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Do you have a news item to contribute?

We want to hear from you! Members of the support group are welcome to contribute any items of interest to the group at large. Updates on your status, news about prostate cancer treatments, or anything you feel would be of interest to the group are all welcome. Contact Doug Thornton, 588-1586 or or Howard Waage, 688-0423 with your story.  

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August 2006               NEWSLETTER         Howard Waage  (688-0423) ----Editor)

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Meeting Notice!

 At our August meeting, we will be honored to have Mark Rosen, M.D. speak to our support group about new treatment options for prostate cancer that are now available in our local Santa Cruz area. 

Dr. Rosen is one of the partners in Monterey Bay Urology Associates, with offices in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.  He is on the staff of the Central Coast Surgery Center in Watsonville,  Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center,  Dominican Hospital, where he was Chief of the Department of Urology in 2002, and Watsonville Community Hospital, where he was Chair of the Department of Surgery in 2004 and 2005. He is also on the Board of Directors and Technology Advisory Committee of the Physicians Medical Group of Santa Cruz County. 

Dr. Rosen received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, with honors, from Harvard University, and his M.D. from the UCLA School of Medicine. After internships at  Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, he went on to be a Urologic Disease Research Scholar at UCSF.  He has completed special training programs in related fields, such as Microsurgery, Transurethral Laser Procedures, Brachytherapy, Microwave Thermotherapy, Laparoscopic Prostatectomy, Cryosurgery, and Robotic Surgery.

His memberships and honors include: American Urologic Association, American Medical Association, American College of Surgeons, Society for Basic Urology Research, American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career  Development Award, Outstanding Resident Teacher of the Year 1992 (Baylor College of Medicine),  Top Prize, Short Term Research Project (UCLA School of Medicine), and a Harvard College Scholarship . He has been certified by the American Board of Urology, and has been licensed and served on the staff of hospitals in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas and California. He has authored or co-authored more than thirty papers and articles on urology topics, and has appeared in numerous venues as a guest lecturer or speaker.

Where:   Our meeting will be Upstairs in Room B-1 in the two-story redwood Education Building behind Santa Cruz Dominican Hospital. The  Bennett & Suzy Katz Cancer Resource Center is located on the 1st Floor.

 When:   Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 7:00 PM  For more information: Please call-The Bennett and Suzy Katz Cancer Resource Center at Dominican Hospital 831-462-7770

 Please feel free to contact any of the following steering committee members if you would like to volunteer or if you have any suggestions or questions. 

 Tony &  Beverley Calvo  684-0940   Frank Schmetz  438 4781   Bill McDermott 423-8350   Howard Waage 688-0423   Julie Batz 724-2701     Lynn Dreeszen 439-8632     Tim Ryan 476-6550

Our website: http://www.scprostate.org   Doug Thornton  724-6446 (Webmaster)

SUPPORT SUB-GROUP FOR MEN WITH ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER MEETINGS

This group is for men that have been diagnosed with prostate cancer which has spread outside the prostate or who have experienced a recurrence after primary treatment. Typically, these men are receiving hormone blockade, are participating in a clinical trial or are receiving some other form of advanced treatment. The sub-Group meets every TWO months at the Katz Cancer Resource Center of Dominican Hospital. The sub-group meets on the 2nd MONDAY OF THE MONTH.  Next meeting……… August 14th, 5 - 7pm

The purpose of this group is to better address the special problems and issues of men with advanced prostate cancer. In addition, at some meetings, we invite local medical oncologists to discuss their approach and treatments. Men with advanced prostate cancer will continue to be welcomed at the regular monthly meetings on the last Tuesday of the month. Tony Calvo has agreed to coordinate the sub-group. If you have any suggestions or questions, contact Tony Calvo at 684-0940.

SUPPORT SUB-GROUP MEETING FOR WIVES and PARTNERS OF MEN LIVING WITH PROSTATE CANCER   This group is for women to share information with each other, learn more about prostate cancer, and how to cope with the impact of the disease individually and within the family in a supportive, caring and confidential environment. The meeting will be held every two months, the 2nd Monday of the month, 5 – 7pm (same time and same building as the men’s Advanced Prostate Cancer Meeting). For more information, contact Julie Batz at 724-2701. Next meeting……… August 14th, 5 - 7pm, upstairs in Room E

….PROSTATE CANCER IN THE NEWS..…

First vaccine to show survival benefit in prostate cancer

SEATTLE – July 26, 2006 – Results of a clinical trial show for the first time that a vaccine produced a survival benefit in men with advanced prostate cancer. Based on the results Dendreon, the vaccine's maker, plans to seek FDA approval.

Led by Dr. Eric Small professor of medicine and urology at the University of California, San Francisco, the researchers showed that treatment with sipuleucel-T, named PROVENGE, increased survival by more than 4 months compared to placebo. The team published the results in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "This trial is an important milestone in the development of new treatments for prostate cancer patients," Small said in a prepared statement. "The survival benefit that was observed has the potential to offer important benefits to patients, and represents the first time an immunotherapy has provided a survival advantage in prostate cancer."

PROVENGE belongs to a new class of drugs that target a prostate cancer-specific protein. In this case, the drug stimulates the patient's immune system to target the prostate cancer antigen, prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), which is found in approximately 95 percent of prostate cancers. Patients typically receive three infusions over a one-month period as a complete course of therapy.

The study, conducted at 19 institutions in the United States, enrolled 127 men with advanced prostate cancer that was not responsive to hormone blockade therapy. A total of 82 men were randomly assigned to receive three infusions of PROVENGE, and 45 received a look-alike placebo every 2 weeks for a total of three infusions over a 1 month period.

The results showed that the group who underwent therapy with PROVENGE survived a median of 4.5 months longer than the median survival seen in the group that had been assigned to receive placebo. Among patients in the PROVENGE group 34 percent remained alive 36 months after treatment compared to 11 percent of patients who received placebo. In addition, patients in the PROVENGE group increased the time to disease progression compared to patients in the placebo arm by 31 percent.

The results represent a 41 percent overall reduction in the risk of death. The PROVENGE group also gained an 8-fold increase in T-cell immunity after treatment compared to the placebo group. T-cells are the white blood cells that eliminate cancerous, or other abnormal cells. In addition to the observed survival benefit, PROVENGE resulted in few side effects, with the most common side effects being low grade fevers and chills.

These data will form the basis of the company's biologics license application to the FDA, which the company plans to submit later this year. "We look forward to making this active cellular immunotherapy available for the treatment of the many men with advanced prostate cancer," said Dr. Mark Frohlich, vice president of clinical affairs at Dendreon.

Source: (cancerfacts.com)

Safeway Raises $5.1M For Prostate Cancer

Grocery giant Safeway Inc. said Monday it raised a record $5.1 million last month from customers and employees to support prostate cancer research. The money was raised during Safeway's annual June prostate cancer fund-raising campaign, officials said July 24. The new record "tells us the cause hits home and that our awareness-raising activities are having an impact," said Larree Renda, executive vice president for the Pleasanton-based grocery chain. Safeway is a Fortune 50 company that operates 1,770 stores in the United States and Canada. It had annual sales of $38.4 billion in 2005.

To date, Pleasanton-based Safeway (NYSE: SWY) has raised more than $17.8 million over six years to support prostate cancer research, officials said. Funds go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which helps facilitate 1,200 research grants to 100 institutions worldwide.

Safeway solicited customer donations last month at checkstands and held a number of other fund-raising activities, including book sales, raffles, barbecues and carnivals. It also used weekly sales circulars, radio ads, milk carton imprints and other messages to raise awareness of the disease, as well as conducting prostate screenings at 550 U.S. pharmacies.

Other charities supported by Safeway include breast cancer research, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and Easter Seals, officials said. Safeway also contributed more than $24 million to local schools through the eScrip program and related educational efforts last year, and donates more than $110 million to Second Harvest food banks and other hunger relief organizations annually. Source: San Francisco Business Times

Nutrition and Prostate Cancer Guide (a must-read)

The PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION's 36 page Nutrition and Prostate Cancer guide summarizes the "best of the best" data and information available in the research arena today, and is designed to help everyone affected by or at risk for prostate cancer understand how key nutritional strategies can be incorporated into everyday life.  Culling the data from the published literature, Dr. Peter Gann of Northwestern University and Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health offer a comprehensive, yet concise overview of where we are today in the search for nutritional approaches to prostate cancer….

If you would like to learn more about how nutrition and lifestyle changes can affect the development and progression of prostate cancer, you can order a free paper copy or download a copy in PDF format at the PCR's website: http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org

Being overweight hurts outcomes for prostate cancer radiation treatment

ATLANTA (AP) July 7, 2006— Being overweight hurts men's chances of having successful radiation treatment for prostate cancer, according to a study released Monday. The study by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is being called the first to examine the link between obesity and prostate cancer progression after radiation treatment.

Researchers found that moderately and severely obese men had a 70 percent higher risk of having a tumor recur after radiation treatment than thinner men did.

The same researchers last year looked at men who had surgery for prostate cancer, and found that heavier men were more likely to have rising levels of PSA, a blood protein that can signal prostate cancer, after treatment than thinner men were. "Together, these studies confirm that a man's level of obesity can be a significant factor in how well he fares after standard treatments for prostate cancer," said Sara Strom, the epidemiologist who led the research on both studies.

It's not clear how being overweight affected the success of prostate cancer treatment. Fat tissue, by secreting certain hormones, may somehow have helped the cancer to progress later, she said.

The technology of radiation treatment has been improving, and it's possible that fat tissue in men once contributed to targeting errors that no longer occur as often, the study said. Whatever the mechanism, the study gives men another reason to stay trim, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer. "It certainly suggests people who are overweight and obese do not do as well," he said.

Strom's study is being published in the Aug. 1 issue of Cancer, a scientific journal published by the society. The study looked back at the records of 873 prostate cancer patients treated at M.D. Anderson, in Houston, between 1988 and 2001. About 18 percent of them were mildly obese, and 5 percent were moderately to severely obese.

Obesity was characterized by body mass index, a statistic that incorporates height and weight. Under BMI, a man 5 feet, 10 inches tall would be considered normal weight at or below 184 pounds. He would be overweight at 185 to 209 pounds, mildly obese at 210 to 244 pounds, and moderately and severely obese at higher weights.

All of the men in the study had external-beam radiotherapy as a primary treatment for prostate cancer. For years afterward, their health was monitored using digital rectal exams and a blood test that measures prostate specific antigen, or PSA.

Moderately and severely obese men had almost twice the risk of developing elevated PSA levels, Strom said.

Source: Baxter Bulletin Online

Hormone “Holidays” Effective for Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer

According to results recently published in the journal Cancer, intermittent treatment with hormone therapy may be an acceptable treatment alternative with fewer side effects than standard administration for men with recurrent prostate cancer who have received radiation therapy.

The prostate is a gland of the male reproductive system. It produces some of the fluid that transports sperm during ejaculation. After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in men. The outlook for men diagnosed with prostate cancer is good: overall survival rates for all stages of prostate cancer have improved dramatically over the past 20 years.

Current treatment options for prostate cancer include watchful waiting, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy is designed to block testosterone from stimulating the growth of hormone-dependent types of prostate cancer.

Hormone therapy is a very effective and commonly used treatment for men with prostate cancer that has recurred following prior therapy, a condition referred to as recurrent cancer. However, hormone therapy, sometimes also referred to as androgen suppression, is associated with significant side effects, which affect patients’ quality of life. The side effects include weight gain, loss of bone density and increased risk for bone fractures, loss of sexual desire, fatigue, and low levels of red blood cells.

One concept that is being evaluated to reduce side effects associated with hormone therapy is intermittent hormone therapy (IAS). In IAS hormone therapy is begun and then followed by a break from treatment until prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels rise to a pre-specified level; at this time treatment is resumed. It is also thought that the time off from hormone therapy with IAS may reduce the rate at which patients stop responding to the treatment.

Researchers from Canada recently conducted a clinical study to further evaluate IAS in patients with recurrent prostate cancer. This study included 103 men who were treated with hormone therapy for 36 weeks and were then monitored every four weeks. If PSA levels reached a specific level or the rate of PSA increase reached a specific point, hormone therapy was re-initiated.

    * There was a decrease in the duration of time a patient received treatment following the first two cycles of hormone therapy.

    * Patients were off treatment for over half (53%) of the time of the trial.

    * At the end of the trial, only 2% of deaths were due to prostate cancer.

The researchers concluded that IAS appears to provide an acceptable alternative to standard administration of hormone therapy for recurrent prostate cancer among men who received radiation therapy for an early diagnosis of prostate cancer. Quality of life issues in this trial will be presented at a future date.

Men with recurrent prostate cancer who are to be treated with hormone therapy may wish to speak with their physician regarding their individual risks and benefits of IAS.

Reference: Bruchovosky N, Klotz L, Crook J, et al. Final results of the Canadian prospective phase II Trial of intermittent androgen suppression fir men with biochemical recurrence after radiotherapy for locally advanced prostate cancer. Cancer. 2006;107:389-395. Source: http://patient.cancerconsultants.com/news.aspx?id=37660

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Fair Use Notice: This newsletter may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use any copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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The Santa Cruz County Prostate Cancer Support Group does not endorse any provider, organization, product or individual.  All medical decisions should be made with the advice and consultation of medical professionals.

Our newsletter serves over 250 members. Many THANKS to the American Cancer Society for assisting with the printing and mailing of this newsletter and the Katz Cancer Resource Center for allowing us to use their facility.