| 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.
RESULTS OF PROSTATE STUDY AMONG BLACK MEN: They're more fatalistic ...
A survey of African-American and Nigerian men shows that Black American males are more fatalistic in their cancer beliefs and are less likely to employ religious coping skills when fighting cancer. The first of its kind study was conducted by researchers based at predominantly Black Florida A&M University and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. "Men who have fatalistic beliefs about prostate cancer … may be less likely to take the steps necessary to prevent cancer or undergo cancer screening to detect cancer," says lead researcher Professor Folakemi Odedina of FAMU's Economic, Social & Administrative Pharmacy program. She added, "These are cultural beliefs that compound existing health disparities for African American men." Odedina's team found that African America men are 60 percent less likely than West African men to possess the religious coping skills which might be able to help sustain them during cancer treatment.
Mismatched' Prostate Cancer Treatment Prevalent
More than a third of men with early prostate cancer who participated in a study analyzing treatment choice received therapies that might not be appropriate, based on pre-existing problems with urinary, bowel or sexual function. The prevalence of these treatment "mismatches" could reflect patient' unwillingness to discuss such problems with their physicians. The study will appear in the January 1, 2008 issue of the journal Cancer and is being released online."Prostate cancer patients experience the same fears and hard decisions as all cancer patients do, but prostate cancer treatment directly affects very personal things that most people aren't comfortable talking about - urinary, bowel and sexual function," says James Talcott, MD, SM, of the Center for Outcomes Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, who led the study.
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