Prostate Cancer Therapy May Not Help
Guys, this item is of particular relevance to the older fella’s, like me, when reviewing their options. Earlier this week I met with my Urologist on my six monthly visit to discuss my progress and re-assess my available options so for me, this article is quite pertinent. More about my own prostate cancer and my current situation in my next post.
Hormone Therapy Doesn’t Increase Survival in Older Men With Early Prostate Cancer
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
July 8, 2008 — One in four elderly U.S. men with early prostate cancer undergoes hormone therapy — but it’s more likely to harm than help.
Surgery to remove the prostate — radical prostatectomy — is too risky for most men in their 70s and 80s. When such men are found to have early prostate cancer, they have three options.
They can wait and see whether this usually slow-moving cancer becomes a problem (called conservative therapy or watchful waiting). They can undergo radiation therapy and suffer its side effects. Or they can undergo androgen-deprivation therapy: hormonal drugs (Lupron, Viadur, Eligard, or Zoladex) or surgery (orchiectomy) that cut off production of male hormones.
In the U.S., older men often opt for stand-alone hormone therapy, even though there’s no proof that it really helps. Hormone therapy’s most obvious side effect is sexual dysfunction. Of greater concern are several recent studies linking androgen deprivation therapies to diabetes, heart disease, bone fractures, and reduced muscle mass.
Click here to go to the complete article at WebMD:
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December 25th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
As Dr Stamey (who invented the PSA test) says – we all get prostate cancer if we live long enough, but only 126 of every 100,000 deaths over age 65 are related to it. Please read: End of an Era for PSA Screening: A Newsmaker Interview With Thomas Stamey, MD
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/489474
December 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
If you thoroughly examine prostate cancer death numbers, in various countries, I think you will find they are being fudged in favour of the cancer industry. Many such deaths are incorrectly attributed to “other causes” but are, in fact, cancer deaths. These deaths being initiated by conventional treatments bringing about post treatment diseases encouraged by the treatment modality reducing or destroying the individuals own immune system. And let us not forget the actual poisoning and tissue damaging results of the drugs, radiation, chemo therapy and such.