[HN Gopher] The challenge of finding new tools to fight prostate...
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The challenge of finding new tools to fight prostate cancer
Author : Tomte
Score : 43 points
Date : 2021-09-11 19:04 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| motte wrote:
| There are a lot of overgeneralized statements here and facts that
| border on misleading. Metastatic prostate cancer is relatively
| rare and most patients with prostate cancer generally pass from
| other diseases long before pc progression
| Johnny555 wrote:
| Isn't that what they said?
|
| _The 10-year life expectancy for localized prostate cancer is
| around 98 percent. It's remarkably curable. Many prostate
| tumors are so slow-growing and nonthreatening, they're not even
| treated--they're simply monitored to make sure they stay
| nonthreatening. "You're more likely to die with prostate cancer
| than of prostate cancer," says Dr. Isla Garraway, director of
| research in the Department of Urology at the University of
| California, Los Angeles (UCLA)._
| 123409871234 wrote:
| It's not particularly rare. Even if prostate cancer will only
| kill a small percentage of men that have it, it's such a common
| cancer that it still ends up killing around 34,130 men a year
| in the US making it the second leading cause of cancer death in
| men in the US. Figures are similar for other countries.
|
| source: https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/prostate-
| cancer/statisti...
| [deleted]
| zwieback wrote:
| Super interesting read. I had prostate cancer 15 years ago at age
| 40 and had my prostate surgically removed, fully recovered now
| but it was stressful. It's great to see so much progress in the
| diagnostic field since the decision to have surgery is not an
| easy one. It's almost like there are two versions: the one you
| can live with for a long long time and the kind that kills you
| quick. Since the PSA test is so sensitive but not terribly
| specific a lot of men have to make a call based on pretty low-
| quality information, better diagnostics will go a long way toward
| helping in that area.
|
| Paradoxically, for me the PSA test now is a great tool. Since
| it's very sensitive anything other than zero is a sign something
| is going on, if you still have your prostate PSA bounces around
| quite a bit even if you don't have cancer so it's a terrible
| first diagnostic.
| trashface wrote:
| Tip for men with PC: if you just get surgery and your PSA is high
| after that surgery, don't put off followup treatment (radiation
| usually). My brother did that and its now metastatic in his
| bones. 5 year survival rate for that in US is 30%.
| Johnny555 wrote:
| As someone with low-grade prostate cancer, the thing I'm most
| hoping for (for now) is better imaging or other monitoring tools
| since I'm looking at getting a biopsy every other year or so. The
| biopsy itself isn't too bad as far as medical procedures, but
| each one has a risk of infection so I wish there were a less
| invasive way. I'll get MRI's too, but they don't work as well at
| detecting small cancerous areas, my MRI missed the cancer that a
| subsequent biopsy found.
|
| Though I also wouldn't mind targeted immunotherapy that could
| target the cancer without any invasive procedures, chemicals or
| radiation.
| [deleted]
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| _It has one of the highest early-stage survival rates of any
| cancer,_
|
| I guess it does if one has usable health insurance. The scores of
| millions of Americans who don't - I guess they make up a lot of
| that death rate.
| Johnny555 wrote:
| I'm not sure that's true - for many (most?) people with low-
| grade prostate cancer, it's not going to end up being what they
| die of and can just be ignored. There's debate about whether or
| not PSA screening is leading to too much unnecessary cancer
| treatment.
|
| So it's possible that doing nothing at all is as good as more
| screening and early treatment.
| conductr wrote:
| I wish I was joking, but those folks often don't make it into
| the "early-stage" cohort because they don't get the simple
| routine healthcare that would allow for early
| detection/diagnosis
| barrenko wrote:
| I've been having mild to discomforting prostate issues for the
| last 5 years, if anyone has advice, I'm listening.
|
| Doctor still won't prerscribe medication since I'm young, only
| taking natural supplements, which do work when I'm not stressed.
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| You might want to figure out why they won't give them to you
| (because you're young seems odd to me), but you can buy all
| sorts of medications direct from India.
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