Pricier therapy no better for early prostate cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

A new study suggests that expensive, high-tech proton beam radiation doesn't do any more for men with prostate cancer than the most commonly-used option.

Proton beam radiation, heavily promoted by facilities that perform the treatment, also came with a higher risk of certain side effects compared to intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), researchers found.


The findings suggest that men have multiple radiation options when it comes to treating early, localized prostate cancer.
Though not covered in the new study, their options also include surgery -- or getting no treatment at all and waiting to see how the disease progresses, researchers said.

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Pricier therapy no better for early prostate cancer

Prostate & Baldness drugs may have sexual side effects

Two Merck drugs for treating male baldness and enlarged prostate will now carry extended labels to add more possible sexual side effects, US regulators said on Friday.

The changes involve Propecia and Proscar, both of which contain the active ingredient finasteride

The new Propecia label will include "libido disorders, ejaculation disorders, and orgasm disorders that continued after discontinuation of the drug," the FDA said. Propecia is a drug to treat male baldness.

Proscar, which treats symptoms of enlarged prostate, will now have a label that adds "decreased libido that continued after discontinuation of the drug."

In addition, both labels are being revised to "include a description of reports of male infertility and/or poor semen quality that normalized or improved after drug discontinuation," the FDA said.

Read the full story here:
US warns two drugs may have sexual side effects

Researchers Find Genes Linked to Aggressive Prostate Cancer

MONDAY, April 9 (HealthDay News)

The discovery of two inherited genetic variations may help doctors identify men at greater risk for aggressive prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

A man's risk for the disease could triple or even quadruple depending on the genetic variant they have, according to the researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and elsewhere.

Having a family history of prostate cancer is the strongest risk factor for the disease. As a result, the researchers set out to find DNA that is deleted or duplicated in the genetic information of men with prostate cancer compared to those who do not have the disease.

In testing the effect of the two inherited variants in a lab, the investigators showed that the variants helped cancer cells grow and invade, putting some men at four times greater risk for prostate cancer.

 Read the full HealthDay News report here:
 Researchers Find Genes Linked to Aggressive Prostate Cancer:

Circumcision Hype?

 A new study linking circumcision before sexual intercourse to lower rates of prostate cancer may be so flawed that the conclusions are meaningless, says Dr. Gerald Chodak.
Medscape Urology

Read the Medscape report here:
Circumcision Hype?

Self-checking won't spot testicle cancer

Celebrity appeals for British men to check their testicles to detect early signs of cancer are a waste of time and possibly harmful, an opinion piece published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says.

Read the report here:
Self-checking won't spot testicle cancer

Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Circumcised men may have a slightly lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who still have their foreskin, according to a new study.

The new work falls short of actually proving that removing a boy's foreskin will cut his future cancer risk, said Dr. Jonathan L. Wright, who led the research.

"I would not go out and advocate for widespread circumcision to prevent prostate cancer," Wright, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, told Reuters Health."We see an association, but it doesn't prove causality." 



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Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk

Men opting for costly new prostate cancer treatment

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

Men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer are more likely to be treated with proton beam therapy, a novel form of radiation therapy, if the technology is available nearby, a new study found.

In the study, researchers examined the treatment choices of nearly 20,000 men living inside or outside of a regional market for Loma Linda University, a hospital in Southern California with a proton beam facility. All men were diagnosed with low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

The treatment is often billed as having lower impotence and incontinence rates than other radiation treatment options, but there's a lack of evidence to support this.

Despite the added costs, there's no evidence to suggest that proton beam therapy results in better outcomes than other forms of prostate cancer treatment, including other forms of radiation, surgery or hormone therapy.

With the healthcare crisis looming and multiple treatment options available, newer, more expensive procedures for prostate cancer should be validated before they are implemented.

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Men opting for costly new prostate cancer treatment