Common hormonal treatments linked to abnormal heart rhythms and sudden death in men being treated for prostate cancer
Treatments for advanced prostate cancer that suppress testosterone, a hormone (also called an androgen) that drives the malignant cells to grow and spread, are collectively referred to as androgen deprivation therapies, or ADT. These therapies can significantly extend lifespans in men who have the disease, but they also have a range of challenging side effects.
In 2004, Dr. Marc Garnick, Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor in chief of HarvardProstateKnowledge.org, reported that in some men, an ADT drug called aberelix lengthens the time it tak...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 20, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Health Living With Prostate Cancer Men's Health Prostate Health Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs
VA Pathologist Indicted for Multiple and Continuing Errors, Resulting in Deaths
In what can only be described as a disaster due to organizational failure, a pathologist working at theVeterans Health Care System of the Ozarks has been charged with involuntary manslaughter (see:Former Arkansas VA Doctor Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter In 3 Deaths). Below is an excerpt from the article with the details: A former pathologist at an Arkansas veterans hospital was charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three patients whose records he allegedly falsified to conceal his misdiagnoses. According to federal prosecutors, Dr. Robert Morris Levy, 53, is also ch...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 3, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Hospital Executive Management Lab Processes and Procedures Lab Standards Medical Ethics Quality of Care Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 19th 2019
In conclusion, our data show how oncogenic and tumor-suppressive drivers of cellular senescence act to regulate surveillance processes that can be circumvented to enable SnCs to elude immune recognition but can be reversed by cell surface-targeted interventions to purge the SnCs that persist in vitro and in patients. Since eliminating SnCs can prevent tumor progression, delay the onset of degenerative diseases, and restore fitness; since NKG2D-Ls are not widely expressed in healthy human tissues and NKG2D-L shedding is an evasion mechanism also employed by tumor cells; and since increasing numbers of B cells express NKG2D ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 18, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Targeting NKG2D Ligands on the Surface of Persistent Senescent Cells Enables their Destruction by the Immune System
In conclusion, our data show how oncogenic and tumor-suppressive drivers of cellular senescence regulate surveillance processes that can be circumvented to enable SnCs to elude immune recognition but can be reversed by cell surface-targeted interventions to purge the SnCs that persist in vitro and in patients. Since eliminating SnCs can prevent tumor progression, delay the onset of degenerative diseases, and restore fitness; since NKG2D-Ls are not widely expressed in healthy human tissues and NKG2D-L shedding is an evasion mechanism also employed by tumor cells; and since increasing numbers of B cells express NKG2D ligands...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 14, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Popular drugs used for treating enlarged prostates associated with high-grade prostate cancer
If a man has an enlarged prostate, there’s a good chance he’ll be treated with a type of drug called a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5-ARI). These drugs shrink the gland to improve urinary flow, and the approved forms used for treating enlarged prostates come in two varieties: Proscar (finasteride) and Avodart (dutasteride).
However, a side effect of 5-ARI inhibitor treatment is that it suppresses blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) by about 50%. Doctors measure PSA during prostate cancer screening, and if a man on 5-ARI therapy winds up with results that are artificially low, then he might be falsely reassu...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 12, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: BPH Health Prostate Knowledge Screening HPK Source Type: blogs
From Brexit to TRexit: Transperineal biopsies pose a challenge to the traditional transrectal biopsy method
By now most of us are familiar with Brexit, the UK’s pending divorce with the European Union. But in a play on that term, British doctors are also moving towards an exit they’ve dubbed “TRexit” from the most common sort of prostate biopsy: the transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy, or TRUS.
Men who test positive on the PSA cancer screening test will usually have a prostate biopsy that’s performed in either of two ways. With a TRUS, doctors guided by an ultrasound machine can sample the prostate using a biopsy needle inserted through the rectum. Alternatively, the biopsy needle can be inserted (also under ultrasoun...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 26, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Diagnosis Prostate Knowledge HPK Source Type: blogs
New Infrared Chemical Imaging Method to Diagnose Cancers
Prostate cancer can be very difficult to diagnose, with way too many patients undergoing surgeries that turn out to be unnecessary. Now, researchers at Purdue University, Boston University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an infrared chemical imaging technique that may improve diagnostic studies and in the process cut down on excess surgeries. The same technology, because it images at a submicron resolution with biomarker information, may also have a significant impact in diagnosing breast and other cancers.
The new technique provides a look at a relatively large sample area while allowing for rapid i...
Source: Medgadget - July 25, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Oncology Pathology Urology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 8th 2019
In this study, we identify a link between members of the genus Veillonella and exercise performance. We observed an increase in Veillonella relative abundance in marathon runners postmarathon and isolated a strain of Veillonella atypica from stool samples. Inoculation of this strain into mice significantly increased exhaustive treadmill run time.
Veillonella utilize lactate as their sole carbon source, which prompted us to perform a shotgun metagenomic analysis in a cohort of elite athletes, finding that every gene in a major pathway metabolizing lactate to propionate is at higher relative abundance postexercise. Us...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 7, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
First Cryopreservation Following Use of Assisted Death Legislation in California
Simple human dignity and self-ownership demands the right to end one's own life on one's own terms, and to be able to help others achieve this goal where they are not capable of doing so themselves. Yet these acts remain forbidden to most people in most parts of the world. Painless, effective euthanasia requires medical assistance, and providing that service remains largely illegal. This state of affairs is slowly starting to change in the US, however, and so late last year the first cryopreservation following voluntary euthanasia took place.
Cryopreservation is the only presently available end of life option that o...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 3, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
Liquid Biopsy for Prostate Cancer Uses Urine as the Specimen
There have been lots of new developments in the world of the liquid biopsy and I have blogged about some of the most recent (see, for example:Grail Picks Specific Method for Liquid Biopsy Clinical Trials;Study Concludes That Liquid Biopsies Can Help Guide Cancer Treatment). However a recent article caught my attention because it involved urine as the required specimen rather than blood and also involvedexosomes which are extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced in the endosomal compartment of most eukaryotic cells as well as cancer cells (see:Bio-Techne nets FDA breakthrough ticket in prostate cancer liquid biopsy). Exo...
Source: Lab Soft News - June 25, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Genomic Testing Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Research Source Type: blogs
Using MRI for Prostate Cancer Detection Increases Diagnosis Rate
Using magnetic resonance imaging in tandem with the traditional ultrasound method can significantly improve prostate cancer detection, according to a study recently published inJAMA Surgery.Prostate cancer has been traditionally diagnosed with only ultrasound. Physicians use the technique for tissue biopsy. However, this method alone can ’t detect certain tumors. Historically, MRI-based biopsy practices are practical because they can detect precise lesions on the prostate. Yet, not all tumors appear on MRI, making it difficult to identify all kinds of cancer. Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles fo...
Source: radRounds - June 22, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Can a man with abnormal PSA and a negative diagnostic MRI avoid a prostate biopsy? It ’s debatable
Not long ago, an abnormal PSA reading would be followed right away by a standard biopsy to search for potential cancer in the prostate. During such a procedure, doctors take 10 to 12 samples of the prostate from various locations while looking at the gland with an ultrasound machine.
These days, however, men with high PSA levels during cancer screening might be offered a specialized imaging test first. Called a multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) scan, it’s particularly good at visualizing cancer in the prostate and distinguishing high-grade tumors that need immediate treatment from low-grade tumors that d...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 20, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Diagnosis Prostate Knowledge Screening HPK Source Type: blogs
Molecular Motors Drill Through Cancer Cells
A couple of years ago a team of U.S. and U.K. scientists came up with a way of making molecular motors that can drill through cancer cells, destroying them in the process. The researchers, from Rice University, Durham University, and North Carolina State University, used an ultraviolet (UV) light source to energize these motors, but such light is dangerous and can cause a host of unintended consequences.
Now, the same team has managed to use a phenomenon called two-photon absorption, powered by a near-infrared laser, to activate the motors, avoiding UV light altogether. The technique is now a lot safer and may potentially ...
Source: Medgadget - June 17, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Medicine Nanomedicine Oncology Source Type: blogs
Avenda Health Uses Artificial Intelligence to Improve Prostate Cancer Treatment
Prostate cancer affects 1 in 9 men and is one of the most common cancers in the United States. Due to the close anatomical association between the prostate and nearby organs, well-known complications of prostate cancer treatment are urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Santa Monica-based Avenda Health hopes to use artificial intelligence to decrease rates of those complications and improve treatment outcomes.
Avenda Health was founded in June 2017 as the culmination of nearly a decade of research at University of California, Los Angeles. The core team consists of three co-founders: Chief Executive Officer Shyam N...
Source: Medgadget - May 30, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Cici Zhou Tags: Exclusive Oncology Source Type: blogs
Revealing a potential new marker for aggressive prostate cancer
Scientists have uncovered a new marker that ’s found on treatment-resistant prostate cancer cells Related items fromOnMedica Genetic risk model could guide prostate cancer screening Prostate cancer screening times set to be slashed Immune system boosters fight prostate cancer Prime minister announces £75 million to fund prostate cancer research One-off PSA test doesn ’t save lives, finds largest study of its kind (Source: OnMedica Blogs)
Source: OnMedica Blogs - May 26, 2019 Category: General Medicine Source Type: blogs
