Black Men with Prostate Cancer Do Better with Radiation Than White Men

Recently released and unexpected findings have been announced, contrary to previous understandings, black men who received primary radiation therapy to treat their prostate cancer had lower rates of biochemical cancer recurrence than white men.  They also had a lower rate of developing distant metastasis.  These findings are from data coming from the randomized RTOG trials and were reported at the American Society of Radiation Oncology by Daniel Spratt, MD, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  

Making this finding even more interesting is the finding that Black men do better when they receive Provenge than white men      

Both of these findings point out that there are likely differences in the underlying prostate cancer disease between Black and White men.  However, this conclusion does not negate the fact that Black men have less access to treatment than White men, a fact that needs to be corrected, especially given the circumstances indicated in these two conclusions that Black men do well when given treatment.      

By Joel T. Nowak

Shingrix – A new and Better Shingles Vaccine

An article in the New York Times describes a new and more effective vaccine against Shingles, which you should consider getting. 

Shingles can be a very painful and debilitating disease which most of us are at risk to get.  The FDA has approved this new vaccine; Shingrix and it should be generally available within the next month. 

 

There does seem to be an “ouch” factor involved in receiving the vaccine and it does require two separate injections, but getting Shingles is much worse.

We urge that you speak with your doctor and ask if you should be getting this vaccine.  Having Shingles is no fun.

Joel T. Nowak, MA, MSW wrote this Post.  Joel is the CEO/Executive Director of Cancer ABCs.  He is a Cancer Thriver diagnosed with five primary cancers - Thyroid, Metastatic Prostate, Renal, Melanoma, and the rare cancer Appendiceal cancer.