April 2002
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| Vol. 1, No. 2 |
April 2002 |
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| The Managing Director's Column |
Members and
Friends,USTOO Texoma needs you! Its really extraordinary that we have the benefit of a very effective USTOO chapter in a community as small as the Sherman/Denison/Texoma area. This extraordinary opportunity is due to the catalytic efforts of an extraordinary man - R. B. McGowen, Jr. When R. B. was diagnosed with prostate cancer he responded by becoming a lay expert on prostate cancer. He began to read everything. He went to conferences. He communicated with physicians and researchers. But he didn't stop there. Being the type of person he is, he didn't just act for himself, he became a prostate cancer activist and educator. Most importantly for us, he founded USToo Texoma. You are needed that this is not the end of the story. After an organization is started and is successful, the next great challenge is the transition in leadership. Two years ago R. B. recruited new men to take over leading USToo Texoma. At present we have three Directors. Jerry Bylander, who is the Coordinator, Henri Plunkett, who is the Program Chair, and Tom Nuckols, who is past Program Chair. Jerry is doing an outstanding job as coordinator. In addition to seeing that the ads are placed, the announcements mailed, etc., he has led in establishing a Web site. We hope that this will help us reach new people and will help link our members to the incredible resources on prostate cancer on the Web. Henri has developed an exciting program this year, including a visit on site to learn about radiation therapy. Most exciting, he like R. B. is reading everything and is about to attend his first national conference. Henri is fast becoming a lay expert! He has already done what I could never do - learn (and what is more difficult remember) the terminology of the science of prostate cancer and its therapies. You are needed because neither R. B. or the new leadership can function without the extraordinary participation of prostrate cancer survivors in the Texoma area. Because we have a smaller pool to draw from, we must have participation from an extraordinary percentage of survivors. For USToo Texoma to continue to function and help, you are needed. Because there are so few of us, everyone of us counts a lot. If you are making therapy decisions, you are needed because USToo exists primarily to help you. If you don't take advantage of our resources, then USToo fails. If you are a cancer survivor, even if you only come to the meetings you are needed because when busy people give the time and effort to present a program they deserve an audience. But you are needed as more than listeners. You are needed because you are an invaluable resource to those diagnosed with prostate cancer. They are faced with difficult anxieties, choices, and life changes. You have been down this road and you can help by sharing your story, your knowledge and insights, and your encouragement and support. Next to our programs, the opportunity for personal sharing, questions, and discussions is USToo's most important resource. We can't all become lay experts, educators, and activists like R. B., but we all have something to contribute. Perhaps most importantly, you are needed to invite men diagnosed with prostate cancer to come to our meetings so that USToo Texoma's extraordinary success story will continue. Of course, you need USToo Texoma, but that is another story for another Director's Letter. See you at our next meeting. Tom Nuckols Dr. Tom Nuckols, Director, USToo! Texoma By the way, if you haven't been to our web page lately, check it out at www.ustoo-texoma.org . |
| Next Meeting |
Tuesday Evening, March 16,
2002
Wilson N. Jones North -Senior Health Center
3305 Calais Street, South
Entrance
Sherman,
TX
6:30 PM - Social &
Coffee
7:00 PM -
Program
| Program: Hormal therapy; a treatment for prostate cancer |
| Speaker: R.B. McGowan |
| R.B. has done extensive research on homone therapy , since his cancer is growing. Come and learn options he has explored for treatment. |
| R.B. McGowan came to Sherman from
West Texas where he was a successful lawyer , banker and businessman.
He has served the State of Texas and its citizens on a number of
boards. Now retired he was instrumental in forming the local CaP
support group, he continues to support the group in many
ways.
Coffee and cookies will be served. |
| Last Meeting |
| Date & Time: | Tuesday, March 19, 2002, 7:00 PM |
| Place: | Wilson N. Jones, North Senior Health Center |
| Attendance: | Est. 20 attendees |
| Old Business
Henri Puckett, the Program Chair, discussed considerations for April's program. New Business One member suggested that the Board consider advertising on Cable. The Board is studying his proposal. Program Dr. Mary Hebert gave an excellent Power Point presentation and answered questions from our members and guests about various radiation therapies for prostate cancer, (CaP). The meeting adjourned about 9 PM. Henry Puckett, Program Chair/by the Editor |
| Other Important Events |
| Your organization's meetings listed here. Contact the Editor at www.jerryby@texoma.net |
| Editor's Notes |
Random thoughts from your editor Telling our stories-a cancer
therapy The Value of Writing Personal
Stories In response to the article commenting on the value of expressive writing for cancer patients, there is ample research to indicate that writing personal stories can be empowering for anyone and especially for those who are struggling to maintain an identity in the face of severe illness or other trauma. More importantly, as director of a project in autobiography for twelve years, I have seen countless examples of the benefits which come from "Telling Our Stories," as the name of our project states it. More than a hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud and other psychologists discovered the positive effects which come from expressing our feelings and opinions, especially those we have suppressed or kept inside. No doubt all of you can recall an experience in which being able to express your true feelings gave an immediate feeling of relief. What I have witnessed many times is the positive effect on a person of reading aloud a story they have written about their own life experience, even a bad experience. For one thing, the act of writing it down and reading it to others distances you from the situation and allows you to look at it more objectively. Quite often, experiences or even relationships that were painful at the time can seem trivial or even comical when they are put in writing and shared with others. I have also had writers in the workshop who wrote stories about mental and physical abuse and were able to do so without feeling the pain all over again, In fact they felt liberated somehow when they put their feelings into words. Therefore, I have no doubt that writing
stories about one's feelings upon being
diagnosed with cancer and then going through the agony of
treatment would benefit the patient.
Telling one's "deepest story" would relieve some anxiety and enable the writer to let go of some of
the chaos and stress. It would probably
result in improvement in the physical condition of the patient as well as relieve his/her mind. Several of
my students have reported that after
some expressive writing, they were able to "make peace" I would encourage anyone to try writing personal stories and advise them to find a group to share them with. The motivation to write is much greater if you have a supportive audience and build trust with a group that shares your perspective. Anyone is welcome to join one of the "Telling Our Stories" groups which meet monthly at Austin College on Sunday afternoons. Prostate cancer as a major public health concern Dr. Lubaroff, et al, as part of a grant proposal to NIH have described the seriousness of prostate cancer for men , currently available treatments, and one future treatment for refractory PaC. Principal Investigator- David M. Lubaroff, Ph.D., Department of Urology Co-Investigators - I. Prostate Cancer Prostate cancer has emerged as a major public health concern. The
lifetime risk for developing cancer of the prostate (CAP) in American
males is one in five. Although there is no known cause for CaP, there are
several factors that may increase the risk of CaP development, including
genetics, race, race or diet. It has been reported that certain
chromosomal regions contain risk CaP incidence rates increased 141.8% between 1973 and 1994, and in 1998,(and) new cases totaled over 180,000. In 1999, it (was) is estimated that 41,000 men will die from CaP in the United States. This cancer continues to be the most frequently diagnosed malignancy, aside from skin cancers, representing 29% of all new cancer cases in US men, and the mortality rate is second only to heart disease in this group. According to the National Cancer Institute, as measured by lost wages, productivity, and medical costs, CaP costs up to $15 billion annually, and currently, the federal government spends 50 times more in patient care than in research to find a cure. II. Currently Available Treatments CaP can be a difficult disease to detect and treat. It is a multi-focal
disease, i.e. there is often more than one focus of malignant cells in the
organ, and often varying stages of differentiation exist between
individual foci. Treatment options are limited to surgery or radiation
therapy for localized disease. Surgical treatment (prostatectomy) is most
common among younger, healthier patients in whom gross metastatic events
have been ruled out; however, this treatment can have side effects that
severely compromise the patient's quality of life such as incontinence and
sexual dysfunction. In patients with metastatic CaP, androgen ablation is palliative
therapy that serves to reduce tumor burden and maximize patient longevity.
This is achieved by medical or surgical castration. However, hormonal
therapy can have significant side effects. Not all patients can tolerate
the drugs, and Antiandrogens is not completely understood, but they block
dihydrotestosterone, the active form of testosterone, from stimulating
protein synthesis in prostate cells. Although these forms of hormonal
therapy will eliminate hormone-sensitive cells and reduce tumor burden by
approximately 80%, the remaining hormone-resistant disease will continue
to proliferate and eventually result in the death of the patient. No
effective treatment for hormone-refractory prostate cancer is available.
Because of III. Immunotherapy In the early twentieth century Coley used bacterial infections to
initiate an antitumor responses. Although not understood, these
observations formed the basis for the supposition that immuno-adjuvant
therapy could override tumor escape mechanisms and induce an antitumor
response. The general promise of this hypothesis failed to materialize
into clinically effective therapy, although adjuvant BCG therapy for
bladder cancer emerged as an effective Rosenberg and associates revitalized interest in immunotherapy with their work on LAK and TIE These experiments demonstrated the presence of immune cells that could be activated in vitro. The in vitro activated cells mediated antitumor activity on adoptive transfer into tumor-bearing hosts. Again, the therapeutic efficacy of clinical trials fell short of expectations. However, the studies clearly demonstrated the ability of immune cells to eliminate tumors previously considered to be resistant to immune effector mechanisms. Gene therapy studies confirmed the hypothesis that most theoretically
"nonimmunogenic" tumors were-indeed immunogenic. These studies
demonstrated that expression of cytokinrd or co-stimulatory molecules in
sufficient quantities at the tumor site induced an antitumor response.
Neither the systemic administration of cytokines nor the production of
cytokines-by What
are the first symptoms of prostate cancer? Next they note that if you do have symptoms the will also resemble a
swelling of the prostate called benign prostatic hypertrophy, can produce
similar symptoms. There also may be blood in the "Remember, if you're African-American or have a family history of
breast or prostate cancer, you should see about getting checked starting
at age 40." Reprinted from the February US Too Prostate Cancer Hot
Sheet Radio waves for severe CaP pain MILWAUKEE~AREA HOSPITAL TESTS USE OF RADIO WAVES ON Whole pelvis vs. targeted prostate radiation Radiation To the Entire Pelvis More Effective than
Prostate-only Results of a study presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology suggest that radiation to
the entire pelvis is more effective in delaying progression of prostate
cancer than prostate-only radiation, especially when combined with hormone
therapy delivered before (neoadjuvant) or during radiation treatment. The
Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) conducted a clinical trial
involving 1,323 men with localized From the Manitoba Prostate Cancer Support Group Newsletter for
Nov. 2001 Ontario researchers have found that brachytherapy (seeds-Ed.) , a popular alternative to prostate surgery, is effective in only a minority of patients, which means more men should opt for more invasive techniques to battle cancer. "At present, there is insufficient evidence to recommend the use of brachytherapy over current standard therapy for localized Prostate Cancer," Dr. Juanita Crook of Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Brachytherapy, the implanting of radioactive seeds in the prostate gland, was a popular approach in the 1970s and 1980s, but fell out of favor when it was shown to be ineffective at treating cancer over the long term. After 15 years, only about one in five men treated with the seeds were still alive, compared to more than half exposed to more traditional approaches. A new, seemingly improved form of brachytherapy has made a comeback in the U.S. during the past decade, and has recently become available in Canada. It is popular with patients because the operation required to insert the seeds is far less invasive than a prostatectomy, has fewer side effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction, and is far less expensive. Cost in the U.S. drives many surgery trends. In a review of all the research published about brachytherapy over the past 11 years, the research team led by Dr. Crook found that the procedure works well in the short term for those with small tumors and low levels of PSA. After five years, between 63-93% of these patients were free of the disease. This compares well to the rates for radical prostatectomy (85-96%) and external beam radiation therapy (81-94%). But when the cancer was slightly more advanced and tumors were larger, the percentage of brachytherapy patients who were disease-free after five years was markedly lower, falling to 33% for patients at medium risk to 0% for high-risk patients. Curtis Nichol, a professor of urology at Queen's University in Kingston, called the report "sobering.
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