Androgen-deprivation therapy is well-established for treating prostate cancer but is associated with bone loss and an increased risk of fracture. Matthew R. Smith and an international team investigated the effects of denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody against receptor activator of nuclear factor-{kappa}B ligand, on bone mineral density and fractures in men receiving androgen-deprivation therapy for nonmetastatic prostate cancer. In today’s New England Journal of Medicine, August 20, they report positive results:

Proton beam therapy for prostate cancer, a treatment that attracts more than an average numbers of engineers, scientists and pilots, is coming under intense scrutiny from reporters who expect it to be questioned by the Obama adminstration’s health-care reform team.

Recent stories on bisphosphonate side effects might be signaling the advent of a new, superior drug, but will Halozyme’s rHuPH20 enzyme solve the problem of jaw necrosis?

Drug development companies operate within the overall consumer culture. We all want better drugs, better everything. Generic Fosamax (alendronate) now costs just $4 at Wal-Mart, Kroger and other retail pharmacies. What might make right now a better than usual time to get word out to the masses that Fosamax carries some dreadful, if quite rare, risks?

Diane Wysowski of the FDA’s division of drug risk assessment says researchers should check into potential links between oral bisphosphonate drugs and cancer of the esophagus.

Merck’s oral osteoporosis drug Fosamax may carry a risk for esophageal cancer, Wysowski writes in a letter to January 1, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine.

Rhonda Fine
PhD ARNP

Many factors can adversely affect sexual performance. Physical disability illness, obesity, medications, aging, stress, grief, emotional distress and relationship conflicts may all at times contribute to sexual dysfunction.

Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment may also contribute to sexual dysfunction. To help men and their partners cope with and manage sexual dysfunction, the Krongrad Institute has brought in Rhonda Fine, PhD, ARNP. Dr. Fine will head up the Institute’s efforts to support men and their sexual partners after prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Charles "Chuck" Maack

BY CHARLES (CHUCK) MAACK – Prostate Cancer Advocate

In opening: The capability to have an erection does not define what constitutes the title “Man.”

I’ve become exasperated reading of men claiming they are less a man because they are unable to get an erection or have lost libido/potency. “I’m less a man,” “I’m a eunuch,” “I’m a girly-man.”

Where in God’s name have such ridiculous thoughts come from? This, in my mind, is the perfect example of some men’s brains being enclosed within their penis rather than in their head.

I can agree that loss of capability for erection plus loss of libido are blows that strike at key capabilities associated with being a male.

But I am absolutely no less a man than I was through all the decades of my life before discovery of the prostate cancer made it necessary for me to take medical treatments that resulted in my loss of libido/potency/erection.

Anemia drugs may be safer for cancer patients to take than recenty thought. This week Amgen released data showing that its anemia dug Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) did not increase risk of death when used with platinum chemotherapy by patients with extensive small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), but nor did the anti-anemia drug improve patients’ survival.

This news may allay some fears arising from a Phase III study that found that in a group patients with active cancer who were not receiving chemotherapnemia or radiotherapy, the overall number of deaths was greater in those who received Aranesp than in those who did not.

An FDA panel is scheduled to review the safety of anemia drugs on May 10.