Remember you are an important part of our support group.  USToo! Texoma
needs you!

See you at our next meeting.

Dr. Jerry Bylander, Managing Director, USToo! Texoma

Old Business

None.

New Business

Henri Plunkett, Program Chair, announced the May program to be sponsored by TMC.

Program:  Hormonal therapy from A to Z

Speaker: R.B. McGowan

Program: R.B., who has done extensive research on hormonal therapy , described the learn options he has explored for treatment.

The meeting adjourned about 9 PM.

Henri Plunkett, Program Chair/by the Editor

What about vitamin E and Selenium?
DES Prevents Bone Loss Associated with Hormone Therapy
Eligard is a New Prostate Cancer Drug
Omega-3 Hype
CLycopene Can Help Black Men or "eat more tomato sauce"
Rise in PSA and Positive Biopsies May be Wrong Signal
What To Do When the Rain Begins to Fall
News You Can Use

Notes from the July 2002 Hot Sheet 

What about vitamin E and Selenium?

We have been hearing a great deal about Vitamin E and Selenium lately.  However what we hear seems to be confused.  On the one hand we are told that these agents are helpful in fighting cancer and, on the other, we are told that they can be harmful.  And sometimes we learn that they have no effect on prostate cancer.  Personally, I am taking soy powder with both Vitamin E and selenium.  You will want to decide for yourself.

Back to Editor's Notes

DES Prevents Bone Loss Associated With Hormone Therapy

Osteoporosis is an accompaniment of hormone therapy, but recent work at Cornell finds it can be minimized by DES.  Dr. D.
Scherr and colleagues have noted that the most common male sex hormone (androgens which feed prostate cancer) deprivation
agents are are LHRH agonists (you don't want to know) and non-steroidal antiandrogens.  Their use is closely tied to bone loss.  
They therefore studied an old treatment, DES (diethyl stilbestrol) and found it to be effective in preventing rapid bone turnover
and resorption with 1 mg DES alone or in combination with your current androgen deprivation therapy.
Details can be found by your physician in Jour. Urology, 2002:167, pp. 535-538.

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Eligard is a New Prostate Cancer Drug

Eligard is a new drug that has been approved by the FDA for a one month treatment for hormonal sensitive prostate cancer.  It
was formerly called Leuprogel One-Month Depot, and which forms a biomass following subcutaneous injection and lowers
testosterone levels.  Competing products are Lupron and Zolodex which are said to entail painful injections.

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Omega-3 Hype
From  The Saturday Evening Post, Sept., 2001

Those of you interested in Omega-3 fatty acid alphalineolic acid (ALA) may not have seen the Saturday Evening Post article
which warned that taking too much flax seed is associated with prostate cancer whereas fish oil is not.  Also if you take more
than 2 or 3 tablespoons of flaxseeds, the seed husks have a compound which can cause goiter and low thyroid function.

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CLycopene Can Help Black Men or "eat more tomato sauce"
From the Hot Sheet for September 2001, p. 6

NewsRx.com , Sept. 7, 2001

Black men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world.  Researchers at the
University of Illinois in Chicago (wasn't this originally Illinois Institute of Technology
nee Armour Research Institute) fed 32 black volunteers, recently diagnosed with prostate 
cancer, 3/4 cup of tomato sauce daily for three weeks.  Its use led to significant reductions
in cell nucleus (DNA) damage and white blood cells and it also reduced the PSA.

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Rise in PSA and Positive Biopsies May be Wrong Signal

The Prostate Cancer Hot Sheet for Sept. 2001 and NewsRx.com 9/06/01
reproduced verbatim

After-undergoing radiation therapy to treat prostate cancer, it's possible for a patient
to have a rise in his serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level and a positive
post-implant biopsy, but not have a recurrence of the cancer, according to anew study
published in the August 2001 issue of the Int'l Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology
and Physics. Kent Wallner, MD, of the Radiation Ontology Department at the
University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle advises otherphysicians to
proceed cautiously before advising patients to undergo a salvage prostatectomy
after brachytherapy. "The key is to alert doctors to this possibility to save their
patients a horrendous procedure they may not need."

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What to Do When the Rain Begins to Fall

From the USAA Issues and Answers, March 2002 (repeated from the last news letter)
 

It's advice you've heard often: "Save for a rainy day." But what
happens when that rainy day arrives before you've done the saving?
Many families are Unprepared when financial disaster strikes.
Here are some suggestions that may see you through the wet' season:

•  Review your finances. Sit down and take a realistic look at
   your situation, including assets, liabilities, and the potential
   for borrowing.

•  Use your cash first. Cash assets should be your first source
   of emergency funds because there are no tax ramifications or
   penalties involved.

•  Liquidate low-earning assets. Investments that aren't working
   hard for you should be the first to go.

•  Check into home-equity lines of credit. They can be relatively
   inexpensive and interest is often tax-deductible.

•  Turn to stocks and mutual funds. There may be tax issues
   involved, such as capital gains, but you may want to sell stocks
   and mutual funds in asset classes in which you've over-invested.

•  Use caution when dipping into your employer sponsored savings
   plan. You'll have to pay taxes on withdrawals, so don't give in
   to the temptation to cash Out. Besides, with any luck, the rain
   will dry up and you won't need to.

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News You Can Use

You can find news you can use at the USToo International web site: www.ustoo.org.  Check it out for the latest references.

Back to Editor's Notes

Jerry Bylander - Newsletter Editor