The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will host news briefings with accompanying live webcasts on the top cancer research papers from its 51st Annual Meeting to be held this coming week in Chicago. Prostate cancer features in three of briefings. Here are the headlines:

The Obama administration has changed Federal policies on regulation of medical marijuana use under state law. During his presidential race last year, Barack Obama said that he intended to halt raids of medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state laws. Today, new Justice Department guidelines brought this change about.

The new guidelines order federal drug agents to stop arresting or charging patients, caregivers or suppliers who are dispensing, buying or using marijuana for medical purposes allowed by state law.

All over the internet people are receiving and passing on messages starting out with words like this:

Received this excellent advice regarding H1N1/Swine Flu from . . .

The blog post or email forwards a message that starts out:

Subject: Possible swine flu prevention
This message is from Dr. Vinay Goyal a renowned doctor who visited last week to lecture on the topic H1N1 (SWINE FLU), its origin and precautions. He is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of more than 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

Gavin Rodden, the 8 year boy fighting metastatic muscle cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, which began in muscle in his prostate, now has a web page at CaringBridge, Gavin the Strong:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gavinthestrong

Gavin is taking chemotherapy in Houston. To donate to the Medical Fund that Shannon’s employer has set up for Gavin (see details in our previous post) send a check, in any amount, payable to Gavin Rodden Medical Fund and mail to:
Citizens’ National Bank
PO Box 1009
Henderson
TX 75653-1009
To validate the address and the fund you may contact the bank from this page: https://www.cnbtexas.com/#/contact-us
Or donate to “Gavin Rodden’s Hospital Fund” via PayPal.

Eight-year-old Gavin Rodden was diagnosed recently with a rare childhood cancer, which began in his prostate.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (Rhab-do-my-o-sarcoma) is an aggressive form of cancer that starts in a muscle cell and may spread quite rapidly. In Gavin’s case the cancer has already spread from the prostate to his lungs. Possible treatments include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and options in clinical trials.

This little boy is facing challenges that any man might find overwhelming.

We feel some guys might like to add some big brother outreach to back up the support Gavin is already receiving from East Texans.