“ 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:
(full story…)

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.

(full story…)

Protoxin, also called PRX302, is a drug being tested on men with localized recurrent prostate cancer in Phase I clinical trials in Texas and Vermont.

Patients considering this trial must have experienced recurrence after completing a full course of definitive external beam radiation or definitive brachytherapy (but not both) as primary therapy for diagnosed prostate cancer at least one year prior to enrollment

Our main news about Protoxin is here:
PSA-activated protoxin that kills prostate cancer: phase I clinical trial is underway
http://www.psa-rising.com/prostatecancer/protoxin1106.htm

A reader asked for a simpler, clearer explanation of what’s going on with this drug. Here’s what we know at the moment:

In Texas, one trial enrolled the first patients in May this year and is hoping to recruit 36 men with localized recurrent prostate cancer. Patients must have recurred after EBR or brachytherapy, have PSA level less than 20 ng/mL and PSA doubling time longer than 3 months. They must NOT be taking hormone drugs. Also, they must NOT have signs of metastatic disease including no bone metastases on bone scan, or any lymph node, lung, liver or soft tissue.
(full story…)

Life & Times Blog, launched by Los Angeles area PBS station KCET, has a story on the topic Prostate Cancer: Watchful Waiting Vs. Treatment.

The page includes a video interview with Eric Kaldor, who “didn’t want the side effects of impotence and incontinence. So Eric Kaldor opted for ‘watchful waiting.”‘ Check it out!

Also compare: “Treating elderly men right after diagnosis is better than the current ‘watchful waiting’,” February 2006.

Phenoxodiol’s fast track status at FDA generates a lot on interest among men with advanced prostate cancer. But despite evidence that Phenoxodiol delays progression in hormone refractory prostate cancer, is the fast track to FDA approval petering out?
(full story…)

Reuters reports that Panama on Friday”withdrew stocks of a medicine used by thousands to treat high blood pressure after investigations linked it to a mystery illness that has killed 19 people.”

Lisinopril is a drug made by several companies that is used to treat hypertension and heart failure.

“The death toll from the mystery illness — which starts with nausea, fever, diarrhea and weakness, and soon progresses to acute kidney failure, partial paralysis and death — rose by one to 19 on Friday. Another 11 people are sick.

First reported a month ago, the illness has struck mainly elderly men being treated for high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disorders. Most were taking multiple treatments.”
Full story at Reuters.

Starting Monday, U.S. Customs agents no longer will seize Canadian prescription drugs mailed to Americans, federal officials announced. The drug imports are still illegal but customs will let them through.

According to the Mineapolis Star Tribune, “The Department of Homeland Security, which operates Customs, told members of Congress in e-mails Monday that it will stop seizing Canadian drugs and instead will conduct random sampling to identify those that are counterfeit or unsafe.”
(full story…)

Dutch medical researchers say that long-term quality of life among prostate cancer survivors in their country varies by treatment and in one respect, mental health, is better than for men in the same age bracket who have never been treated for prostate cancer.

Long-term prostate cancer survivors 5 to 10 years after diagnosis reported comparable overall health related quality of life but showed worse general health perceptions yet better mental health scores than age-matched men in the general population.
(full story…)

An Australian man has died after swallowing 10,000 times the daily dose of selenium, reports The Age online newspaper. The 75-year-old mistakenly “purchased sodium selenite powder used primarily as a supplement for livestock, swallowing 10 grams.”

The man’s case is reported was reported October 2 in the Medical Journal of Australia (”Accidental death from acute selenium poisoning“).

According to The Age, Australian doctors who treated the 75-year-old “have used his death to highlight the dangers of promoting complementary medicines without adequate instructions.” The doctors blame the internet.

Selenium for human consumption, as sold in pharmacies, health stores and supermarkets , typically comes in 200 microgram (µg) pills or capsules, which may be printed “200 mcg.”
(full story…)

FDA has approved a new colon and rectal cancer drug, Vectibix, and the manufacturer, Amgen has promised to cap the cost for patients who need the drug but cannot afford it.
(full story…)

Men who eat more fruits and vegetables are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. This finding from a large Los Angeles study to be published next month in the journal Cancer Causes Control suggests that well-nourished, health-conscious men are more likely to take PSA tests for early detection of this cancer. At the same time, diet did not protect them from developing this cancer nor did it affect the cancer grade.
(full story…)

Women who eat fatty fish, but not other fish, may cut their risk of kidney cancer by about half according to a Swedish study.

The same Swedish hospital studied men for a period of 30 years and found eating fatty fish could reduce prostate cancer risk by one third.
(full story…)