Category: Side Effects

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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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Androgen-deprivation therapy is well-established for treating prostate cancer but is associated with bone loss and an increased risk of fracture. Matthew R. Smith and an international team investigated the effects of denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody against receptor activator of nuclear factor-{kappa}B ligand, on bone mineral density and fractures in men receiving androgen-deprivation therapy for nonmetastatic prostate cancer. In today's New England Journal of Medicine, August 20, they report positive results:
...continue reading Denosumab in Men Receiving Androgen-Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

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Proton beam therapy for prostate cancer, a treatment that attracts more than an average numbers of engineers, scientists and pilots, is coming under intense scrutiny from reporters who expect it to be questioned by the Obama adminstration's health-care reform team. ...continue reading Is Proton Therapy On Pres. Obama’s Health-Care Hatchet List?

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Recent stories on bisphosphonate side effects might be signaling the advent of a new, superior drug, but will Halozyme's rHuPH20 enzyme solve the problem of jaw necrosis?

Drug development companies operate within the overall consumer culture. We all want better drugs, better everything. Generic Fosamax (alendronate) now costs just $4 at Wal-Mart, Kroger and other retail pharmacies. What might make right now a better than usual time to get word out to the masses that Fosamax carries some dreadful, if quite rare, risks? ...continue reading Bisphosphonate Side Effects and a New Clinical Trial

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Diane Wysowski of the FDA's division of drug risk assessment says researchers should check into potential links between oral bisphosphonate drugs and cancer of the esophagus.

Merck's oral osteoporosis drug Fosamax may carry a risk for esophageal cancer, Wysowski writes in a letter to January 1, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine.
...continue reading Fosamax Linked to Esophageal Cancer

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Rhonda Fine PhD

Rhonda Fine
PhD ARNP

Many factors can adversely affect sexual performance. Physical disability illness, obesity, medications, aging, stress, grief, emotional distress and relationship conflicts may all at times contribute to sexual dysfunction.

Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment may also contribute to sexual dysfunction. To help men and their partners cope with and manage sexual dysfunction, the Krongrad Institute has brought in Rhonda Fine, PhD, ARNP. Dr. Fine will head up the Institute's efforts to support men and their sexual partners after prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. ...continue reading Clinical Sexologist and Therapist Joins Krongrad Institute

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Charles "Chuck" Maack
Charles "Chuck" Maack

BY CHARLES (CHUCK) MAACK – Prostate Cancer Advocate

In opening: The capability to have an erection does not define what constitutes the title “Man.”

I’ve become exasperated reading of men claiming they are less a man because they are unable to get an erection or have lost libido/potency. "I’m less a man," "I’m a eunuch," "I’m a girly-man."

Where in God's name have such ridiculous thoughts come from? This, in my mind, is the perfect example of some men's brains being enclosed within their penis rather than in their head.

I can agree that loss of capability for erection plus loss of libido are blows that strike at key capabilities associated with being a male.

But I am absolutely no less a man than I was through all the decades of my life before discovery of the prostate cancer made it necessary for me to take medical treatments that resulted in my loss of libido/potency/erection. ...continue reading Prostate Cancer and Masculinity