Should Men Take Finasteride to Prevent Prostate Cancer ?

A recent update to an important study analyzes whether the benefits outweigh the risks to taking finasteride to prevent prostate cancer.

Dr. Gerald Chodak discusses this subject in this new video from ProstateVideos.com.

Pomegranate and other Extracts for Prostate Cancer - Should You Take Them ?

A recent well done studied found that an extract of pomegranate seeds, broccoli, green tea and Turmeric reduced the number of men with a rising PSA and more often reduced the PSA at 6 months compared to a placebo. The video explains the results and what it means for patients with prostate cancer

Decreasing Infections from a Prostate Biopsy

In today's video from Dr. Gerald Chodak, he discusses the risks of infection from having a prostate biopsy and what measures can be taken to minimize those risks. 

Does Selenium Help to Prevent Prostate Cancer

In today's video, Dr. Gerald Chodak discusses recent studies about the relationship between selenium levels and the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Prostate Cancer Screening - the Debate Continues

As we have already reported in this recent post, there has already been some professional criticism of the US Preventive Services Task Force Policy advising against routine prostate cancer screening.

It was with interest that I read two commentaries from prostate cancer expert Dr. Gerald Chodak which address some of these criticisms.

The first point Dr. Chodak makes is that the criticism is almost exclusively focussed on the men who MIGHT miss out on 'potentially curative therapy' and ignores all those men who are actually being harmed by screening and treatment.

On his website ProstateVideos.com, Dr. Chodak has created a checklist of facts about prostate cancer in the form of a prostate cancer screening consent form which can help to put the current 'debate' into perspective and is well worth reading.

In his second commentary, Dr. Chodak refers to and recommends the following CNN article written by psychologist Dr. Charles Raison who talks about the mental health side of PSA screening:
The Danger of Fearing Cancer

Dr. Chodak on routine prostate cancer screening

As a follow-up to our story on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against routine prostate cancer screening, here's leading urologist and prostate cancer specialist Dr. Gerald Chodak's video review of the recommendation:

In this video Dr. Chodak explains that the reason for the recommendation is fundamentally that, according the best information currently available, the benefit of routine screening is very small (or non-existent) and is outweighed by the harms of such screening.

Dr. Chodak points out that a PSA blood test itself does not cause undue pain, discomfort or suffering but that an abnormal test result means that one or more prostate biopsies will be called for and such biopsies are not without side-effects.

If prostate cancer is actually diagnosed, the treatments also all have side-effects which can include sexual dysfunction, loss of bladder control and other complications.

The bottom line is that, if diagnosed, the chances of suffering treatment side-effects are much greater than the chances of being able to avoid suffering and/or death from prostate cancer.

Dr. Chodak refers to a recent study which showed that there was no difference in survival after 10 years in men whose prostate cancer was treated or left untreated.