June 8, 2010

By Paul Briand, Journalist and Baby Boomer Expert

It can be the bane of Baby Boomer men: Prostate cancer.

But there’s some hope now to battle this cancer, which is the most common cancer among American men. According to the American Cancer Society, there were 192,280 new cases of prostate cancer in 2009, and 27,360 deaths.

And the older you are, the more likely you are to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Only 1 in 10,000 men under age 40 will be diagnosed, but the rate shoots up to 1 in 38 for ages 40 to 59, and 1 in 15 for ages 60 to 69.

The hope lies in a first-of-a-kind treatment – the Provenge vaccine – that uses the body’s immune system to fight the disease. It’s an alternative to treatments like chemotherapy and surgery, and is the first therapy of its kind to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Dendreon Corp.’s vaccine trains the immune system to fight tumors on the prostate, a gland the size of a walnut that sits under the bladder and in front of the rectum.

The prostate is not essential for life, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, but it’s important for reproduction because it supplies substances that facilitate fertilization, as well as sperm transit and survival.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation is excited about the prospects of Provenge.

“This is a ‘breakout’ not a ‘breakthrough’ for treatment of patients,” Dr. Jonathan Simons, CEO of PCF said in a statement.

“A breakthrough would be curing men; the breakout in our thinking is that some patients can live months longer with inducing their immune systems to fight their metastatic disease. Now the field gets to build upon and improve the micromanagement of the prostate cancer patient’s immune system to fight their disease.

“Also, the concept that some day we could develop a preventative vaccine against developing prostate cancer in the first place gets a big scientific boost.”

Baby Boomer men, if they haven’t already, need to understand their risks for the cancer and make sure they’re examined by their physician.

If you are age 50 or over (or if you are age 40 or over and African-American or have a family history of prostate cancer) you should consider a yearly rectal examination and PSA test.

The rectal examination lets the doctor determine whether the prostate is swollen at all. Levels of PSA in a blood test often go up in men with prostate cancer as well as other conditions.

Check out the prevention guidelines from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Among the suggestions:

•    Maintain a healthy weight… eat less, exercise more

•    Keep fat from meat and dairy to a minimum

•    Watch your calcium intake

•    Don’t smoke

•    Drink in moderation

•    Get treated for high blood pressure

•    Relax… find a way to be less stressed

About the Author

Paul Briand spent 33 years in newspaper journalism. Based in New Hampshire, he now writes about issues of interest to Baby Boomers.

Read more of Paul Briand’s work for AccessRx.com here.

Read even more of Paul Briand’s published articles here.