Julie Isphording, our May speaker, was outstanding—so much so that she got a standing ovation.  She spoke on her new book: “Get Healthy, Get Happy”.
     Our speaker this month is an expert on difficult subjects: Medicaid Planning, and how to cope with a “special needs” child or other family member.
Please let me know about speakers and/or topics for our meetings.  If you identify a topic, we will try to find a speaker.

Tom Young

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The 2008 Prostate Cancer Conference
“State of the Art Treatments for Early Stage and Relapsed Prostate Cancer”
Sheraton Gateway - Los Angeles Airport, California, USA
September 6-7, 2008
Organized by PCRI: Prostate Cancer Research Institute

Saturday, September 6
Mark Moyad:               Dietary Supplements: What works and What is Worthless
Peter Carroll:               Monitoring Prostate Cancer Without Immediate Treatment
Richard Babaian:         Selecting Men for Active Surveillance with CA-3
Duke Bahn:                 Focal Cryotherapy: "Lumpectomy" for the Prostate
Verne Varona:            A Diet for Stopping Cancer Growth
Daniel Margolis:          State-of-the-Art Scanning for Prostate Cancer
Stephen Strum:            Suppressing Relapsed Disease with Intermittent Hormonal Blockade
Mark Scholz:               Suppressing Relapsed Disease without Blocking Testosterone
Sunday, September 7
Michael Steinberg:       Getting Radiation without Getting Hurt
Charles Myers:            An Aggressive Approach to Metastatic Disease: Diagnosing and Treating Oligo-Metastasis
Richard Lam:               The Most Effective Chemotherapy Combinations
Nicholas Vogelzang:    Monitoring and Treating Hormone Resistant Prostate Cancer
Howard Soule:             New Discoveries in the Prostate Cancer Research Arena
All Speakers:            Round Table Discussion of Clinical Case Reports and Questions from the Audience

Registration Fee*
Early (thru July 31st)   $ 60; Regular (thru Sept 5th)    $ 85; On-site    $ 100
Saturday Dinner: $ 40
*Registration fee includes access to conference and support group meetings.
The official Hotel is the Sheraton Gateway, 6101 W. Century Blvd, LA, CA 90045.  Call (888)627-7104 to make reservations, and mention Prostate Cancer Group.  The Conference Rate is $109/night + taxes.
American Airlines provides 5% discount on AA flights to and from LAX.  Discount Code A5498AJ.

Register by calling 310-743-2117, or on-line PCRI.org.

Each year one or more PCNG members go to the National Prostate Cancer Meeting.
They invariably enjoy it. Tom Bretz went to the meeting last year which was also in LA. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Each newly diagnosed patient should call PCRI (310-743-2116 ) and ask to receive Insights, their excellent newsletter. All issues of Insights can also be read on their website.
Helpline (800-641-PCRI): “The PCRI maintains a knowledgeable help line staff, all of whom have received training from the PCRI Co-founders and world-famous prostate cancer oncologists, Drs. Stephen Strum and Mark Scholz. Moreover, this experienced staff can draw upon the expertise of PCRI’s Medical Advisory Board for medical information.  The helpline staff's purpose is to help the patient understand his diagnosis and his treatment options.  This is done using materials from the PCRI archives and by searching for appropriate peer-reviewed medical literature.  The PCRI Helpline Facilitators do not provide medical advice. Instead, their goal is to help the patient gain knowledge to promote a better communication with his medical providers in the hopes of obtaining the best possible outcomes. To assist the staff in answering questions, we suggest that callers provide some background information such as:

    1. Patient's Date of Diagnosis
    2. PSA at time of Diagnosis
    3. Gleason Score at Diagnosis
    4. Prior and current Treatments
    5. Current PSA
    6. Patient's location (US state or country)”

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Biopsy can have a Negative Impact on Erectile Function
Some of our members are well-informed about their PSA, Free PSA, PSA Velocity and even PCa-3, but they have not had a biopsy. They postpone it until it is necessary—in their opinion. Biopsies are not risk-free as will be clear from reading this abstract.

Tuncel A, et al: Urology 2008 Jun;71(6):1128-31. The impact of transrectal prostate needle biopsy on sexuality in men and their female partners.  

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate sexuality in men who have undergone transrectal prostate needle biopsy (TPNB) and their female partners.
METHODS: Ninety-seven men underwent TPNB because of high prostate-specific antigen level (>or=2.5 ng/mL) and/or abnormal digital rectal examination findings and their female partners were included in this study. Men were evaluated for erectile function before biopsy, and the first and sixth months after the biopsy with the 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5). Female partners completed the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) in the same periods together with the men. We assessed IIEF-5 and FSFI score alterations after the biopsies.
RESULTS: The mean ages of men and their partners were 61.2 (40 to 81) years and 56.8 (34 to 70) years, respectively. The mean IIEF-5 scores were 19.1 +/- 5.8, 17.1 +/- 5.9, and 16.8 +/- 7.5 before the biopsy, and 1 and 6 months after the biopsy, respectively. We found significant differences among prebiopsy IIEF-5 scores and postbiopsy first- and sixth-month IIEF-5 scores (P <0.001). On the contrary, there was no significant difference between the postbiopsy first- and sixth-month IIEF-5 scores (P = 0.335). In the female partners, the mean prebiopsy, postbiopsy first- and sixth-month total FSFI scores were 18.0 +/- 6.8, 16.2 +/- 6.8, and 16.0 +/- 8.4, respectively (P <0.001). In first- and sixth-month postbiopsies, all FSFI subscores were significantly lower than the prebiopsy subscores.
CONCLUSIONS: TPNB seems to have negative impact on erectile function. Male sexual dysfunction after TPNB also has a negative effect on female sexual function. We believe that couples should be informed about the risk of erectile dysfunction before TPNB.

ScienceDaily (Jun. 9, 2008) Researchers led by a team at the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology at the University of Michigan Health System have identified traits of an aggressive type of prostate cancer that occurs in about 10 percent of men who have the disease. They hope the discovery could lead, possibly within the next few years, to a simple urine test that will help to diagnose this variation of prostate cancer.
Previous studies by this group of researchers have shown that most prostate cancer is caused in part by a gene fusion -- the merging of two unrelated genes, which plays a role in at least 50 percent of prostate cancer cases.
To shed light on the prostate cancers that don't involve gene fusion, the researchers in the current study analyzed data on 1,800 prostate cancers to find commonalities in their genetic aberrations. They learned that a gene called SPINK1 ..was over-expressed, or found in excess amounts, in prostate cancers that do not have gene fusions. The finding suggests that SPINK1 is a biomarker -- a molecule in bodily fluids, blood and tissue that can be a signal of a disease -- for a subtype of prostate cancer.
The findings also suggest that men with SPINK1--related prostate cancers tend to have a quicker recurrence of the disease than those with other types of prostate cancer.
"Because SPINK1 can be found non-invasively in urine, a test could be developed that would complement current urine testing that is used to detect some prostate cancer .."

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