More About Experimental Drugs--A Video!

Dr. Tom Beer, my oncologist and writing partner, gave a short talk at a recent medical convention. the topic was Experimental Drugs for Prostate Cancer. These drugs are in the Clinical Trials stage and have not yet been approved by the FDA for general use with Prostate Cancer patients. The video includes Tom's (that's Dr. Tom to us) presentation and questions and comments by other oncologists.

The 27-minute video has its share of 'doc talk' (big medical words) but if you listen closely you might pick up some personally useful information. Check it out: Experimental Drugs for Prostate Cancer

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What do Men with Prostate Cancer Actually Want?

That’s easy—survival, survival, survival

For anybody with a serious, incurable disease (such as prostate cancer in case you’re wondering) survival is a pretty important life priority.

Laboratory research, new drugs in process, scholarly articles, and a multitude of clinical trials focus on the statistics, significance, percentages, averages, etc. But for each one of us with the Big C, it’s all about how any of this affects us. I want to survive and continue to be active, alert (moderately), and more or less healthy. 

I don’t much care what the name of the drug is, who manufactures it, its overall effectiveness, or whether it comes in pill form, injection, or IV. If it works for me—at least for a while—that’s what matters.

You’ve probably noticed that what helps manage one person’s cancer may be totally ineffective for someone else. So, as far as I’m concerned the more choices the better. In just the past six months I’ve been on and off seven different meds to find a combination that might slow my PSA progression. It appears that the current group is doing the job (hooray). Sometimes it’s a matter of being patient enough for the process to work and the right combination to be found (I hate being patient but it seems to work).

axman

How Much do You Really Need to Know About Prostate Cancer?

Is less better? Can too much information be detrimental to your health?

Whether or not you have prostate cancer or have even been tested for prostate cancer you've probably heard about the recent PSA testing controversy. If you have never had a PSA test, should you have one or not? Some experts say no, others say yes. Are you better off knowing or not knowing what your PSA score is? It's actually not such a simple choice.

Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too looks at the pros and cons of having or not having PSA tests and the choices you may, can, or should make either way. And you're the one who has to make the final choices. Unfortunately there are no easy answers or general recommendations that will work for every man.

axman

Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too, Second Edition is now available

Easy Access from my Blog!

Have prostate cancer? Know someone who has recently been diagnosed? Or maybe they’ve been battling it for five or ten years? Share this with them by email, liking, sharing, etc. Prostate cancer (after skin cancer) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. More than two million American men are living with prostate cancer--and 12 million worldwide.

Many survivors, including me, have benefited from  advances that have been made in diagnosing and treating prostate cancer in the years since I published the first edition of Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too in 2008. So it was time to update the state of prostate cancer and my survival story. And I even included some new cartoons!

axman