"This video is intended for the wives, husbands, partners and loved ones of men who may be at risk of having prostate cancer or who have been diagnosed with the cancer. Our aim is to help you help him navigate through what can be a complicated, confusing and anxiety ridden time.

In 2016, the PCRI will celebrate its 20th anniversary.  The PCRI, founded in 1996 by Dr. Stephen Strum and I, was originally funded by a generous grant from the Daniel Freeman Medical Foundation.  This initial grant was spent on hiring Harry Pinchot, aka Helpline Harry. The helpline format adopted at the PCRI was modeled after the work of Lloyd Ney, the founder of PAACT.  PCRI’s helpline presently has four counselors: Jonathan Levy, Silvia Cooper, Bob Each and Charles Kokaska, all who provide unbiased prostate-cancer-related information, free of charge to the public.

Cancer that spreads outside the prostate gland is what makes prostate cancer dangerous. Metastatic prostate cancer cells cause malfunction by impeding normal function. Some organs, like lymph nodes for example, continue to function quite nicely, even if the degree of cancer spread is extensive.  Lymph node spread, therefore, is the least dangerous form of prostate cancer metastases.  At the other end of the spectrum is the liver, which is far less tolerant.  The seriousness of bone metastases, the most common site of prostate cancer spread, lies about half way between that of node metastases and liver metastases.

"If you are looking about information about Prostate cancer for yourself or someone you love, you are going to encounter the Gleason Score. OK so what is it? At it’s simplest the Gleason score is a measure of how aggressive or nonaggressive a prostate cancer tumor is. 

This summary is from the 2015 Prostate Cancer Conference where in his lecture, John Mulhall, MD, discussed Optimizing Sexual Function Outcomes. Dr. Mulhall is preeminent thought leader in sexual side effect treatment.  Here is the summary:

This summary is from the 2015 Prostate Cancer Conference where in his lecture, Matthew Cooperberg, MD, spoke on Active Surveillance. Dr. Cooperberghas has been invited to present his research findings at many national and international conferences. 

This summary is from the 2015 Prostate Cancer Conference where in his lecture, Charles Drake, MD, discussed Immunotherapy. Dr. Drake is a pioneer in the advancement of immunotherapy.  Here is the summary:

Every year’s Conference presents recurring themes.  This year’s focus was prevention, combination treatment and timeliness were emphasized. We live in an era of exploding technological progress. It is a delightful problem to have a wealth of new treatment options and diagnostic tools.  However, just like buying a new car or a new smart phone, it takes a little time to learn the ropes and fully exploit the complete range and capabilities of the new technology.  A short blog can’t cover everything from a three-day conference.  Here are a few comments. 

It seems we have a national passion for prostate biopsies. A million men are biopsied every year. Two hundred thousand of them will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and about half of these with Low-Risk disease, a condition that can be safely monitored without immediate treatment. Even so, more than half of these men with Low-Risk will undergo prompt, radical treatment.  Sadly, irrational fears rooted in the electrifying word “cancer” drive most men into taking immediate action.

In 2013, the American actress Angelina Jolie made a life-altering decision that fascinated the public and made the cover of Time magazine [1].  Based upon her family history and a genetic blood test for the BRCA1 gene, she was counseled that she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer.  This led to her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy.  The Time article was titled “The Angelina Effect” and focused on the power of genomic medicine to guide clinical decision making.  A family history can be considered part of “clinical information” and would certainly increase the odds of developing breast cancer, but only the genomic test increased those odds such that a preventive procedure became a reasonable strategy.