Meet Jeff Finerman, prostate cancer survivor and exceptional responder.               A couple months ago, I got one of the best emails ever.  It came from Jeff Finerman, a man I had interviewed in 2017 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF)’s website.  When I wrote that story, I began with these very true words: “Metastatic prostate […] The post Long-Term Remission appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

Killing the Cancer, Not the Prostate             Focal therapy, although not the standard of care, is emerging as a way to treat localized prostate cancer in carefully selected patients.  I recently interviewed one of the leaders in this field, urologist Arvin K. George, M.D., Director of Prostate Cancer Programs at the Brady Urological Institute at […] The post Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 3 appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

            Is focal therapy for every man with localized prostate cancer?  Absolutely not.  In fact, says Northwestern University urologic surgeon Ashley Ross, M.D., Ph.D., it’s not even a good option for the majority of patients.  But for a few carefully selected men, with close follow-up, “it can be a curative option with minimal side effects.” […] The post Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 2 appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

Why I agonized over writing about it, and why I have (cautiously and for very selected men) altered my opinion.  In three parts.             Four years ago, I wrote a VJ post on focal therapy.  I didn’t publish it.  I just couldn’t.  It started off:  “Dear Readers, if you ever want to start a veritable […] The post Focal Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer, Part 1 appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a double-edged sword.  It can do a lot of good:  in men with high-risk prostate cancer, for example, a two-year course of ADT can make the cancer more susceptible to radiation treatment, leading to a cure.  And in men with cancer that has spread beyond the prostate, ADT by itself […] The post Are ADT’s Side Effects Inevitable?  appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

The new book is out and it’s better than ever, if I do say so myself!   This is the Fifth edition of a book that, in various forms, has been a number one bestseller on Amazon since Dr. Patrick Walsh and I wrote the first one in 1993. That first book was called The Prostate:  […] The post Our New Book appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

It may never need treatment – but then again, it might.  So why do some doctors want to sugar-coat it? “Don’t worry about Gleason 3+3=6 (Grade Group 1)!  It’s harmless!  We shouldn’t even call it cancer!  In fact, let’s call it IDLE (indolent lesion of epithelial origin)!”  Many patients have heard reassurances like these, and […] The post Gleason 6: Sugar-Coated Prostate Cancer? appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

Can intense hormonal suppression before surgery keep potentially aggressive prostate cancer from coming back? My goal in writing about prostate cancer is to offer reassurance and hope, and also a nudge or two when it’s time to take action.  I have been very excited in past posts to write about the broader window of curability […] The post Going After High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

Driving Prostate Cancer “BATty” Part Two: How BAT Works Several years ago, medical oncologist Samuel Denmeade, M.D., Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Prostate Cancer Program, and colleagues came up with a remarkable concept for attacking prostate cancer: alternating ADT with high-dose testosterone.  Recently, he took the time to explain to me how and why this […] The post How BAT Works appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more

BAT: The Opposite of Conventional Wisdom Could the flat-out opposite of conventional wisdom prove to be effective against metastatic prostate cancer?  Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) has been the bedrock of treatment for advanced prostate cancer for more than half a century.  But investigators at Johns Hopkins are rethinking it – in a way that sounds […] The post Driving Prostate Cancer “BATty” appeared first on Vital Jake ..read more