Researchers from Johns Hopkins concluded the cost of prostate cancer treatment varies and depends on the therapy a man initially receives.

Men with early stage prostate cancer can choose from a list of treatments including surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, watchful waiting or combinations of each. The new study showed, for most prostate cancer cases, costs were highest in the first year and then dropped and remained steady for the next several years. However, cost patterns varied depending on the initial treatment received.

Watchful waiting had the lowest initial ($4,270) and five-year costs ($9,130). Hormone therapy plus radiation had the highest initial cost ($17,474) followed by surgery ($15,197).  Hormonal therapy had the highest five-year total costs ($26,896).
 
Researchers say these findings provide new insight for patients, doctors and others involved in prostate cancer care.

There is mounting evidence that androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer carries significant health risks.

A research team reviewed currently available data on the role of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in the management of early stage, high-risk prostate cancer. Researchers focus the majority of their attention on the value of adjuvant and neoadjuvant ADT in combination with various types of radiation therapy. They note that current clinical practice patterns seem to have been driven by inappropriate extrapolation of existing data and financial incentives.

The research team propose that, in the management of early stage, high-risk patients, ADT should be used selectively and limited to settings in which a clear patient benefit can be documented. They also emphasize the idea that cardiac risk factors should be carefully assessed before initiating ADT, that modifiable cardiac risk factors should be addressed pre-treatment, and that special attention should be paid to patients’ global health status. They point out that “harming patients in the pursuit of improving cure rates and other less noble causes” should not be an acceptable medical objective.

A new study at Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center aimed to examine practice patterns in routine clinical care in response to an elevated PSA test (>/=4 ng/mul) and determine whether time to biopsy was associated with cancer stage at diagnosis.

The study doncluded follow-up after an elevated PSA test is highly variable with more than a third of men receiving care that could be considered incomplete. A delayed diagnosis was not associated with poorer prognosis.

If you undergo a biopsy and no cancer is found, you and your doctor would determine a follow-up schedule for PSA tests and prostate exams. The frequency of those rechecks would be based in part on your overall health, any family history of prostate cancer (if your father or brother has prostate cancer, your risk is increased), and your race (African American men have a greater risk of prostate cancer than do men of other races).

PSA is not a perfect screening test for prostate cancer. It provides one clue in the process of detecting possible cancer. And the clue isn’t always easy to interpret. You can also have prostate cancer without any change in the PSA level. The best advice is to learn all you can about your choices and work closely with your doctor to determine what’s right for you

A new Health Department report reveals heart disease and homicide together make men in New York City die six years younger than women, at 76 instead of 82, revealed

Between 18 and 34, men are 2-1/2 times more likely to die than women, with homicide as the leading cause of death.

From 35 to 64, men are 65 percent more likely to die than women, largely because of heart disease.

“Men are definitely more likely than women to die prematurely, but many of those deaths are preventable,” the New York Daily News quoted Carolyn Olson, head of the Health Department’’s community epidemiology unit, as saying.

The study found that 71 percent of men ages 35 to 64 are overweight or obese, 25 percent didn”t exercise in the last month, 42 percent have high cholesterol and 93 percent don”t eat enough fruit and vegetables - all bad factors for heart disease

A new study from Department of Urology at Helsingborg Hospital, Sweden suggests that the of risk of prostate cancer in men with a known family history of the disease could be inflated because such men are more likely to seek a diagnosis, further intensifying the controversial debate on whether PSA testing does more harm than good.

Experts writing in the same journal propose that if you consider that many men in the population at large may have the disease but don’t take a test to find it, then cases of men who seek a diagnosis because a brother or father has tested positive, will exaggerate any familial link.

You can read a paper on the study and the accompanying editorial in the 19 August advanced online issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

Male infertility is a common medical problem. It affects millions of men in the United States annually. Its causes include an inability to make productive sperm. Now, using yeast as a model organism, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are beginning to identify the molecular signals that could in part underlie that problem.

Scientists have reported that just two 8-ounce glasses of water taken before meals, can lead to weight loss.

The simple reason is that it fills up the stomach with a substance that has zero calories. People feel fuller as a result, and eat less calorie-containing food during the meal.

And it gets even better if you replace sweetened calorie-containing beverages with it.

Although there’s no exact amount of water one should drink, experts advise that most healthy people can simply let thirst be their guide.

A new study in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society, shows that since returning home, some 100,000 veterans from the first Gulf War have reported chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) similar to fibromyalgia and suggests that acute exercise can exacerbate the pain but long-term exercise has the opposite outcome and reduces it.

The researchers reported that, consistent with their hypothesis, vets with CMP claimed that heat induced pain stimuli was more intense and unpleasant than evidenced in healthy subjects. They also had greater leg pain intensity during exercise and were more sensitive to the pain stimuli following acute exercise compared to pre-exercise ratings. Pain thresholds, however, did not show significant differences between healthy subjects and those with CMP, contrary to what the researchers hypothesized.

The authors noted that exercise research in chronic muscle pain patients shows a paradox in that acute exercise appears to exacerbate pain while chronic exercise can reduce pain.

According to a South Korean study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, if you have high blood pressure, binge drinking may dramatically raise your risk of stroke or heart-related death.

Compared to non-drinkers with normal blood pressure, researchers found that the risk of cardiovascular death in men with blood pressure of at least 168 /100 millimeters of mercury was:
- three times higher overall,
- four times higher if they were binge drinkers, consuming six or more drinks on one occasion, and
- twelve times higher if they were heavy binge drinkers, consuming 12 or more drinks on one occasion
Hypertension and binge drinking each contribute to cardiovascular disease but have been rarely studied together, researchers said. These findings need to be confirmed in other studies and it’s unclear whether the results can be generalized to other populations.

However, it is unclear whether the results can be generalized to other populations.