March 2007                                           NEWSLETTER

                                                                                                                                                      Howard Waage  (688-0423) ----Editor

******************************

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

 When:   Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 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    Michael and Julie Batz 724-2701     Lynn Dreeszen 439-8632     Tim Ryan 476-6550

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

Update From Tony Calvo

On January 18th I had spinal surgery at U.C.S.F. As a result of an MRI on January 12  I was diagnosed with malignant spinal cord compression, a rare condition seen most commonly in people with lymphoma or cancers of the breast,  lung, or prostate.  I was fortunate to have Dr. Shane Burch perform the nine hour surgery to remove the tumor, the vertebra (T6) and fuse the spine from T2-T10. Dr. Burch is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in the treatment of metastatic spine disease.  The surgery was successful and I am now recovering at home.  I am happy to say I am feeling well and am able to walk without assistance.  The next step in my treatment is likely to be radiation therapy at U.C.S.F.  I look forward to seeing you all in the near future.  Tony Calvo

SUPPORT GROUP FOR MEN WITH ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER

The Advanced support group is for men diagnosed with prostate cancer which has spread outside the prostate or who have experienced a recurrence after primary treatment. Our purpose is to address the special problems and issues of men with advanced prostate cancer.  This group meets every TWO months on the second Monday of the month, at the Katz Cancer Resource Center at Dominican Hospital. If you have any questions, please contact Tony Calvo at  684-0940. Refreshments provided. 2007 MEETING DATE: MONDAY, 5 – 7PM  April 9th

 SUPPORT GROUP FOR WIVES & PARTNERS OF MEN 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. This group meets every TWO months on the second Monday of the month. (same time as the men’s Advanced Prostate Cancer Meeting). For more info or questions, contact Julie Batz at 724-2701. 2007 MEETING DATE: MONDAY, 5 – 7PM  April 9th. Katz Resource Center Rm. E (upstairs) - Refreshments provided.

….PROSTATE CANCER IN THE NEWS..…

Red Wine Not Associated with Increased Risk of Prostate Cancer

 Daily Cancer News - According to an article recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, consumption of red wine is not associated with an increased or decreased risk of developing prostate cancer. Diet is proving to be an important factor in the risk of developing various types of cancer; research continues in this area. Researchers from several medical institutions recently conducted a clinical study to evaluate a potential association between red wine and the risk of developing prostate cancer. Their findings were as follows:

* There was no significant difference in the rate of prostate cancer between men who never consumed red wine and those who did consume red wine.

    * Although there was a trend of a slightly lower risk of prostate cancer among men who were younger than 65 years of age and those who consume four or fewer glasses of red wine per week compared to those who were older and consumed more red wine, researchers could not find a significant difference in prostate cancer rates between these two groups of men.

 The researchers concluded that consumption of red wine does not appear to affect the risk of developing prostate cancer among men. Source:   http://patient.cancerconsultants.com/CancerNews.aspx?DocumentId=39079

 Reference: Sutcliffe S, Giovannucci E, Leitzmann M, et al. A  prospective cohort  study of red wine consumption and risk of prostate cancer. International Journal of Cancer. 2007;120: 1529 - 1535.

Radiation Therapy Combo Cures Prostate Cancer Long-term

 Science Daily — January 8, 2007—Seventy-four percent of men treated with a combination of radiation seed implants and external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer are cured of their disease 15 years following their treatment, according to a study released today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO.

 This study was conducted by the physicians at the Seattle Prostate Institute. Doctors wanted to look at the combination of seed implants and external beam radiation therapy, two different types of radiation therapy, to prolong the long-term disease cure rates for prostate cancer. Over the course of 15 years, doctors followed 232 men with early-stage prostate cancer who received a course of external beam radiation therapy followed by permanent seed implants a few weeks later. Sixty five percent of these patients had T2b-T3 disease and the entire group had an average pre-treatment PSA of 15 ng/ml.

 Seed implants, also called brachytherapy, are small radioactive pellets, each about the size of a grain of rice. The seeds are inserted into the prostate through small needles during a brief outpatient procedure. External beam radiation therapy involves a series of 25 short daily outpatient treatments, where a radiation oncologist precisely directs high energy radiation beams to kill cancer cells.

 "This study is exciting because it shows that the combination of brachytherapy and external beam therapy are successful long-term at curing men of their prostate cancer," said John E. Sylvester, M.D., lead author of the study and the Director of the Seattle Prostate Institute in Seattle. "This is good news for men with prostate cancer since radiation therapy is less invasive, spares healthy tissue and helps patients return to regular activities sooner than surgery."

Source:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070104144849.htm

An apple a day and maybe grapes, too - Researchers trying to pinpoint which foods help fight diseases

 By Elise Kleeman Staff Writer - Whittier Daily News

DUARTE - An apple a day can keep the doctor away, but what about a cup of green tea or a salmon steak?

 In the fight to prevent or slow the spread of cancer, diet has garnered increased attention from researchers around the country. "Many of the leading causes of death of Americans - certainly cancer and heart disease - relate to diet," said John Milner, head of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention, Nutrition Sciences.

 Thirty percent to 35 percent of cancers are linked to the foods we eat - or those we don't eat, Milner said. "If we can reduce cancer rates by 30 percent, think of the economic impact," he said.

In the past few years, scientists have made headway in isolating some foods that might help. At City of Hope, biochemist Shiuan Chen has had some promising initial results with grapes and white button mushrooms.

Both contain chemicals that block an enzyme called aromatase. Aromatase converts the hormone androgen into estrogen, which fuels about 70 percent of breast cancer cases, Chen said. "We looked at many different kinds of mushrooms, and many different kinds of mushrooms had those effects," Chen said.

Unlike some of the other varieties, though, button mushrooms are readily available - an important quality to Chen, who hopes to develop easy-to-apply guidelines for preventing cancer. In mice, both mushrooms and grape-seed extract slowed breast tumor growth, and the mushrooms were also effective in stalling prostate cancer.

 Chen warned that those successful results might not be mirrored in people. (Just in case, though, his wife has started cooking with more mushrooms.)

 Early human trials with grape-seed extract are now under way, as are preparations for another with mushrooms.

"A lot of chemotherapies originally came from plants," said Allan Pantuck, a urologist at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "There are an amazing number of natural substances out there, and they do have significant biologic effects."

 Pantuck is studying the anti-oxidant components of pomegranates, which seem to serve as an anti-inflammatory.

In a study funded by the owners of a pomegranate juice company, he followed 50 men who already battled one bout of prostate cancer as they had daily glasses of the tangy juice. He found that pomegranate juice seemed to slow the rise of PSA levels, an important marker of the disease's recurrence. Another of his studies is investigating the effects of green tea on bladder cancer.

 Unfortunately, though, preventing cancer is not quite as easy as subsisting on a diet of green tea and mushrooms.

"Not all people respond identically to foods - some people get a lot of benefits, other people don't, and other people might suffer harm from it," Milner said. In one classic example, a trial administering high doses of beta-carotene - thought to prevent lung cancer - actually increased its incidence in smokers, he said.

 One of the newest waves of research focuses on pinpointing which groups of people have the most to gain from which foods. To make things more complicated, certain foods combined together can enhance or cancel out benefits, and some research suggests that even one's earliest exposure to certain nutrients can be important.

 "What occurs in utero may have an impact in subsequent risk of developing cancer," Milner said. "Moderation is still part of the name of the game. A diversity of the foods is probably the way to minimize toxicity and gain the maximum benefit."  Source: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_5109263

Prognostic Model Identifies Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

 An updated prognostic model can more accurately identify prostate cancers that are unlikely to spread and do not require aggressive treatment:  By David Douglas

 THURSDAY, January 18 (Reuters Health) - An updated prognostic model can accurately identify prostate cancers that are unlikely to spread and do not require aggressive treatment, Dutch researchers report in The Journal of Urology.

 "This model," lead investigator Dr. Ewout W. Steyerberg told Reuters Health, "may help to identify a subgroup of men who are most likely to have a rather indolent prostate cancer." Steyerberg of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and colleagues note that a variety of features, including the results of a standard blood test, called the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, and the number of cancer cells at biopsy have been incorporated into prognostic models.

 The researchers tested one model in 247 patients with prostate cancer who were treated with surgical removal of the gland. Indolent cancers were cancers that had not spread outside of the prostate.

 Overall, 49 percent of the group had indolent cancer, a much higher percentage than the average predicted probability, which was around 20 percent. This means that by using the model many men could avoid aggressive treatments that will not improve their survival rate, but may lower their quality of life.

 "Using this model," Steyerberg concluded, "may contribute to reducing the overtreatment of men with prostate cancer."

SOURCE: The Journal of Urology, January 2007                  http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org

PubMed is a free service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine

PubMed is a free search engine offering access to the MEDLINE database of citations and abstracts of biomedical research articles. The core subject is medicine, and PubMed covers fields related to medicine, such as nursing and other allied health disciplines. It also provides very full coverage of the related biomedical sciences, such as biochemistry and cell biology. It is offered by the United States National Library of Medicine as part of the Entrez information retrieval system. As with other indexes, the inclusion of an article in PubMed does not endorse that article's contents. It is available free on the Internet at http://pubmed.gov

PubMed Features

􀂾 MEDLINE®, NLM’s database of millions of references to articles published in biomedical journals

􀂾 OLDMEDLINE®, journal article citations from 1950 through 1965

􀂾 sophisticated search capabilities, including spell checker and special tools for searching clinical topics

􀂾 assistance in finding search terms using the MeSH Database, a guide to MEDLINE’s controlled vocabulary

􀂾 ability to store and automatically receive email updates for saved searches using PubMed’s My NCBI.

􀂾 links to full-text articles and to information about library holdings

􀂾 links to other NLM search systems, such as ClinicalTrials.gov®, MedlinePlus®, NIH Clinical Alerts

 A search on PubMed for “laparoscopic sugery prostate cancer” provided the most recent citation:

 1: Curr Opin Urol. 2007 Mar;17(2):98-103

    Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: current techniques. * Levinson AW * Su LM.    James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland

 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is now considered the standard of care at many centers for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. As with other surgical approaches, there has been an evolution in surgical techniques. Critical evaluation of the effects of these changes on clinical and pathologic outcomes continues. RECENT FINDINGS: The technique of nerve sparing laparoscopic radical prostatectomy should attempt to mimic the techniques and outcomes of open surgery, while maintaining the advantages of reduced blood loss and morbidity, and greater visualization. Long-term functional and oncologic outcomes appear equivalent to open surgery. Surgical approaches based upon recent anatomic studies of the periprostatic neuroanatomy continue to spur both advances and debate. Athermal dissection near the neurovascular bundle, along with high release of the surrounding fascia, may hasten recovery of erectile function. Techniques of sparing or reconstructing the puboprostatic ligaments and support of the bladder are evolving in efforts to improve continence results. Debate over the merits of transperitoneal vs. extraperitoneal approaches to laparoscopic prostatectomy continues. SUMMARY: Nerve sparing laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, although technically challenging, has proven to be an excellent alternative for dedicated centers wishing to provide a minimally invasive surgical option to their patients with localized prostate cancer. PMID: 17285018 [PubMed - in process] Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 ******************************

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.

+++++

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 260 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.