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Eat to Beat Prostate Cancer Cookbook

Eat to Beat Prostate Cancer Cookbook Author: David Ricketts; buy New: $12.97

Intimacy with Impotence by Ralph Alterowitz

Intimacy with Impotence: The Couple's Guide to Better Sex after Prostate Disease by Ralph Alterowitz, Barbara Alterowitz. Price: $10.20

June 26, 2006

Donate to Cancer Research in Honor of Bill Dyer

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism posted by admin @ 8:23 pm

Suzanne Carver and Tricia of coastal Maine are going to walk 26.2 miles this September in The Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk to raise money for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Suzanne writes:

I am doing this marathon in honor of my friend Bill Dyer who is a very special light in this world. His journey with cancer has been nine plus years and counting and he is the living meaning of love and goodness and simply being in his presence reminds me of all that is pure and divine about the human spirit. Please give in honor of Bill and countless others like him. Give as though your loved one’s life depended on it.

You give the money and we’ll pound the pavement!! If I can walk 26.2 miles, surely you can miss a coffee or two for a few weeks, right?

Please visit Suzanne Carver’s Personal Fundraising Page to donate!!

Bill’s wife, Wendy, says they will be posting Bill’s picture on the site. “They are also going to have T-shirts made for the walk with Bill’s picture on the front,” Wendy said.

If you have followed Bill and Wendy’s story from afar since Bill was diagnosed in 1996 or have received Wendy’s help, encouragement, inspiration and support via the many prostate cancer mailing groups in which she takes an active role, this is your chance to give in Bill’s honor while donating to improve cancer care for all.

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June 25, 2006

Tour de courage: Canadian firefighter cycles onward raising prostate cancer awareness

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism, Cancer, Pollution posted by admin @ 3:24 pm

Canadian firefighter and prostate cancer warrior John Wagontall has cycled a long way since he set out from Victoria, BC in May of 2006 heading for St. John’s, NL (see John Wagontall’s Cycle Across Canada Click the link then look downpage).

A few days ago, June 20, John reached Sudbury Ontario.

Firefighters in Sudbury, Ont. welcome John Wagontall with pastaLethbridge firefighter and prostate cancer warrior cyclist John Wagontall (center) had worked up an appetite before he dropped into Sudbury’s number one fire station for spaghetti June 20.

Averaging 150 kilometers a day, Wagontall is cycling across the country from firehouse to firehouse, in a personal tour de force, to raise awareness for prostate cancer.

The 47-year-old spent part of the day on the road, cycling 196 kilometers from Thunder Bay to the Big Nickel, and spent the rest of it talking with people about his personal struggle with prostate cancer.

Diagnosed in 2004, Wagontall’s story does not come with a happy ending.

“I’m dying of prostrate cancer and it’s a needless death,” Wagontall said frankly. “My doctor’s tell me I won’t live to see 55.”

“Prostate cancer has a 95 percent cure rate, yet only three percent of men are being cured. Men need to know they have to be tested in order to catch it early on so they can be treated. In my case, the cancer has already spread to my bladder and lymph system.”
(full story…)

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June 16, 2006

Baseball for Prostate Cancer Awareness

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism posted by admin @ 4:16 am

An Early Stretch to Focus on Cancer
By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
Major League Baseball will announce today that in its effort to raise awareness of prostate cancer, all traditional seventh-inning activities scheduled for Father’s Day will instead be done during the sixth inning, symbolizing the fact that one in every six American men will ultimately develop prostate cancer. . . .
(full story…)

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May 10, 2006

Biotechs to cap prices on cancer therapies

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism, Imclone - Erbitux, Cancer, Medical Ethics, Avastin posted by admin @ 11:15 pm

Wary of Backlash, Cancer-Drug Makers Weigh Price Limits
Wall Street Journal
By JOHN CARREYROU and GEETA ANAND
May 10, 2006; Page B1
As high prices of cancer drugs spark the kind of patient outrage that high AIDS-drug prices unleashed more than a decade ago, a few pharmaceutical and biotech companies are weighing caps and other cost-containment measures, before the outcry turns into a public-relations crisis for the industry.

ImClone Systems Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., co-marketers of Erbitux, one of the most expensive cancer drugs on the market, are “well down the road” toward establishing an annual patient price cap for the drug if its market expands, says Ronald Martell, senior vice president of commercial operations at ImClone. Such a program would set an annual ceiling on individual patients’ drug-treatment costs, beyond which companies would provide the drug free of charge or at a steep discount. Genentech Corp., of South San Francisco, Calif., is considering cost-containing alternatives for Avastin, which is currently approved for treatment of early-stage colorectal cancer.
While the backlash against cancer-drug prices is nowhere near as big as the one against AIDS-drug prices, ImClone’s Mr. Martell says the industry should make changes in its policies now. “Otherwise, at some point there will be a confluence of events — social pressure, volume of dollars — and something will have to give,” he warns.

Erbitux, priced at $10,000 a month, is currently approved only for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have failed a certain kind of chemotherapy. Their average total cost of treatment is currently about $40,000: In most of these patients, the illness has advanced to the point where they are only a few months from death.

But later this year, ImClone and Bristol-Myers, both based in New York, hope to win Food and Drug Administration approval to market Erbitux for patients in earlier stages of colorectal cancer, who have longer life expectancies. Approval for these patients would result in a sharp rise in the average cost of treatment with Erbitux — and a sharp rise in profits.

In the case of Genentech’s Avastin, the current cost of treatment — $4,400 a month, or $52,000 a year — could rise sharply if the FDA approves the drug as a treatment — at double the dose — to treat lung cancer and breast cancer. Such approvals, expected over the next year, could result in thousands of new patients paying, at current prices, more than $100,000 a year to take Avastin.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which extended prescription-drug benefits to the elderly, has put financial pressure on elderly cancer patients, the age group with the highest rates of the disease. Under the old system, cancer patients receiving drugs intravenously at a hospital in practice often weren’t forced to make their 20% co-payment: The hospital would bill Medicare directly, and the Medicare reimbursement price — as much as 25% above the drugs’ market price — provided a sufficient profit cushion so that hospitals often didn’t collect co-payments.

But now, Medicare reimbursements are in line with drugs’ actual selling prices, and physicians and hospitals can no longer afford to forgive co-payments. As a result, many elderly cancer patients without supplemental prescription-drug insurance end up on the hook for thousands of dollars.

“There’s a groundswell of patients who are outraged,” says Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director for the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, a Los Angeles watchdog group.

Full story at Wall Street Journal: Wary of Backlash, Cancer-Drug Makers Weigh Price Limits
By JOHN CARREYROU and GEETA ANAND
May 10, 2006; Page B1
May require subscription or initial ad view.

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May 2, 2006

Nick DeWolf dies of stroke, prostate cancer

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism, Treatment choice, Proton beam posted by admin @ 5:30 am

Nicholas DeWolf, inventor, computer expert and philosopher, died Sunday April 12 in a hospital in Aspen, CO age 77 of complications from a stroke and prostate cancer.

Chad Abraham in the Aspen Times, April 17 called Nicholas DeWolf “an extraordinary and exuberant spirit of Aspen whose work in the semiconductor field paved the way for today’s computer industry.”

“He was an engineer, he emphasized in Greg Poschman’s induction video for the Aspen Hall of Fame,” Abraham goes on, “not a scientist.”

“But he was also a husband, father, actor, inventor, photographer and a sensualist; an animal lover who was loved by animals, a provocateur, skier, and an eccentric whose office suffered, or benefited from, legendary disorganization.”

“DeWolf, those close to him say, fought hard for Aspen’s preservation as the perfect world for providing absolute freedom of the discussion of ideas and the ability to mingle across classes, dishwashers to debutantes, Hollywood stars to ski bums.”
Nick DeWolf in Aspen. Photo, Aspen Times

Nick DeWolf was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996. On a website he created that year, PROSTATE CANCER meets PROTON BEAM ! A Patient’s Experiences, he wrote: “Hmm… Age 68, PSA=12, Gleason Score=7, Stage B1. Determined not to die of Prostate cancer, hoping to preserve sexuality. What to do, where to go?? ”

After researching all treatments available at the time, talking to doctors and to patients and considering effects of hormonal blockade on male sexuality, DeWolf opted for Proton beam radiation at Loma Linda.

Michael Bard, who told us about Nick’s death yesterday, wrote:

“I was deeply saddened to learn of Nick DeWolf’s passing on April 12th. Nick and I never met, but we chatted many times. When I was first diagnosed in 1999, I wrote to Nick and he immediately called me. We had several marathon conversations and he never was too busy to share his compassion and his knowledge.

His joie de vie was infectious. I remember his excitement over recording the Vietnamese hill tribes. Even when he had a recurrence, he continued to support Proton Beam and LLUMC. I put him in touch with men who were exploring salvage options and never dreamed his disease would progress so aggressively.

The Cap community is better for his presence. In the end, none of us can have a better tribute than that they helped their fellow man. I will miss him.”

Links
Nick DeWolf’s websites and photography — Images by Nick DeWolf
Press source including the photo
Computer pioneer dies at 77: Nick DeWolf’s genius illuminated, soaked Aspen. By Chad Abraham, Aspen Times, April 17, 2006

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April 28, 2006

John Wagontall’s Cycle Across Canada

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism, Cancer posted by admin @ 3:23 pm

John Wagontall, prostate cancer survivor plans to make a Cycle for Life across Canada.

John Wagontall, a Lethbridge, Alberta firefighter, was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer at 46 years old. In his blog John writes:

I listened to the Urologist tell me the facts and the possible treatments. More tests were scheduled to see if the cancer was contained or if it had spread. I went to see another urologist and a couple of oncologists. It didn’t matter who I saw, they all painted a pretty grave picture of where I was headed. Final diagnoses, adenocarcinoma T4 Gleason 8 (4+4) PSA – 105.5 with a life expectancy of 5 to 7 years.
…. Treatment consisted of Hormone Deprivation Therapy and then 36 external beam radiation treatments in Calgary Alberta at the Tom Baker Cancer Center.

… Throughout the months since diagnoses and treatment, the one thing on my mind most is the fact that men need to be educated on this disease. We must talk openly about it. I have been as open and honest as I can be with the firefighters I work with and anyone else who will listen. They have been open to the information I have passed to them.

I have been an avid cyclist for many years…. In fact, I have ridden a bike to work for many years, rather than driving no matter what the weather. I have ridden in a few team triathlons and a duathlon. I’ve ridden with my sons. It is something I truly enjoy and was unable to do for a few months because of the cancer.

Because I enjoy biking and want to make others aware of prostate cancer, I have decided to do a cross Canada bike ride. The plans are to start in Victoria, BC in May of 2006 and finish in St. John’s, NL hopefully by the end of July 2006. I plan on stopping along the way to visit firefighters and others to share my story and hopefully promote a little more awareness. I am also hoping to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society ,the Lance Armstrong Foundation and The Prostate Center. These organizations have been very helpful since my diagnoses.

Visit John’s blog and take a good look around. Find out how you can help support his ride across Canada.
http://www.cycleforlife.ca/index.php

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December 5, 2005

Aussie Whiskers Fund Prostate Cancer Research

category: Prostate Cancer, Activism posted by admin @ 4:02 pm

Australian miners display  mustaches they grew to raise money for prostate cancer research

MO’ MONEY: Matt Hernan, Adrian Hills, Andrew Campbell, Stuart Styles, Kingsley Baldwin and Brad Turner show off the moustaches they grew during November to raise money for research into prostate cancer.

Miners’ moustaches fund cancer research
Monday, 5 December 2005

BENDIGO Mining employees helped raise over $850 for research into Prostate Cancer by growing moustaches last month.
(full story…)

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