Researchers are still trying to figure out which men benefit the most from PSA (prostate specific antigen) testing and the latest finding is leaning towards the idea that certain men who are between 75 and 80 years old don’t really need it.
According to a press release issued by Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, "researchers found that men in this age group with PSA levels less than 3 nanograms per milliliter are unlikely to die of or experience aggressive prostate cancer during their remaining life, suggesting that the use of PSA testing in many older men may no longer be needed."
This finding …read more

Although this may sound like something out of the "don’t do it because you’ll go blind" book of sexual repression, it’s not a joke. According to a report published in the January issue of BJU International, men who are very sexually active in their 20s and 30s, especially if they masturbate frequently, have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer.
BUT – men in their 50s who have even infrequent sexual activity actually decrease their risk of developing prostate cancer.
According to the study, which looked at 800 men:

frequent sex in 20s and 30s: not good
frequent sex in 40s: no …read more

Ok, pop quiz: What do these men have in common?

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
Singer Harry Belafonte
Golfer Arnold Palmer
Former South African President Nelson Mandela
Musician Frank Zappa

Answer…
They all had prostate cancer.
Breast cancer is talked about all the time among the rich and famous, so it seems, but prostate cancer – not so much. Luckily, there are famous men who are speaking out about their diagnosis and battles with the disease. The more who talk, hopefully the more men will get the message about prostate cancer screening.
Colin Powell had localized prostate cancer for which he had surgery in 2003. He was 66 …read more

Press Release
FDA Approves Drug for Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved the injectable drug degarelix, the first new drug in several years for prostate cancer.
Degarelix is intended to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer. It belongs to a class of agents called gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor inhibitors. These agents slow the growth and progression of prostate cancer by suppressing testosterone, which plays an important role in the continued growth of prostate cancer.
Hormonal treatments for prostate cancer may cause an initial surge in testosterone production before lowering testosterone levels. This initial stimulation of the …read more

I’m not sure why this was studied, but the results are interesting. Apparently if you’re an African-American male who is gay or bisexual, you’re in a group of men that is least likely to go for prostate cancer screening. This finding was published in the recent issue of Medical Care.
Researchers used information gleaned from almost 20,000 telephone interviews with men who participated in a project called the California Interview Survey. While the findings didn’t find a difference between PSA testing (prostate specific antigen) between the orientation of men in general, when the groups were broken down according to race, African-American …read more

There’s good news in the prostate cancer screening world. The results of a study reviewing the compliance and effectiveness of prostate cancer screening among over 150,000 men and women who participated in Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial are very encouraging.
According to the research, published in the December issue of BJU Journal, "Just under five per cent of the men who took part in the prostate cancer element of the USA’s largest ever cancer screening trial were diagnosed with the disease and the majority of those were picked up by screening programmes." From the larger group, 38,349 men …read more

The results of a phase III trial of degaralix, a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist, are showing great promise. According to a press release issued by Wiley-Blackwell, "more than 95 per cent of men who took degarelix for prostate cancer saw their testosterone levels fall dramatically as early as three days after they started treatment, according to a paper in the December issue of BJU International."
Another important finding was that the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) dropped much more than men who took another drug, leuprolide.
When men are initially treated for prostate cancer with androgen deprivation hormone therapy, the body’s reaction …read more

Enlarged prostates and prostate cancer are talked about more now than ever before. There’s even an ad I see on US television quite frequently for a medications that men can take to "relieve the symptoms of an enlarged prostate."
Even with all the awareness, there are still a lot of men who don’t know about prostate health.
I found this press release about an upcoming live online webinar on prostate health:

Coeur d’Alene, ID (PRWEB) November 28, 2008 — In the first in a series of seminars on prostate health, Aspen Benefits Group will be hosting a free webinar on December …read more

Although men who have prostate cancer know that having a prosatectomy may save their life, there’s still a worry about what life will be like after. Sexuality is a big concern among many, but there’s also the issue of not becoming incontinent of urine.
Doctors and researchers are working on reducing those two complications and are doing their best to minimize any nerve damage that can cause these problems, but they haven’t gotten to the finish line yet. But, in the meantime, there’s a new gadget that may help.
The gadget cools down the prostate gland, freezing it, as it’s …read more

Have you heard of Movember? I had – sort of, vaguely, kind of – but I have to admit that I’d not paid any attention to it until I received an email from a PR agency telling me about how Movember is being treated in Canada.
Movember was started 2003 and according to its website, their events create "awareness around men’s health issues and raises funds for carefully selected beneficiary partners (that are also charitable organizations) in each country, with a focus on prostate cancer."
The email I received said:

Movember, a moustache growing charity event held every year during November that raises …read more