Category: Other Treatments

Thanks to PSA screening and early detection, most prostate cancer is diagnosed while it is still contained in the prostate gland. This implies favorable odds that any whole-gland treatment is potentially curative... keep reading

I have written several blogs on external beam radiation for prostate cancer along with its side effects. Radiation is a good choice for the right patient. As with all prostate cancer treatments, it is essential to match a treatment with an individual’s cancer because many factors go into the choice... keep reading

A PSMA PET/CT scan (or simply PSMA PET) like the one described below that incorporates the radioisotope Gallium-68, is the most sensitive method to detect metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa). PSMA PET has thus quickly gained wide use, including evaluating how well a patient’s mPCa is responding to therapy... keep reading

Urologist Bert Vorstman MD continues to be “a keen observer of the state of prostate cancer.” 1 During an interview for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), he made some observations in which he did not mince words... keep reading

The tug-of-war continues between prostate cancer patients who want to be treated with proton beam therapy (PBT) vs. their insurance companies. As you can read from the blog below, payers are denying PCa coverage due to the high cost of the treatment coupled with lack of evidence showing superiority over conventional radiation therapies... keep reading

“Lutetium-177 (¹⁷⁷Lu)-PSMA-617 is a radioligand therapy that delivers beta-particle radiation to PSMA-expressing cells and the surrounding microenvironment.” Since we posted the 2017 blog below, research into Lutetium-177 has been ongoing. The opening quote for this update comes from a September, 2021 published clinical study by Sartor et al... keep reading

It was true when we posted the blog below in 2017, and it’s still true now: surgical removal of the prostate gland does not guarantee a cure for prostate cancer. What it does offer, in the words of expert European urologists, is “a high chance of cure.” In fact, published rates of recurrence at 5 years after radical prostatectomy (RP) are as high as... keep reading

The use of an injectable hydrogel spacer to help minimize toxic effects of prostate cancer (PCa) radiation on the rectal wall has become a standard of care. By implanting the hydrogel into the tissue between the prostate and the rectum, a wider space is created, which “may significantly reduce the [radiation] dose received by the rectum and the risk of rectal toxicity [side effects, see explanation in the blog below].” How well does it work? keep reading

Men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) are usually given three treatment choices: radical prostatectomy (RP), external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) or Active Surveillance (AS). Although patients are rarely told about minimal-to-noninvasive treatments that can be applied as focal therapy... keep reading

“Limited attention has been given to the psychological impact of primary treatments in patients with prostate cancer.” We want to update our original post (below) about dementia/cognitive decline in relation to radical prostatectomy, by broadening it out to... keep reading