BY DOUGLAS SCHERR M.D.

Dr. Douglas Scherr, MD

Obesity is becoming an increasing concern with regard to prostate cancer treatment decisions as the number of patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of greater than 30 grows. While there hasn’t been conclusive study into the area, it has been generally found that obesity is a negative risk factor for prostate cancer.

Seattle Prostate Institute, an affiliate of Swedish Cancer Institute, is offering free prostate cancer screening tests on Fri., Nov. 20 between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at their offices in the 1101 Madison Medical Tower, Suite 1101, on the Swedish/First Hill Campus.

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will host news briefings with accompanying live webcasts on the top cancer research papers from its 51st Annual Meeting to be held this coming week in Chicago. Prostate cancer features in three of briefings. We’ll bring these stories when we have them, here are the headlines:

News briefing 1:
Monday, November 2, at 8:00 a.m. (Central); 9:00 a.m. (Eastern)
Study findings previewed:
Four months hormone therapy added to radiation increases survival for medium-risk, but not low-risk, prostate cancer patients (late-breaking study).

The Obama administration has changed Federal policies on regulation of medical marijuana use under state law. During his presidential race last year, Barack Obama said that he intended to halt raids of medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state laws. Today, new Justice Department guidelines brought this change about.

The new guidelines order federal drug agents to stop arresting or charging patients, caregivers or suppliers who are dispensing, buying or using marijuana for medical purposes allowed by state law.

All over the internet people are receiving and passing on messages starting out with words like this:

Received this excellent advice regarding H1N1/Swine Flu from . . .

The blog post or email forwards a message that starts out:

Subject: Possible swine flu prevention
This message is from Dr. Vinay Goyal a renowned doctor who visited last week to lecture on the topic H1N1 (SWINE FLU), its origin and precautions. He is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of more than 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

Gavin Rodden, the 8 year boy fighting metastatic muscle cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, which began in muscle in his prostate, now has a web page at CaringBridge, Gavin the Strong:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gavinthestrong

Gavin is taking chemotherapy in Houston. To donate to the Medical Fund that Shannon’s employer has set up for Gavin (see details in our previous post) send a check, in any amount, payable to Gavin Rodden Medical Fund and mail to:
Citizens’ National Bank
PO Box 1009
Henderson
TX 75653-1009
To validate the address and the fund you may contact the bank from this page: https://www.cnbtexas.com/#/contact-us
Or donate to “Gavin Rodden’s Hospital Fund” via PayPal.

Eight-year-old Gavin Rodden was diagnosed recently with a rare childhood cancer, which began in his prostate.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (Rhab-do-my-o-sarcoma) is an aggressive form of cancer that starts in a muscle cell and may spread quite rapidly. In Gavin’s case the cancer has already spread from the prostate to his lungs. Possible treatments include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and options in clinical trials.

This little boy is facing challenges that any man might find overwhelming.

We feel some guys might like to add some big brother outreach to back up the support Gavin is already receiving from East Texans.

Reuters and WAll Street Journal report today that Dendreon plans to seek US FDA approval for Provenge prostate cancer vaccine in November. Dendreon “expects regulators to act on the application by the middle of next year, the company said on Thursday.”

To start from an updated report in the Wall Street Journal, which adds this information to Reuters’ coverage of Dendreon ’s share prices today. The points are excerpted and reordered:

Rick Ward, of Deer Lodge, Montana and San Antonio,Texas, a pioneering prostate cancer awareness advocate and activist, died recently of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Rick, an Air Force veteran aged 71, will be remembered for his tremendous contribution to Seedpods brachytherapy mailing list, for his dedication to helping Veterans faced with cancer and other health problems, for popularizing the sky blue ribbon as an emblem of prostate cancer awareness, and for advocating for equitable funding for prostate cancer research.

Rick discovered he had prostate cancer at age 56 in September 1994 in Deer Lodge, Montana when a PSA test at a free screening clinic during Prostate Cancer Awareness Week came back at a high 14 ng/mL. He called the National Cancer Institute at 1-800-4CANCER; and as an early internet user, he joined one of the start-up online mailing lists.

Scientists have identified seven new genetic variants that appear to be linked with increase risk of prostate cancer. Among these are four new “single-letter” genetic variants on one particular chromosome, called 8q24.

This chromosomal region has previously been associated with breast, colon, and bladder cancer. The discoveries identifying the four new genetic locations associated with prostate cancer on chromosome 8q24 were made by teams of independent scientists around the world. Three separate research papers on the discoveries are published in the online issue of Nature Genetics.

In one of the papers, Rosalind Eeles, from the London, UK Institute of Cancer Research laboratory (ICR) and colleagues in the Genetic Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, report on the discovery of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci. In this video Dr. Eeles explains what her team found. She says they plan to take the results “into the clinic” to try to predict which men may need early testing for prostate cancer. Dr. Eeles says 8q is a “very interesting part of the genome for solid cancer risk.”