Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog Gary Schwitzer Publisher , HealthNewsReview.org feedback healthnewsreview.org NYT prostate cancer patient writer reviews Invasion of Prostate Snatchers By Gary Schwitzer on August 31, 2010 1:07 PM No Comments No TrackBacks New York Times writer Dana Jennings , who's been publicly sharing his own story of prostate cancer , writes about a new book about someone else's prostate cancer story . It's Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers , by Ralph H . Blum and Dr . Mark Scholz . Jennings writes : The book is a provocative and frank look at the bewildering world of prostate cancer , from the current state of the multibillion-dollar industry to the range of available . treatments About 200,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in the United
The Recovery Room radio program out of North Carolina has a half hour program on HealthNewsReview.org and on the challenges of health journalism. The program features interviews with me and with Scott Hensley, of NPR's health blog, "Shots."
Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog Gary Schwitzer Publisher , HealthNewsReview.org feedback healthnewsreview.org Story of Medtronic's Infuse product from revolutionary advance to public health alert By Gary Schwitzer on August 30, 2010 9:53 AM No Comments No TrackBacks There are many stories journalists could report about conflicts of interest and questions about evidence in the treatment of low back pain , perhaps especially with spinal fusion . We talked about many of these with journalists from the American Society of News Editors in a workshop at the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making in Boston in May . John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel hammers one of these issues , looking at how Medtronic's Infuse product went from revolutionary advance to public health
Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog Gary Schwitzer Publisher , HealthNewsReview.org feedback healthnewsreview.org How would you feel about your surgical team Tweeting during your operation By Gary Schwitzer on August 25, 2010 3:21 PM 4 Comments No TrackBacks And why are so many stories so unquestioning about these runaway surgical Twitter practices Just look at this frame grab from a Google search showing all the stories so far on one hospital team's surgical Twitter exploits . One story stated : Senior hand fellows . when not actively involved in the surgery , sat at a laptop just outside the operating suite and tweeted real-time updates during the procedure , according to a hospital press release . According to the Twitter feed , expert teams of hand surgeons rotated in and out of the
Prostate cancer patients who is living on low income is likely to die earlier compared to prostate cancer patients who are economically in a more advantageous position. That is the finding of a new study from Swiss researchers to be published in the December 1, 2009 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's findings indicate that poor prostate cancer patients receive worse care than their wealthier counterparts........ , A new analysis has observed that short-term and long-term costs of prostate cancer care vary considerably based on which therapy strategy a man initially receives. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study finds that therapys that appears to be less expensive in the short-term may have higher long-term costs........ As stroma the supportive framework of the prostate gland react to prostate cancer, changes in the expression of genes occur that induce the formation of new structures such as blood vessels, nerves and parts of nerves, said scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research....... Two Mayo Clinic patients whose prostate cancer had been considered inoperable are now cancer free thanks in part to an experimental drug treatment that was used in combination with standardized hormone therapy and radiation treatment. The men were participating in a clinical trial of an immunotherapeutic agent called MDX-010 or ipilimumab. In these two cases, physicians say the approach initiated the death of a majority of cancer cells and caused the tumors to shrink dramatically, allowing surgery. In both cases, the aggressive tumors had grown well beyond the prostate into the abdominal areas........ A new treatment for metastatic prostate cancer has shown considerable promise in early clinical trials involving patients whose disease has become resistant to current drugs. Of 30 men who received low doses of one the drugs in a multisite phase I/II trial designed to evaluate safety, 22 showed a sustained decline in the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in their blood. Phase III clinical trials are planned to evaluate the drug's effect on survival in a large group of patients with metastatic prostate cancer........ A new multi-center study shows that an experimental drug lowers prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels a marker for tumor growth in men with advanced prostate cancer for whom traditional therapy options have failed. The study, led by scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), is published recently in Science Express, the online version of the journal Science....... A study led by scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has observed that one of seven genetic risk factors previously identified as increasing the probability of developing prostate cancer also increases the probability of developing colorectal cancer. As in the prior prostate cancer study, which was also conducted by USC scientists and reported in the April 2007 edition of Nature Genetics, the colorectal cancer risk factor is located in a region of the human genome devoid of known genes on chromosome 8. The studys complete findings would be reported in the July 8 online edition of Nature Genetics........ Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable, a three-year UCLA study has observed. The study involved 50 men who had undergone surgery or radiation but quickly experienced increases in prostate-specific antigen or PSA, a biomarker that indicates the presence of cancer. UCLA scientists measured "doubling time," how long it takes for PSA levels to double, a signal that the cancer is progressing, said Dr. Allan Pantuck, an associate professor of urology, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and lead author of the study........ As you are aware we are the leading publishers of health news on the web. We publish news items in various forms including numerous blogs and news items. We invite you to participate in our new collection. We are looking for quality news items that would be interesting to our readers. Now you may suggest the news item from your site to be included at Medicineworld.org. Inclusion of news item at our site get instantaneous attention since the item is illustrated from various blog posts. Addition of pictures to the item adds additional attraction to your news item. Inclusion in the Medicineworld.org site brings quality links and visitors to your site........ Recent findings from an observational study by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine suggest that men between 65 and 80 years of age who received therapy for early stage, localized prostate cancer lived significantly longer than men who did not receive therapy. The study would be reported in the December 13th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association........ Negative perceptions about radiation treatment can strongly influence a prostate cancer patient's choice to avoid external beam radiation treatment, even though studies have proven the therapy to be as safe and effective as other therapys for the disease, including surgery, as per a research studypresented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia........ Patients with prostate cancer treated with either radiation or surgery who use hormone treatment for longer than six months do not survive any longer than patients who use the therapy for a shorter amount of time, as per a research studypresented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia........ 
The five-year cost of treating localized prostate cancer varied by as much as 200%, depending on the choice of initial therapy, analysis of an NIH database showed.
Women Against Prostate Cancer helping women win the war against prostate cancer Home Donate Resources News Blog Take Action Share Your Story Anne’s Story Dana’s Story Donna’s Story Lisa’s Story Mari’s Story More Stories of Inspiration Sherry’s Story Submit Your Prostate Cancer Story Press Area About Us Steering Committee State Chapters Contact Us You are here : Home Prostate Cancer Blog Prostate Cancer Survivor Inspires Others With Cross Country Ride Prostate Cancer Survivor Inspires Others With Cross Country Ride Filed in Prostate Cancer Blog on August 20, 2010 with no comments Stumble This Digg This Share on Delicious Share on Facebook Tweet This Tags 000 deaths 32 Awareness cancer charity country cross Featured motorcyle prostate ride robert hess Robert Hess is no stranger to taking onBrothers of prostate cancer patients have higher rates of the disease and higher rates of clinically insignificant cancer because they have more diagnostic tests, data from a large cohort study indicated.
: , , Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog Gary Schwitzer Publisher , HealthNewsReview.org feedback healthnewsreview.org Australian view : journalists , MDs , universities conflicts of interest an unholy mess By Gary Schwitzer on August 19, 2010 3:21 PM No Comments No TrackBacks On the Croakey blog Melissa Sweet writes about some burning conflict of interest questions in her corner of the world . Excerpt : it would be useful to have a central online registry where journalists and others could easily search to see the commercial ties and COI policies of health and medical experts . This might also be useful for patients , especially when making major health care decisions . I was heartened to hear one psychiatrist in the audience is considering how best to declare such information to .The maker of the prostate cancer immunotherapy sipuleucel-T (Provenge) has exaggerated the therapy's efficacy and played down its risks in some marketing materials, the FDA charged.Biomarkers for cancer -- often reported with great publicity -- routinely fail to be of clinical use, a Canadian researcher said.Physicians continue to shy away from prescribing finasteride to prevent prostate cancer, despite evidence from a large clinical trial showing that the drug significantly reduced the risk, a survey showed. Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) are hoping a new gene treatment that takes a gene called RTVP-1 directly into the prostate tumor will prove effective in preventing recurrence of the disease. The first phase of the study is designed to test the safety of the therapy and determine the proper dosage of gene, said Dr. Dov Kadmon, professor of urology at BCM. It will be carried out in the department of urology at BCM as well as at Ben Taub General Hospital, The Methodist Hospital and Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center........ A popular prostate cancer therapy called androgen deprivation treatment may encourage prostate cancer cells to produce a protein that makes them more likely to spread throughout the body, a new study by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests. Eventhough the finding could eventually lead to changes in this standard therapy for a sometimes deadly disease, the Johns Hopkins scientists caution that their discovery is far too preliminary for patients with prostate cancer or physicians to stop using it. The treatment is effective at slowing tumor growth, they emphasized........ A questionnaire for men with prostate cancer that evaluates comorbidities may help in clinical decision-making about treatment by estimating their likelihood of dying from other conditions, researchers found.