| IMRT spares bladder in prostate radiation
BOSTON, Oct. 11 Intensity modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, spares the bladder more from direct radiation compared to 3-D conformal proton therapy, a U.S. study found.
The Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, jointly conducted the study to determine the comparative benefits and drawbacks of IMRT versus 3D-CPT as treatments for patients with prostate cancer and to determine whether specific cases should be assigned to one treatment method over the other.
"This study was important because it reassures a patient with prostate cancer that the methods that are available at his local hospital may, in many cases, be as good as those that are currently only available in a limited number of centers," study author Dr.
Walking avoids prostate cancer bone loss
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29 Prostate cancer patients are not routinely advised to exercise, but a U.S. study found walking prevents bone loss caused from prostate cancer treatment.
Lead author Paula Chiplis of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore said men with prostate cancer frequently receive radiation therapy to kill the cancer cells followed by months of hormone therapy, which decreases testosterone and estrogen that feed cancer cells.
Men undergoing hormone therapy lose between 4 percent to 13 percent of their bone density annually, compared to healthy men who lose from 0.5 percent to 1 percent per year, beginning in middle age.
The study involved 70 sedentary men with prostate cancer randomly assigned to a nurse-directed, home-based walking program or usual care -- no exercise during radiation treatment, with more than half also receiving hormone therapy.
Olmert says he has prostate cancer
Prostate cancer and treatment options are in public focus as Israeli PM Olmert reveals that he has prostate cancer, but will stay on the post. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday he had prostate cancer, but that it was not life-threatening, and he would continue to perform his duties. "I have a tumor of the prostate in the very early stages... It is a minor tumor that can be surgically removed. This is not life-threatening and is treatable," he told a news conference. Olmert said the tumor was revealed during a routine medical examination, and it will not require radiation treatment or chemotherapy The consulting physicians told the news conference the tumor did not require urgent surgery, and that in such cases surgery to remove the tumor was usually performed no earlier than six weeks after the initial biopsy.
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