Effects than Surgery
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Men with prostate cancer have a slightly better long-term side effects profile with radiation seed implants than they do with surgery, according to a study released today in the International Journal for Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics, the official journal of ASTRO.
Doctors in France conducted the first-ever multi-institutional, comparative study of men with early stage prostate cancer to evaluate a man’s quality of life, treatment-related side effects and cost of the treatment based on the type of treatment the patient received: surgery or seed implants, both widely-accepted modes of treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. With prostate surgery, called a radical prostatectomy, a surgeon removes the prostate. During prostate brachytherapy, a radiation oncologist places radioactive seeds, similar to the size of a grain of rice, into the prostate to kill the cancer.
Prostate cancer treatment may shorten penis
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Men who receive combination treatment with hormone therapy plus radiation for local or locally advanced prostate cancer may experience a significant reduction in penile length, according to a report in the January issue of the Journal of Urology.
There has been anecdotal evidence that radiation therapy can reduce penile length but, to the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first to determine if penile length changes following combination treatment with hormone therapy plus radiation.
Treating localized prostate cancer boosts survival
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Survival rates for men with localized prostate cancer are better with either surgery or radioactive seed implantation, a treatment called brachytherapy, compared with no “definitive” treatment, investigators at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City report. This is true even among older men.
Based on the research, reported in the journal Cancer, men undergoing surgery or brachytherapy are much less likely to die of prostate cancer or any cause compared with men undergoing no definitive therapy.
“This study is the first to demonstrate an apparent overall survival advantage for brachytherapy compared with no definitive treatment, and validates prior reports that document a survival advantage for surgery,” Dr. Jonathan D. Tward and associates write.
Older men treated for early prostate cancer live longer than those who are not
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Recent findings from an observational study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine suggest that men between 65 and 80 years of age who received treatment for early stage, localized prostate cancer lived significantly longer than men who did not receive treatment. The study will be published in the December 13th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Thanks to better cancer prevention education and the resulting wide-spread increase in using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screenings, more men are being diagnosed with early-stage and low-or intermediate-grade prostate cancer. Studies have shown that the slow-developing nature of prostate cancer during its earliest stages makes treatment options, such as a radical prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate) and radiation therapy, controversial with unpredictable outcomes. Often, recently diagnosed men of this group were advised to just “watch and wait” to see how their situation progressed.
‘Muscle’ protein drives prostate cancer
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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have for the first time implicated the muscle protein myosin VI in the development of prostate cancer and its spread.
In a series of lab studies with human prostate cancer cells, the Hopkins scientists were surprised to find overproduction of myosin VI in both prostate tumor cells and precancerous lesions. When the scientists genetically altered the cells to “silence” myosin VI, they discovered the cells were less able to invade in a test tube.
“Our results suggest that myosin VI may be critical in starting and maintaining the malignant properties of the majority of human prostate cancers diagnosed today,” says Angelo M. De Marzo, M.D., Ph.D., a study coauthor and associate professor of pathology, urology and oncology.
Men with prostate cancer avoid radiation due to misconceptions
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Negative perceptions about radiation therapy can strongly influence a prostate cancer patient’s choice to avoid external beam radiation therapy, even though studies have proven the treatment to be as safe and effective as other treatments for the disease, including surgery, according to a study presented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
“The study shows that patients base their treatment choice not only on technical information, but also on cultural and personal prejudices,” said Riccardo Valdagni, M.D., an author of the study and head of the Prostate Programme at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy. “It’s important for patients to express their fears about radiation treatment to their doctors and for doctors to consider these worries and address any misconceptions about this therapy so that patients can make the best, most informed decision about their treatment.”
More than 6 months of hormone therapy doesn’t help prostate cancer patients live longer
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Prostate cancer patients treated with either radiation or surgery who use hormone therapy for longer than six months do not survive any longer than patients who use the treatment for a shorter amount of time, according to a study presented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
“Many patients with high risk prostate cancer are treated with two or more years of hormone therapy based on studies performed over a decade ago,” said Cliff Robinson, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. “Our study’s findings suggest that treating current patients with shorter-term hormone therapy may not only be equally effective, but also improve their quality of life, due to a lesser degree of treatment side effects.”
