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The power of a single word—CANCER—can’t be underestimated. Its deadliness is famous. Often patients have previous experiences with cancer striking a friend or family member. One of the biggest challenges prostate cancer specialists face is undoing what patients think they already “know” about cancer. Patients assume it’s a death sentence and rush into the first treatment offered while failing to realize that a single additional modifying word—PROSTATE—changes everything. Generally speaking, the worst type of prostate cancer is better than the best type of any other cancer. For example, the average survival of relapsed pancreas cancer is four months. The average for relapsed prostate cancer is thirteen years.
What we call prostate cancer is actually a constellation of illnesses that behave and respond to treatment quite differently. Fortunately, technology can now distinguish between the good and the bad forms of prostate cancer. Profiling is a much maligned word. However, profiling prostate cancer by into different “types” enables men to receive personalized treatment that is appropriate to their individual situation.
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD Due to the absence of well-designed comparative studies, treatment selection for prostate cancer has been highly controversial. However, in October 2016, two landmark articles published in the New England …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD It seems we have a national passion for prostate biopsies. A million men are biopsied every year. Two hundred thousand of them will be diagnosed with prostate cancer …
By Micah Chancey & Mark Scholz, MD Surgery, Radiation, Active Surveillance, or Seed Implant? Since there are three different risk categories of newly-diagnosed prostate cancer—low, intermediate and high—optimal treatment varies. READ THE FULL …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD Google keeps track of what is searched most frequently. Since prostate cancer is common, it’s hardly surprising that people who research aches or pains “down there” …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD At the first ever Active Surveillance Convention, a conference I attended back in 2007, many experts openly bemoaned that the word “CANCER” profoundly overstates the significance …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men. While some types of prostate cancer are life-threatening, some types are not. Recent media reports …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD As men get older, they almost all develop enlargement of the prostate. Invariably, PSA rises as a result. PSA comes both from the prostate gland and …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD There are two different ways to do a prostate biopsy – targeted and random. The random 12-core prostate biopsy is standard and has been in use for over …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD Your PSA is elevated. Now your doctor recommends a needle biopsy, 12 cores through the rectum to check for cancer in the prostate. Sounds icky but also logical …
BY MARK SCHOLZ, MD Everyone seems to think that a large prostate is bad. Large glands get blamed for just about any abnormal urinary symptom that occurs: discomfort, slow urination, frequent urination, …