Entries by Janet

Help for Heartburn

Heartburn, also called GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease), is miserable.  To review what causes it, see this post.  Now, let’s talk about how to make it better.  I know this subject better than I’d like to, and if you suffer from heartburn, I feel your pain:  I, too, am a reluctant member of the GERD herd. So. […]

Don’t Undertreat Metastatic Prostate Cancer!  Part 2

Roadblocks to Combination Therapy, and Paving the Way for Success             As we discussed in Part 1, the year 2015 was a milestone in treatment of early metastasis (metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, or mHSPC).  For the first time, the CHAARTED study showed that men with mHSPC who began ADT (androgen deprivation therapy, which shuts down […]

Prostate MRI: What Does My PI-RADS Score Mean?

Do you have prostate cancer?  Answering that question is usually a multi-step process, with each step bringing another key piece of evidence to the puzzle. Step 1 is the screening PSA test, which may or may not be accompanied by a rectal exam (we can call that Step 1a.)  The trouble with the rectal exam […]

Don’t Undertreat Metastatic Prostate Cancer!  Part 1

If you have mHSPC (metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, when the cancer still responds to hormone therapy) and are otherwise in fairly good health, the last thing you want to do is inadequately treat your cancer.             And yet:  thousands of American men are not receiving the standard of care for mHSPC.  Their cancer is undertreated […]