Choosing the right specialist is a decision that will have a significant effect the rest of your life. So I repeat, take your time. And make sure that the doctor you choose gives you confidence that the treatment he recommends will be successful.

Every day in the office, as a practicing prostate oncologist, I confront serious problems:  PSA levels that are rising, treatments causing too many side effects, patients desperately worried about their future. And sometimes, given our limited tools, the solutions we can offer are only partial. However, every time the FDA approves a new treatment there is an excitement akin to opening gifts on Christmas morning. All of a sudden we have a shiny new tool in the tool chest to help us do a better job. 

Although I don’t subscribe to the idea that we men are exclusively the products of our hormones, our sex life—or lack of it—following cancer treatment is a matter of serious concern to almost all of us.  

All this not withstanding, in my mind there is no doubt that Testosterone Inactivating Pharmaceuticals (TIP), when appropriate and applied in a timely manner, acts effectively to control prostate cancer.

I have never seen a real game of chicken where two cars race head on toward each other to see who will swerve first, i.e., who is chicken. However, we are seeing an actual game of chicken being played out before our eyes on the national stage. 

For many men, a diagnosis of prostate cancer is a wake-up call to make lifestyle and dietary changes. If you have been diagnosed with the Low-Risk and even Intermediate-Risk form of the disease, and you have decided to delay radical treatment, it is particularly important to follow a diet known to inhibit cancer growth.

There is an aspect of being diagnosed with prostate cancer that has proved to be, for many men, quite literally, a life-saver, and that is being compelled to undergo a physical. For example, men who had always avoided getting regular physical exams learned that they had dangerously clogged arteries, making that checkup, literally, a life saving event. So that although prostate cancer is no day at the beach, and every treatment comes with a stiff price, there can be unexpected benefits. What I think of as “positive side effects.” Getting a check-up is one such.

Nearly every industry on God’s good earth has become mechanized in some form or another over the past 200 years, and the Prostate Cancer Industry—yes, it’s an industry, folks—is no exception. Enter the da Vinci Robot.

The surprising finding, after 12 years, was that there was no difference in survival between surgery and watchful waiting in the Low-Risk or in the Intermediate-Risk group.  On the other hand, men who were in the High-Risk category did benefit with improved 12-year survival when treated with immediate surgery compared to the men with High-Risk disease who did watchful waiting. 

There is no easy way to receive the news that you have cancer, but it is important to realize that prostate cancer is typically not a death sentence. In fact the vast majority of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have the low-risk form of the disease, and will live a normal life span. Even those men diagnosed with the more aggressive kind of prostate cancer have effective treatment options available to them today.