Prostate Cancer, Statistics, and YOU!

 More than 12 million Americans have cancer and about two and a half million of them are men with prostate cancer. That’s a lot.

There are new drugs in the clinical trials chain that have the promise of prolonging life and quality of life. There are controversies about high costs of trials and drugs and the ongoing PSA wars (trust me, the final verdict on testing or not testing is not in). There are statistics about survival advantage, impotence, incontinence, harm vs. benefit, and on and on. It never ends (which is probably a good thing in the long run).

But for us two and a half million, it’s a very individual thing. I know a lot of guys with long term prostate cancer and no two of us are getting exactly the same treatments (unless we’re in a trial). It all depends on factors like age, overall physical condition, speed of cancer growth, resistance to certain drugs, allergies, tolerance of side effects, insurance coverage, and some things I probably have never heard of.

The bottom line (according to me anyway) is to focus on your needs, talk to and listen to your medical team, look for the things that might help you, and don’t expect a miracle cure just yet. 

Whatever the ‘statistics’ and the ‘experts’ say, you are not just a number—ok, you’re actually number one. Any given drug or treatment will either help (100% effective) or not help (0% effective) you. So don’t get caught up in all the numbers hype. All those statistics might not have anything to do with what’s best for you!

axman

You Just Never Know What'll Happen Next

Since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer nine years ago...

I have tried to keep up with old and new treatments, support groups, and what was available and promising in clinical trials. After all, I want to survive and live the good life--and I figure the more I know the better my chances. So far, so good. And maybe someone else may benefit, too.

So several years ago I wrote a book and started this blog (you already knew that). Recently I have been fortunate enough to write another book (with my oncologist Dr. Tom Beer). It was actually published this month. Now comes the hard work--marketing and talking and social networking and all sorts of things I don't enough about. But I'd better learn.

If you're interested or even just curious, check them out at the Amazon site.

Cancer Clinical Trials and Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too (2nd Ed.).

axman

And Now We're on Kindle!

My updated, Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too 2nd Ed., is now available on Kindle! It's actually on the same site as the print version, but listed separately.

This is my first (but hopefully not last) experience with an eBook. It was not very complicated. We downloaded a copy just to see how it works--took about a minute.

Getting in touch with 21st Century technology has been an interesting side effect of writing books and blogs. There is much I don't know but I at least know the basics of texting and tweeting.

 And I'll ask my grandkids to help me understand even more. Hopefully us old dogs CAN keep learning new tricks!

axman