By Barbara Bronson Gray
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — Got hair? If you don’t, you might have a higher risk of prostate cancer, a preliminary study suggests.
Researchers are reporting that bald men who underwent biopsies of the prostate were more likely to have cancer than were those with more hair on their heads.
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — Certain gene variants linked to prostate cancer may make men more susceptible to lower urinary tract symptoms, according to a new study. On the other hand, a different gene variant might protect against those symptoms, the study found.
Researchers from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago identified 38 genetic sequence variants linked to prostate cancer risk in nearly 2,000 healthy, white men enrolled in a prostate cancer screening study. The men completed questionnaires on the severity of their lower urinary tract symptoms, their age and whether they took medications used to treat enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia).
By Maureen Salamon
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — Although a U.S. advisory panel no longer recommends that men routinely undergo prostate cancer screening with a PSA blood test, men should ask their doctors for the exam if they’re uncomfortable without monitoring, health experts say.
Urologists and cancer experts dismissed the idea that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s criticism of the PSA test will set a man’s personal agenda or interfere with doctor-patient relationships. They acknowledged, however, that health insurers are likely to take notice of the new recommendation, released May 22 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, and potentially alter coverage of the screening test.
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) — A drug approved to treat advanced prostate cancer appears to help men who have localized high-risk prostate cancer if given before surgery.
Adding Zytiga (abiraterone) to conventional hormonal treatments eliminated or nearly eliminated the prostate cancer in one-third of men with this often-lethal form, according to new research to be presented at next month’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.
TUESDAY, April 24, 2012 (Health.com) — When billionaire investor Warren Buffett revealed last week that he has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, the reaction—including from Buffett himself—amounted to a collective shrug.
Buffett said his doctors told him the cancer is “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way,” which led some observers to wonder why the 81-year-old had bothered to get screened for the disease in the first place. Read More
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 24 (HealthDay News) — In 2008, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended against testing for prostate cancer in men aged 75 and older, but new research finds that almost 44 percent of these men are still being screened.
Before the 2008 guidelines were set, about 43 percent of men in this age group opted for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests, but the task force found that testing had no effect on longevity and could result in overtreatment with adverse consequences. Meanwhile, the task force drafted a new set of guidelines last October that are even more critical of PSA testing, suggesting it may not have any value for men of any age.
WEDNESDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) — U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he has prostate cancer and will undergo radiation treatment in the coming months.
The 81-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in a letter to investors on Tuesday that he has stage 1 cancer, an early form of the disease that is treatable.
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 17 (HealthDay News) — A new study raises questions about the value of proton therapy, an expensive new kind of radiation treatment, in patients with prostate cancer.
Those who received the treatment instead of the standard radiation therapy were more likely to suffer from gastrointestinal side effects, the researchers found. There also did not appear to be any extra benefit for those who got proton therapy.
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) — Adding another perspective to one of the most controversial and confounding issues in medicine, a new European study reports that men who received routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests to check for signs of prostate cancer were 30 percent less likely to die from the disease.
But the big picture isn’t simple enough for the new research to solve once and for all the question of whether PSA testing helps men.
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) — Men who have prostate cancer are less likely to be circumcised, according to new research.
The researchers suggest a possible reason is that circumcision reduces the risk of sexually transmitted diseases that may contribute to prostate tumors.
The study doesn’t confirm that circumcision directly lowers the risk of prostate cancer, and the study lead author cautioned that the findings shouldn’t play a role in the decisions of parents about the sometimes-controversial procedure.
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