Comments on: Cancer reaction linked to gender http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2006/04/17/cancer-reaction-linked-to-gender/ Cancer and public health Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:10:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on Cancer reaction linked to gender by: admin http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2006/04/17/cancer-reaction-linked-to-gender/#comment-17 Mon, 24 Apr 2006 06:20:37 +0000 http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2006/04/17/cancer-reaction-linked-to-gender/#comment-17 Thanks for your comments. If you did the HIFU and want to report on what's happening to you, feel free. I've been unable to trace the exact quotation you cite from your urologist, but <a href="http://www.drmarc.co.uk/index.htm">this is Marc Landiado's website</a> and he operates at <a href="http://www.nuffieldhospitals.org.uk/az_showconathosp.asp?cid=5926&hid=26&sid=1190&backto=cons">the Nuffield (UK)</a>. Thanks for your comments. If you did the HIFU and want to report on what’s happening to you, feel free. I’ve been unable to trace the exact quotation you cite from your urologist, but this is Marc Landiado’s website and he operates at the Nuffield (UK).

]]> Comment on Cancer reaction linked to gender by: MikeG http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2006/04/17/cancer-reaction-linked-to-gender/#comment-13 Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:00:35 +0000 http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2006/04/17/cancer-reaction-linked-to-gender/#comment-13 The conclusion of this study misses the point -and it's critical. I was going for a very new treatment (HIFU) about which the newsgroup I use (alt.support.cancer.prostate) was almost totally sceptical, and nobody had posted about it. So I explained why I chose it as follows: "It is little understood, outside our band of ailing brothers, that we have to gamble on treatment more than most - or maybe any - groups with a potentially terminal illness. Probably no other patients’ group is offered such a wonderfully multifarious combination of treatments, none of which are guaranteed to work. The specialists simply do not have a solution. ( See one specialist’s rather careful summing up, <a href="http://www.nuffieldhospitals.org.uk/az_showconathosp.asp?cid=5926&hid=26&sid=1190&backto=cons">on Marc Laniado’s website</a> where he writes: “The situation is often difficult and experts frequently disagree. A careful decision needs to be made usually in conjunction with consultants in radiotherapy and urology.”) Our specialists are skilled - at analysing the odds. They present us with the odds - multiple anti-androgen, radiation, and surgery treatments, and any combination thereof -not to forget ‘watchful waiting’. (That says it all about possible side effects. Is ww ‘treatment’ recognised in any other illness than Pca?) They advise us which gambling strategies might be best for us. But we are asked to throw our own dice. It is for us to consider which possible side effects may be least unacceptable in a procedure which may fail to cure." I concluded (much later!): One day I discovered I could take my chances on what might be a simple, rather than a tiresome and difficult solution. It might not be. But these odds, in good hands, seemed worth a roll to me. The conclusion of this study misses the point -and it’s critical. I was going for a very new treatment (HIFU) about which the newsgroup I use (alt.support.cancer.prostate) was almost totally sceptical, and nobody had posted about it. So I explained why I chose it as follows:
“It is little understood, outside our band of ailing brothers, that we have to gamble on treatment more than most - or maybe any - groups with a potentially terminal illness. Probably no other patients’ group is offered such a wonderfully multifarious combination of treatments, none of which are guaranteed to work. The specialists simply do not have a solution. ( See one specialist’s rather careful summing up, on Marc Laniado’s website where he writes: “The situation is often difficult and experts frequently disagree. A careful decision needs to be made usually in conjunction with consultants in radiotherapy and urology.”)
Our specialists are skilled - at analysing the odds. They present us with the odds - multiple anti-androgen, radiation, and surgery treatments, and any combination thereof -not to forget ‘watchful waiting’. (That says it all about possible side effects. Is ww ‘treatment’ recognised in any other illness than Pca?) They advise us which gambling strategies might be best for us. But we are asked to throw our own dice. It is for us to consider which possible side effects may be least unacceptable in a procedure which may fail to cure.”

I concluded (much later!):
One day I discovered I could take my chances on what might be a simple, rather than a tiresome and difficult solution. It might not be. But these odds, in good hands, seemed worth a roll to me.

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