Entries by Janet

Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 3

Killing the Cancer, Not the Prostate             Focal therapy, although not the standard of care, is emerging as a way to treat localized prostate cancer in carefully selected patients.  I recently interviewed one of the leaders in this field, urologist Arvin K. George, M.D., Director of Prostate Cancer Programs at the Brady Urological Institute at […]

Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 2

            Is focal therapy for every man with localized prostate cancer?  Absolutely not.  In fact, says Northwestern University urologic surgeon Ashley Ross, M.D., Ph.D., it’s not even a good option for the majority of patients.  But for a few carefully selected men, with close follow-up, “it can be a curative option with minimal side effects.” […]

Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 1

Why I agonized over writing about it, and why I have (cautiously and for very selected men) altered my opinion.  In three parts.             Four years ago, I wrote a VJ post on focal therapy.  I didn’t publish it.  I just couldn’t.  It started off:  “Dear Readers, if you ever want to start a veritable […]

Are ADT’s Side Effects Inevitable? 

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a double-edged sword.  It can do a lot of good:  in men with high-risk prostate cancer, for example, a two-year course of ADT can make the cancer more susceptible to radiation treatment, leading to a cure.  And in men with cancer that has spread beyond the prostate, ADT by itself […]

Our New Book

The new book is out and it’s better than ever, if I do say so myself!   This is the Fifth edition of a book that, in various forms, has been a number one bestseller on Amazon since Dr. Patrick Walsh and I wrote the first one in 1993. That first book was called The Prostate:  […]

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How Exercise Helps Sabotage Prostate Cancer

Exercise makes the body a lot less hospitable to cancer.  Or, if you think about prostate cancer as the machine that it is, hijacking countless normal body mechanisms so it can grow and spread:  Exercise throws a monkey wrench in the works! UCLA urologist William Aronson, M.D., was asked recently:  “What do your patients with […]

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Gleason 6: Sugar-Coated Prostate Cancer?

It may never need treatment – but then again, it might.  So why do some doctors want to sugar-coat it? “Don’t worry about Gleason 3+3=6 (Grade Group 1)!  It’s harmless!  We shouldn’t even call it cancer!  In fact, let’s call it IDLE (indolent lesion of epithelial origin)!”  Many patients have heard reassurances like these, and […]