Tag: Prostate Conditions

Prostate-cancer patients who have received radiation treatment appear more likely to develop bladder or rectal cancer, new research shows. And while the number of cases is relatively low, investigators said that patients should still be monitored for those illnesses.

“Overall the incidence of these cancers is low. But when men have received radiation treatments, it’s important to evaluate carefully any symptoms that could be a sign of bladder or rectal cancer,” says senior study author Kathleen A.

Robotic surgery, the primary choice for removing cancerous prostate glands, is as safe as open surgery for Medicare patients over 65, according to a new survey.

The findings came in a survey that included analysis by researchers from Henry Ford Hospital. The hospital is a pioneer in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), a minimally invasive procedure.

“Although studies comparing the two techniques were done early in the robotic era for this surgery, RARP boomed in more recent years, overtaking open surgery,” says study co-author Jesse D.

The criteria for active surveillance — often called “watch and wait” — in dealing with prostate cancer should be re-evaluated. That is the recommendation of a study done at the University of California, Los Angeles and published in the May 19th 2014 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Urology.

Treating older men with early-stage prostate cancer who also have other serious underlying health problems with aggressive therapies such as surgery or radiation therapy does not help them live longer and, in fact, can be detrimental, according to a study done by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study was published in the May 13^th 2014 early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer.

Researchers say that Vitamin D deficiency is an indicator of aggressive prostate cancer risk in middle-aged men who underwent a biopsy.

Adam B. Murphy, M.D., MBA, assistant professor in the Department of Urology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that the finding affected European-American and African-American men, although the link between Vitamin D deficiency andaggressive prostate cancer was stronger in African-Americans.

Men who have chronic inflammation of prostate tissue appear to have nearly twice the risk of getting prostate cancer than do those with no inflammation, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins.

The link between persistent inflammation and cancer was especially strong for men with aggressive cases of the disease.

Researchers have developed a painless method to test for prostate cancer, and that could help millions of men avoid a grueling diagnostic exam.

If a blood test turns up signs of prostate cancer, physicians usually remove samples of tissue through the anus, using 12 large biopsy needles. The procedure has been called “barbaric.”

That technique could be replaced thanks to researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), together with AMC Amsterdam. Research team leader Massimo Mischi at TU/e said the new procedure uses existing ultrasound scanners.

Men who got androgen deprivation therapy as the primary treatment in the early stages of prostate cancer didn’t live any longer than those who got no treatment at all, a study shows.

The researchers say that this conclusion, along with the risk of serious side effects such as heart disease and diabetes, “mitigates against any clinical or policy rationale for use of primary androgen deprivation therapy [PADT] in these men.”