Author: Jacquie Strax

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June is Men’s Health Month in the USA and the third Sunday of June is celebrated as Father's Day. So in addition to Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September and "Movember" (grow or wear a mustache in November to show you're "committed to changing the face of men’s health") June is a good time for health organizations to stand up for men. The College of American Pathologists (CAP) does so in an advisory, "5 Things to Know About Your PSA Test."

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Michael J. Misialek, MD, Pathologist.

The pathologists' organization suggests that if you're a man "heeding the advice of your wife, girlfriend or significant other," you may have decided this June "to schedule yourself for that routine physical that you've been putting off. One aspect of your visit to the doctor’s office might be a PSA test."

"Your Prostate Specific Antigen screening test," CAP says, "will be studied and evaluated by a pathologist like Michael J. Misialek, MD, FCAP. Dr. Misialek says there’s a lot you need to understand about this test." ...continue reading Blood Simple – Pathologist Michael Misialek encourages men’s health checkups as the PSA era heads toward Gene Tests and the Prostate Health Index

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Wear Plaid for Dad, launched in Canada, is a new campaign to raise prostate cancer awareness.  Join people across Canada leading up to Father’s Day by wearing plaid on June 19th.

Prostate Cancer Canada has launched Wear Plaid for Dad June 19.
Prostate Cancer Canada has launched Wear Plaid for Dad June 19.

Prostate Cancer Canada organizers say:

Why Wear Plaid?

Leading up to Father’s Day, a time when the focus is already on men and families, we can help raise awareness and funds to help protect men from prostate cancer -  the most common cancer affecting men.
So please on June 19th join people across Canada and Wear Plaid for Dad. Whether it’s a shirt, a tie, a scarf, or even a suit – if it’s plaid it’ll work! With just a simple wardrobe choice, you’ll be helping protect the 1 in 8 men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
Visit Prostate Cancer Canada's event web site  for more details.

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Prostate cancer survivors during the era 2005-2013, as you'll see from our tag cloud (sidebar), were bombarded by Dendreon's controversial campaign to speed FDA approval of its immunotherapy vaccine Provenge. Since then, Provenge hype has calmed down, while the push for Abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) has heated up.

Abiraterone (generic name) aka  Zytiga (brand name) is a high-powered castration drug FDA approved for use with 10-mg prednisone as a treatment for men with metastatic CRPC. Compared to Provenge, which costs around $90,000 for a course of treatment, Zyiga costs about $5,000 a month with expected follow-up doses for around eight months.

Janssen, Zytiga's manufacturer, is pushing to extend the drug for men with high-risk nonmetastatic (M0) castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). According to a study by Dr. David Crawford and colleagues,, abiraterone (Xytiga) "significantly lowered PSA levels with a consistent toxicity profile in men with high-risk nonmetastatic (M0) castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)."
...continue reading Zytiga Lowers PSA in men with high-risk prostate cancer, at a cost in side-effects

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Dr. Nima Sharifi
Dr. Nima Sharifi

PSA Rising /DALLAS/ – July 25, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have narrowed the potential drug targets for advanced prostate cancer by demonstrating that late-stage tumors are driven by a different hormonal pathway than previously was thought.

"We have recently discovered that castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is unexpectedly driven by dihydrotestosterone synthesis from adrenal precursors in a pathway that circumvents testosterone," says Dr. Nima Sharifi, assistant professor of internal medicine and senior author of a  study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
...continue reading New Pathway to Potential Therapies for Advanced Prostate Cancer

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An open-label study of Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) is ongoing at 8 centers across the USA. This is a Phase 2 Study enrolling men with Metastatic Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC).

The aim of this study is to measure the immune responses to treatment with sipuleucel-T (Provenge). All participants will receive the drug. ...continue reading Provenge Trial Ongoing & Recruiting At Eight US Centers

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Rick Ward, Prostate Cancer Awareness advocate, of Deer Lodge, Montana and San Antonio, TXRick Ward, of Deer Lodge, Montana and San Antonio,Texas, a pioneering prostate cancer awareness advocate and activist, died recently of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Rick, an Air Force veteran aged 71, will be remembered for his tremendous contribution to Seedpods brachytherapy mailing list, for his dedication to helping Veterans faced with cancer and other health problems, for popularizing the sky blue ribbon as an emblem of prostate cancer awareness, and for advocating for equitable funding for prostate cancer research.

Rick discovered he had prostate cancer at age 56 in September 1994 in Deer Lodge, Montana when a PSA test at a free screening clinic during Prostate Cancer Awareness Week came back at a high 14 ng/mL. He called the National Cancer Institute at 1-800-4CANCER; and as an early internet user, he joined one of the start-up online mailing lists. ...continue reading Rick Ward: Pioneer Prostate Cancer Activist

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Today's New York Times reports:  "A unit in Philadelphia operating with virtually no outside scrutiny botched 92 of 116 prostate cancer treatments over a span of more than six years." Dr. Gary D. Kao, according to the report, ran a "rogue" cancer unit which covered up botched procedures in which radioactive "seeds" intended for the cancerous prostate landed in the bladder or near the rectum. Dr. Kao's team rewrote treatment plans, according to the Times, to cover up his bad aim. ...continue reading VA Hospital Botches Prostate Treatments, Report