“ We found that men with early stage and low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer who underwent active treatment with either radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy within 6 months after diagnosis were 30% less likely to die during the subsequent 12 years of follow-up than men who did not undergo active treatment within 6 months after diagnosis.” Yu-Ning Wong. Full story

Sex discrimination is being claimed over the B.C. government’s refusal to fund a test to screen men for prostate cancer.

A B.C. human rights tribunal begins today with Victoria lawyer Laurie Armstrong claiming it’s discriminatory to force men like him to pay for the PSA test, a screening test for prostate cancer, when women aren’t charged for Pap smears or mammograms. Full Story Richard Watts, Times Colonist Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Mustaches raised $700,000 dollars to fight prostate cancer in New Zealand this past November, dubbed Movember (reflecting Anglo spelling moustache). The Movember event now takes place in Australia, New Zealand, UK and other spots. For New Zealand info visit the main NZ Movember site and Thank you page.

The 11,000 men participating in this charity event “began with a clean shave on November 1st, then competed for sponsorship dollars and their place in a complex hirsute hierarchy at the end of the month,” reports stuff.co.nz

“Wives and girlfriends complained,” and co-workers scoffed but the annual event raised awareness as well as raising more than $700,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand. NZ military grew mustaches as well as individual sympathizers.

This year the Prostate Cancer foundation of Australia split proceeds from theirMovember event mainly between:

Prostate cancer because every year in Australia 2,700 men die of prostate cancer – more than the number of women who die from breast cancer.

Male depression because 1 in 6 men are affected by depression… Most don’t seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.

This year’s International Man of Movember 2006, looking very like Borat, is Dean Borret of Brisbane.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation is partnering with the NBA and will sell wristbands representing 18 current and former players as part of an effort to raise funds to help find a cure for the disease.

The wristbands will feature the names, signatures, uniform numbers, team colors and logos of current and former NBA stars. The wristbands will cost $3 and will be sold at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and at participating arenas. They will also be available online at NBAStore.com.
Details: Spurs players help NBA fight prostate cancer
San Antonio Business Journal – December 8, 2006
by W. Scott Bailey

Dioxin in agent orange herbicide impacts the human reproductive system and is associated with development of prostate and other cancers and also with birth defects in children.

Now a scandal is breaking over payments made for years by the Monsanto chemical company to a leading UK researcher into the effects of dioxin on humans. Sir Richard Doll, an Oxford scientist who did heroic work exposing the fact that smoking causes lung cancer, periodically received $1,500 a day as a consultant to Monsanto while researching effects of Agent Orange on humans.

Yesterday, Guardian, UK health editor Sarah Boseley alleged that Doll hid his paid consultancies with Monsanto, Dow Chemicals and other companies while issuing reassuring reports about Agent Orange and vinyl chloride. Boseley writes:

Nitric oxide in popular impotence drugs “unmasks” cancer cells so that the body’s natural immune system and/or anti-cancer drugs can target the cells more effectively, Johns Hopkins researchers say. Full story

In a New York Times article December 1 STEPHANIE SAUL asks whether urologists who treat prostate cancer are switching patients away from surgery and seeding (brachytherapy) toward IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy) to boost profits.

“Are their doctors making treatment decisions on the basis of money as much as medicine? ” she asks. Full story may require free registration at New York Times.
Profit and Questions As Doctors Offer Prostate Cancer Therapy

Article by ROBERT PEAR in November 24 New York Times says “top executives from two dozen drug companies” including Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Merck are “alarmed at the prospect of Democratic control of Congress.” The executives met in Washington last week “to assess what appears to them to be a harsh new political climate, and to draft a battle plan. ” Pear’s report continues:

Hoping to prevent Congress from letting the government negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans on Medicare, the pharmaceutical companies have been recruiting Democratic lobbyists, lining up allies in the Bush administration and Congress, and renewing ties with organizations of patients who depend on brand-name drugs.

Many drug company lobbyists concede that the House is likely to pass a bill intended to drive down drug prices, but they are determined to block such legislation in the Senate. If that strategy fails, they are counting on President Bush to veto any bill that passes. . . . .

While that showdown is a long way off, the drug companies are not wasting time. They began developing strategy last week at a meeting of the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America . . . .

Full story at New York Times, may require registration (free) and log in.

People, families and medical caregivers want improvements for those who die in hospital intensive care. In an era of increasing trust in use of home hospice many people say that they would prefer to die at home, or in a homelike setting. But a considerable number of patients with chronic, life-threatening illnesses enter hospital for acute care near the end of life and die in an intensive care unit (ICU).

Today 1 in 5 deaths in the United States takes place in the intensive care unit (ICU) or shortly after receiving intensive care, a trend that is likely to continue, according to intensive care specialists writing in a supplement to this month’s Critical Care Medicine.

More patients with severe illness are arriving at ICUs, the authors explain, and many families and patients with chronic, life-limiting diseases are opting for a trial period of intensive care. The patients have needs which traditional ICUs were not specifically designed to meet, especially needs for ongoing palliative or “comfort care.” And the families need and are asking for more information and support.

Full story:

http://www.psa-rising.com/living/end-of-life-care2-06.html

In today’s New York Times Health Section, RONI RABIN includes prostate cancer in a list of men’s health conditions that get less than a fair share of attention and research dollars compared with women’s health conditions:

“Cancer also strikes men disproportionately: one in three women at some point in life; one in two men. In part, that is a result of the fact that more men than women smoke, and possibly of occupational exposures.

But experts and advocates say that when it comes to government financing for the most common sex-specific reproductive cancers, breast cancer financing exceeds prostate cancer financing by more than 40 percent, with prostate cancer research receiving $394 million in 2005, and breast cancer receiving $710 million. The figures, for financing by the National Cancer Institute and Defense Department, were provided by the not-for-profit Prostate Cancer Foundation.