San Francisco--A pair of international phase III trials have shown that taxane-based chemotherapy can lead to increased survival in men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. While the study results effectively made docetaxel (Taxotere) the current standard of care for androgen-independent disease, many questions about when to administer it remain, said Cora Sternberg, MD, chair of the department of medical oncology at the San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals in Rome, Italy.
San Francisco--The long-standing debate over radical prostatectomy versus radiation therapy for unfavorable-risk prostate cancer has not gone away. But if the recent Prostate Cancer Symposium reflects broader professional opinions, the surgery camp and the radiation camp are moving toward combination treatments. There are no definitive prospective randomized trials, but evidence of a consensus that prostatectomy plus radiation therapy may offer the best patient outcomes is emerging.
San Francisco--Complications related to prostate cancer therapy may affect a man's life, relationships, and overall sense of well-being. How a patient perceives these complications, commonly reported as quality of life, may be as important to some patients as being cured of the cancer itself.
San Francisco--The traditional bone scan remains an important tool for evaluating prostate cancer patients with a rising PSA. Next to PSA testing itself, metastable technetium-99 bone scans currently are the second most common test in men with rising PSA following definitive therapy, said Richard Wahl, MD, director of nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. But as useful as bone scans can be, they have limited utility.
San Francisco--More experienced surgeons have more positive outcomes.
Benefits are more likely to be derived from a lifetime of dietary discretion rather than a mid-to late-life switch.
Beaver Creek, CO--A common type of medication taken for lowering cholesterol is also showing promise in the fight against prostate cancer.
Traverse City, MI--Oct. 1, 2006, marks the fifth anniversary of the date on which Michael Harris, MD, opted out of Medicaid and Medicare and rid himself of all commercial insurers. He put his urology practice on a strict cash-for-services basis in 2001 and he has not looked back.
San Francisco--A never-before-seen virus associated with prostate cancer suggests that infection may play a role in the development of the disease in genetically susceptible individuals. The new virus, XMRV, is 25 times more likely to be present in prostate cancer patients with a specific genetic mutation than it is in the general male population, researchers reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2006 Prostate Cancer Symposium here.
The Cleveland Clinic Glickman Urological Institute has established a $2 million education and research chair in honor of its chairman, Andrew C. Novick, MD.
Advanced Urology Associates, Inc., and Urology Inc. have merged to form Physicians Urology, which will become the largest fully integrated urology practice in the Akron, OH area with physicians experienced in a range of specialties.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched the Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey, an initiative to measure how satisfied providers in the fee-for-service program are with the services of the contractors who are responsible for processing their claims, educating them about policy changes, and responding to provider inquiries.
In a step toward understanding prostate disease, Australian researchers have used human embryonic stem cells to develop human prostate tissue, equivalent to that found in a young man.
The White House is expected to nominate the acting commissioner of the FDA, urologist Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, to formally head the agency, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
The National Cancer Institute has launched a 3-year initiative to identify genetic alterations that make people susceptible to prostate and breast cancer.
A popular treatment for severe male urinary incontinence reached a major milestone last month: 100,000 implants, according to its manufacturer, American Medical Systems.
Intermittent tamsulosin (Flomax) treatment appears to be well tolerated and provides comparable improvements for abnormal ejaculation, according to a study by Turkish researchers.
Preliminary results of a small study show that high-dose statin therapy may help improve erectile dysfunction in men who had shown minimal reaction to sildenafil citrate (Viagra).
The time between prostate biopsy and radical prostatectomy does not appear to have a large effect on the risk of disease recurrence, according to researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
More than 90% of patients with small kidney tumors are opting to undergo total nephrectomy, even though they may be eligible for partial nephrectomy, according to a recently published study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor.
Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered a new virus in prostate tumors.
Dietary or supplemental antioxidants do not appear to be associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer among men in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, suggests a study published last month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2006; 98:245-54).
Baltimore--Psychological treatment, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, can help ease chronic pain. That's why these therapies may be able to do the same for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) patients, argued Judith Turner, PhD, at the NIDDK-sponsored Chronic Pelvic Pain/Chronic Prostatitis Scientific Workshop here.
Fiber is cleared for use with Holmium laser in BPH
Baltimore?What causes chronic pain in chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS)? This could be the wrong question to ask, said Jeffrey S. Mogil, PhD, at the NIDDK-sponsored Chronic Pelvic Pain/Chronic Prostatitis Scientific Workshop. The better question may be: Why do these particular men have chronic pain, whereas others do not?
San Antonio--Recently published prospective evidence strongly supports the growing recognition among physicians that erectile dysfunction may be a sign of future cardiovascular disease in some men.
Researchers are taking a broader view of chronic pain that will allow development of new treatment strategies.
Washington--When 2006 began, there was somewhat of a mess in Washington involving Medicare reimbursement, and that was especially true for urologists. At press time, some of those issues were being resolved, but, even so, there will likely be fallout that will at least inconvenience urologists and their staffs.
In order to ensure that private foundations are truly legitimate charitable entities, they are subject to numerous complex tax rules.
How do I charge for a patient sent from a nursing home for a consult who, upon evaluation, required a cystoscopy?