THE ROYAL STAGE OF BLUE | ADVANCED
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Many treatments have irreversible consequences, so it is important to pick the best treatment first. It is commonly understood in medical circles that long-term survival is improved by receiving optimal treatment up front. The first treatment is your best shot at eradicating the cancer.
PSA plays a variety of roles, the most familiar being screening to detect prostate cancer at an early stage. PSA also helps to define the Stages of Blue. Another role of PSA is to detect cancer relapse after surgery or radiation. Lastly, rises or declines in PSA after hormone therapy or chemotherapy help determine whether a treatment is working...
While multiparametric MRI and color Doppler ultrasound are excellent tools for monitoring disease inside the prostate, scanning the rest of the body for cancer that may have spread to the lymph nodes or bones is also critical. Body scans are necessary for every Stage of Blue except Sky...
Once the proper Stage of Blue is assigned, the different treatments appropriate for that Stage can be considered. Overall, there are two broad categories of treatment available for Royal: Systemic treatments and combination therapy.
Low-Royal occurs when a man who is Indigo develops a rising PSA while taking a Lupron-like drug, and the restaging body and bone scans are clear. Despite the clear scans, Lupron-resistance is a reliable sign that cancer growth rate is...
Rapid improvements in medical technology are forcing us to rethink our traditional approach to early metastatic prostate cancer. The scans are improved; the therapies are more effective and have fewer side effects, and our understanding of...
Metastases originate from the prostate and spread to another part of the body, most commonly the lymph nodes and bones, and less often to the liver or lungs. Early metastases are usually without symptoms. When cancer becomes widespread, a “whole-body” treatment plan with systemic therapy is necessary. The backbone of...
Clinical trials, research trials, and studies all refer to the process that investigates the effectiveness of a new drug, type of therapy, or combination of drugs. There are 3 main phases of an investigational treatment along the road to FDA approval. Phase I trials are small, and 100 percent of the patients receive the...
Uncontrolled cancer cell growth results from misbehaving genes. An intriguing approach to cancer therapy is to specifically identify the mutated genes. After identification, in some cases a treatment to counteract the damaging effects of that gene may have...
Pain can occur for a variety of reasons, many of which may be unrelated to cancer. Therefore, the cause of the pain needs to be accurately diagnosed to ensure that optimal treatment is selected. Generally, the situation should be analyzed with a five-step process...
Blocking testosterone, a hormone that induces libido, strength, endurance, emotional stability, and potency creates all kinds of side effects.
The most common side effect from Taxotere or Jevtana is fatigue. If tiredness from Taxotere becomes excessive, changing the schedule of infusions to weekly may be less toxic. Also, the tiredness may be reduced by switching from...
The surveillance policy, after surgery or radiation, is to check PSA quarterly for the first two years, biannually for the next three, and annually thereafter. For radiation patients, a yearly digital rectal examination is also recommended. After treatment with...
Ideally, the bulk of human food intake should be from whole food sources (unprocessed, unadulterated, natural), with only a small percentage of food products (processed, refined, boxed, bottled, canned, packaged, and powdered). Whole foods provide...
The risk of a sedentary lifestyle is about the same as a pack-a-day smoking habit. “Sitting is the new smoking.” After age 60, just through the normal aging process, men lose 1% of their muscle every year. Hormonal treatments accelerate...
When it comes to dietary supplements, less is more. Mega-doses suggest a worse outcome or prognosis in patients with cancer...
Royal is defined as the presence of metastases located outside the pelvic lymph nodes or the development of resistance to one of the Lupron-like drugs. Royal is the most life threatening of all the Stages and requires aggressive treatment. The goal is to...