Prostate Cancer Archive

The recommended guidelines for whether men should have the prostate cancer screening test have changed in recent years. A man considering the test should talk with his doctor and understand all the pros and cons involved.

What if men approached their health at midlife the same way that financial experts advise them to plan for retirement? Some of the same rules apply: take a close look at where things stand now, and then take steps to protect your future. Midlife is a good time to lower health risks and invest for long-term health benefits.

How? First, acknowledge what you can't control. Then put your energies into changing what you can — for the better.

In the journals

A study of almost 31,000 men whose prostate cancer had not spread found that the use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was not associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. This counters previous studies that suggested a possible link. The results were published in the January 2017 Journal of Clinical Oncology.

ADT is used in prostate cancer treatment to eliminate testosterone, since the hormone can fuel the disease. Testosterone levels also are traditionally lower in men with Alzheimer's compared with control groups, which suggests there may be a connection between lowering testosterone and an increased risk of Alzheimer's. Previous studies that have explored this connection found that a low testosterone level caused by ADT was associated with a higher probability of developing Alzheimer's. But these studies often covered a shorter time period — for instance, one year or less — and it is doubtful that men were on ADT long enough to cause Alzheimer's.

In the journals

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests are used to help identify men who may have a higher risk of prostate cancer. But a study published online Jan. 12, 2017, by JAMA Oncology, describes a new way to use PSA that may pinpoint men who are likely to die early from prostate cancer that returns after initial treatment.

The researchers used data from a randomized trial of 157 men whose localized cancer was treated with either radiation alone or radiation along with six months of androgen deprivation therapy. The men were then followed for 16 years.