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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
PSA Numbers and How to Make Sense of Them What should the PSA level be? Before we look at some numbers, please note: if a man’s PSA is higher than these numbers, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he has prostate cancer; there are other factors that can raise PSA, which we will cover briefly. I […]
Why Don’t More Men Get Regular PSA Tests? A Partial Deep Dive Why doesn’t every man just get a PSA test at the yearly physical, starting at age 40? Well, for starters, a lot of men don’t get yearly physicals. And a lot of family doctors don’t order a PSA test for men in […]
Recently, I gave a talk on what women need to know about prostate cancer. It was supposed to be for 20 minutes, but it went on for well over an hour because the ladies, ranging from their 30s to 70s, had so many questions. So…Ladies, this one is for you. Actually, it is for men […]
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 […]