Gene Mutation Tied to Increased Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer

January 12, 2010

A new gene mutation has been discovered that may explain why some men are especially prone to developing prostate cancer
Boston (DbTechNo) - A new gene mutation has been discovered that may explain why some men are especially prone to developing prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is one of the more tricky forms of the disease, as it can either present as an aggressive tumor or a slow growing tumor which determines the appropriate form of treatment.

It is one of the more common types of cancer diagnosed in men, and the aggressive form of the disease is the second leading cancer killer for men in America.

Researchers have discovered a gene mutation dubbed “rs4054823″ which puts a man at a 25% increased risk of being diagnosed with the aggressive form of the disease.

“This finding addresses one of the most important clinical questions of prostate cancer — the ability at an early stage to distinguish between aggressive and slow-growing disease,” said the study’s lead author Jianfeng Xu, cancer expert at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina.

“Although the genetic marker currently has limited clinical utility, we believe it has the potential to one day be used in combination with other clinical variables and genetic markers to predict which men have aggressive prostate cancer at a stage when the disease is still curable.”

The study can be found in the upcoming addition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: dbtechno.com

Obesity Responsible for 100,000 Cancer Cases Annually

Research is beginning to quantify that old saying that “we are our own worst enemy.”

A recent report from the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) states that excess body fat is a major cause of cancer. The AICR research looked at seven cancers know to have correlations with cancer and calculated the actual case counts that were likely to have been caused by obesity. The numbers in the study are shocking: 49% of endometrial cancers, 24% of kidney cancers, 28% of pancreatic cancers, 17% of breast cancers, and 9% of colorectal cancers.

Dr. Laurence Kolonel, Deputy Director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and AICR/WCRF expert panel member, presented the new preventability estimates and noted that “We now know that carrying excess body fat plays a central role in many of the most common cancers,” and “it’s clearer than ever that obesity’s impact is felt before, during, and after cancer - it increases risk, makes treatment more difficult and shortens survival.”

29000 Men Comment
I am now going into my 7th year as a prostate cancer survivor and I’m watching my PSA bounce around at the .02, .06, .04 range. My doctors keep telling me not to worry, but I don’t believe I’m cured, and I still have that monkey on my back. Following my surgery in 2003, I went on a strict vegetarian diet and my weight dropped to 144 pounds, just 2 pounds more that when I graduated from college and went in the Army. Over the past two years, I gradually relaxed my diet and my weight increased to 154. My goal for 2010 is to return to my survival eating regime and lose that weight. After all, if the cancer returns, wouldn’t I be greatly to blame? In my business life I talk frequently about accountability. Well, this is pretty much the ultimate in personal accountability. My weight today was 154. Check my as I track my progress. If you want to begin exercising, consider bicycling. It’s a great sport.

Prostate Cancer TRAP

Prostate cancer cells are often resistant to cell death. Researchers led by Dr. Dario C. Altieri of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, therefore, explored the role of TRAP-1, a protein thought to regulate cell death, in prostate cancer survival. TRAP-1 was highly expressed in both high-grade human prostate cancer lesions and mouse models of prostate cancer, but not in benign or normal prostate tissue. In addition, TRAP-1 over expression in non-cancer prostate cells inhibited cell death, whereas TRAP-1-deficient prostate cancer cells had enhanced levels of cell death. Moreover, treatment with Gamitrinib, which inhibits TRAP-1, resulted in prostate cancer cell death, but not death of non-cancerous prostate cells. Therefore, targeting TRAP-1 via Gamitrinib treatment may be a viable therapeutic strategy for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Leav et al suggest that "TRAP-1 [is] a novel marker of localized and metastatic prostate cancer, but not normal glands, required for prostate cancer cell viability, in vivo. Taken together with the preliminary safety of Gamitrinibs in preclinical studies, these data suggest that targeting mitochondrial TRAP-1 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for patients with advanced and metastatic prostate cancer" A similar approach may be also suitable for other types of cancer, as TRAP-1 is broadly expressed in disparate human malignancies. In future studies, Dr. Altieri and colleagues plan to "further dissect the biology of TRAP-1 cytoprotection in cancer cells, and test whether disabling its function may overcome drug resistance, the most common reason of treatment failure and dismal outcome in patients with advanced prostate cancer.”

Source: American Journal of Pathology

Sacramento HOG Joins the Tour de USA!

Sacramento HOG Chapter #295 is the first HOG Chapter to officially join the 2010 Tour de USA for Prostate Cancer. The Tour de USA is the longest motorcycle charity rally in history. Visit the Tour de USA website for ride and registration information. Go HOGs!

How a daily walk wards off prostate cancer

29000 Men Comment
Below is a short article from the Daily Mail in the UK that echoes what research here is the US is revealing, that lifestyle - exercise and nutritional choices - have a significant impact on cancer prevention. Visit the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project website and participated in one of our bicycling-related programs. Read on!
From our colleagues across the water
By Daily Mail Reporter
A daily walk lowers the risk of prostate cancer, say researchers reporting in the latest issue of the journal Urology. Men who walked around three to six hours a week were two-thirds less likely to be diagnosed with the disease than couch potato counterparts. Men who did one to three hours a week were also 86 per cent less likely to have an aggressive, fast-growing tumour, the study found.
Previous research has shown exercise lowers blood levels of testosterone and other hormones linked to the growth of prostate tumours. Activity is also known to boost the immune system and reduce the risk of cancer.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1232209/Fitness-news-How-daily-walk-wards-prostate-cancer-colds-bay.html#ixzz0YUBr15JA

7 Reasons PSA Testing Still Matters

29000 Men Comment
As I have stated before in this blog, it is my fervent belief that PSA testing currently is the only effective means of preventing prostate cancer deaths. It’s not knowing you have prostate cancer that causes over treatment, it is faulty patient decisions. I say patient decisions because ultimately each of us is responsible for the treatment we undergo. We cannot, and should not, place that responsibility on the medical community.

If you are interested in a balanced view of the current PSA testing controversy, read the following article by Dr. Ford Vox on his blog at

Begin Dr. Vox’s Blog Post:

The PSA Test: 7 Reasons It Still Matters
November 13, 2009 03:55 PM ET | Ford Vox | Permanent Link | Print

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force asked doctors last year to stop checking PSA levels in elderly men—the very men who are most likely to have prostate cancer. By age 75, the officials reasoned, doctors are more likely to keep tinkering with their patients until they die of treatment side effects or something other than prostate cancer altogether. This spring, the New England Journal of Medicine published two long-term studies that questioned whether knowing a man's PSA level actually helps men survive. Healthcare commentators say that PSAs set off a cascade of overtreatment, endangering patients and tolerating wasteful medicine, and that patients should be wary.

You might expect that the surgical specialists at the center of prostate cancer treatment would have reined in their PSA testing, but they haven't. The American Urological Association actually lowered its recommendation for the age at which doctors should start offering patients the PSA test from 50 to 40. It was the first revision of the guidelines in nearly a decade. The next one, says Kirsten Greene, a urologist who worked on the committee, should take just a year, in light of the accelerating data and heightened public debate.

"The key change is how we react to abnormal tests and to a cancer diagnosis, which is generally less aggressively for some men than in the past," says Gerald Andriole, chief of urologic surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Andriole says that men shouldn't be afraid to get diagnosed; good urologists avoid overtreating less-dangerous cancers. Active surveillance or targeted attacks on very small tumors that spare healthy prostate tissue are both popular options.

From the latest research, here are seven reasons why urologists are encouraging men of any age who expect to live at least another 10 years to think hard about getting a PSA test, even if they have to pay out of pocket:

1. Keeping tabs on PSA saves lives. Many urologists flat out reject a large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year that found men who got the PSA test did worse than men who didn't. The dissenters say the results weren't trustworthy—many of the men who weren't supposed to get tested actually did, thanks to their proactive primary-care docs. Another recent large NEJM study found that nine years after entering the study, men who got regular PSA screening were 20 percent less likely to die of prostate cancer. One model suggests the PSA test has contributed to much of the 30 percent decline in prostate cancer deaths seen in recent decades.

2. There's no magic PSA number. In the urologists' latest recommendations, it is clear that there's no one-size-fits-all age at which to be tested or bad PSA number. For many years, a particular reading of 4 or above was a battle cry that called for a biopsy or aggressive treatment. In reality, any reading is suspect. Without knowing much more about him, studies give a middle-aged man a 10 percent chance of having visible cancer on biopsy even if his PSA level is zero. Today, doctors consider a single PSA number in the context of your specific health background, race, and family history (it may also help diagnose benign enlargement or an infection), and then suggest when to be tested next. If you do get a biopsy, the criteria for serious concern are stricter, and there are more conservative treatment options.

3. Velocity matters. Your first PSA test is neither your last nor your most important. Depending on your age and your current PSA number, the question is how much, and how fast, subsequent test numbers increase. Researchers are busy determining just how much velocity is normal. (Some researchers say a speed bump of more than 0.25 in one year for a 40-year-old man should prompt concern.) Every man generates a history of data points his doctors can interpret in light of the research.

4. There ' s more than one kind of PSA to measure . Enlarged but noncancerous prostates usually release "free" PSA that circulates through the body, while PSA produced by cancer cells tends to attach itself to proteins in your blood. By considering the ratio of the types of PSA, as is done by looking at the ratio of bad to good cholesterol for heart disease, doctors can offer you better advice about your risk and what you should do next.

5. The younger you are, the more meaningful the PSA test. Older prostates tend to get bigger and put out more PSA, complicating interpretation. Higher PSA levels at a younger age are an indicator of elevated risk and call for closer monitoring of factors like your PSA velocity. At the same time, prostate cancer therapies are most effective and sparing of function when the cancer is at an early stage.

6. PSA numbers reveal your prognosis and are critical in follow-up. If you do develop a serious form of prostate cancer that requires aggressive treatment, your PSA levels prior to treatment will help your medical team determine the risk of recurrence. It's one factor among many others, such as how the tumor looked under the microscope after surgery, but the latest studies show it's of real value. After surgery to remove the prostate, the PSA test is even more critical: Detection of extremely minute levels can signal cancer recurrence. The earlier doctors know the cancer is back, the earlier patients can decide about secondary treatments like radiation and hormonal therapy.

7. For now, PSA is the best we've got. Scientists are looking hard for a better "biomarker" than the PSA, ideally one that doesn't require so much deliberation. Candidates are surfacing, but they require more proof. Physical measures like the prostate's size can be misleading, as Mayo Clinic researchers reminded us this week. Studies show that a digital rectal exam plus a PSA test is the surest way to pick up prostate cancer. But if you've got to pick only one test, PSA is still the best.

So Easy a Caveman Can Do It!

We’ve all heard the Geico car insurance ad a million times, at least if we watch sports. So what does this saying have to do with prostate cancer? The answer is nothing and everything.

The research has just about reached the overwhelming stage that the Western diet, especially our American version - heavy on meat and dairy with their associated fat and toxic loads, is a major factor in prostate cancer development.

As a prostate cancer survivor, I’m pretty interested in ensuring that mine does not recur, so I started looking at the recurrence risk elements that are within my control. Basically, these factors are what I eat (my diet), what I do (exercise - or lack thereof), and what I think - laughter is great medicine.

On the food front, I decided to see how easily I could adopt a diet with no meat and dairy. But, I reasoned, it needs to be really EASY - there’s the caveman angle - because we guys (at least most of us) tend to graze on the first thing we see and things that are easy. Below is my first shot at doing green, the easy way.

I created what I think is a pretty passable salad using pre-washed vegetables - minimum preparation time. The ingredients: 1) pre-washed spinach; 2) pre-washed broccoli and romaine lettuce; 3) I peeled and diced some raw onions - it did require some peeling; and 4) I chopped in red peppers. Full disclosure; I did wash the red bell pepper. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the top along with some coarse sea salt, as I have a salt tooth. Et voila! A pretty good salad - very healthy - with almost no preparation. Make it as big as you like, there aren’t many calories but lots of great vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, etc. A caveman really could do this because they had that all important opposable thumb. And all in about 11.5 minutes. Got brocolli?