Prostate Cancer

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

William Warner Staley, a decorated Army Air Forces gunner during World War II who became a mechanical engineer, died of prostate cancer Monday at Pines Genesis Eldercare in Easton. The one-time Bolton Hill and Pasadena resident was 90. Born Warner McConnell Staley in Gibbstown, N.J., his name was changed when he was 10 to William Warner, to honor an ancestor who emigrated from the Cotswolds of England to Philadelphia in 1683. Raised in Haverford, Pa., he was a 1939 graduate of Lower Merion High School.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan have discovered an inherited mutation linked to significantly higher risk of prostate cancer development at a younger age. The discovery, after two decades of looking, provides insight into the disease development. And though those with the mutation comprise just a fraction of the 240,000 new cases diagnosed annually, the discovery could also help doctors determine who needs earlier screening. The discovery is the first major genetic variant found for inherited prostate cancer, said Dr. Kathleen A. Cooney, professor of internal medicine and urology at the Michigan Medical School and a senior author of the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study found that those with a family history of prostate cancer were much more likely to have the mutation, and that gave them a 10-20 higher risk of developing the disease themselves.

Jay Hancock 's articles about Chesapeake Urology Associates are misleading and inaccurate ("Urologists got machine; cancer treatments soared," Jan. 15). My husband is a patient there, and receives excellent care. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he was given several options, including getting a second opinion outside of the practice. It was recommended that he explore the options and then decide what course of action he wanted to take. Radioactive seeds were not recommended because they would not reach and eradicate the entire cancer area.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent advisory panel, recently recommended that healthy men not be given PSA blood tests to detect prostate cancer. But that won't mean the end of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death in American men. Dr. E. James Wright, associate professor and director of the Division of Reconstructive and Neurological Urology and chief of urology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, answers questions about diagnosis and the latest treatments, including measures to mitigate side effects such as incontinence and impotence.

Doctors are offering free screenings for prostate cancer from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Friday in a mobile lab outside the Safeway at 2401 N. Charles St. The "Do it for Dad" drive against prostate cancer is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the National Prostate Cancer Coalition and the Family Health Center of Baltimore. Doctors will conduct the two-part testing inside a 39-foot-long Airstream Land Yacht XL. It will include a blood test and a physical exam. Maryland ranks 10th in the nation in incidence of prostate cancer and in mortality.

A number of men in public life are talking publicly these days about their prostate cancer -- a disease that until recently few men wanted to discuss, and many agree the time for public airing is overdue.Details on Page 1C

Linking prostate cancer to a widespread industrial compound, scientists have found that exposure to a chemical that leaks from plastic causes genetic changes in animals' developing prostate glands that are precursors of the most common form of cancer in males. The chemical, bisphenol A or BPA, is used in the manufacture of the hard, polycarbonate plastic of baby bottles, microwave cookware and other consumer goods and has been detected in nearly every human body tested. Scientists and health experts have theorized for more than a decade that chemicals in the environment and consumer products mimic estrogens and may be contributing to male and female reproductive diseases, particularly prostate cancer.

Older men with early-stage prostate cancer may be better off waiting and having regular checkups and tests to monitor their cancer than having surgery or radiation therapy, says a new report.The study in yesterday's Journal of the American Medical Association is likely to stir controversy among doctors and the public about the effectiveness of surgery and radiation to treat prostate cancer, the most common kind of cancer among American men.Surgery and radiation for men older than 60 with early stages of prostate cancer may not help them live longer and may put them at risk for complications, particularly impotence and incontinence, which may "severely degrade quality of life," the study said.

Upper Chesapeake Medical Center will hold a Man to Man prostate cancer support group at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Fallston Room. Men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer are welcome, as well as their families. Information: 800-515-0044. Benefit health fair planned Quest Fitness in Abingdon will host a Charity Bazaar Health Fair to benefit The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Guests will have the opportunity to work out for free using state-of-the-art strength and cardiovascular equipment.

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan have discovered an inherited mutation linked to significantly higher risk of prostate cancer development at a younger age. The discovery, after two decades of looking, provides insight into the disease development. And though those with the mutation comprise just a fraction of the 240,000 new cases diagnosed annually, the discovery could also help doctors determine who needs earlier screening. The discovery is the first major genetic variant found for inherited prostate cancer, said Dr. Kathleen A. Cooney, professor of internal medicine and urology at the Michigan Medical School and a senior author of the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study found that those with a family history of prostate cancer were much more likely to have the mutation, and that gave them a 10-20 higher risk of developing the disease themselves.

Anthony O'Neill "Tony" Miller, a retired reporter and foreign correspondent, died Nov. 23 of prostate cancer at his home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The former Ellicott City resident was 68. Born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, Mr. Miller was a 1961 graduate of Loyola High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1965 from what is now Loyola University Maryland. After working as a social worker for the city Department of Social Services and studying psychology, Mr. Miller left Baltimore in the early 1970s and went to California, where he began reporting for the San Jose Mercury and later the Sacramento Bee. He became the primary researcher for authors George Klineman, Sherman Butler and David Conn, whose book, "The Cult That Died: The Tragedy of Jim Jones and the People's Temple," published in 1990, told the story of the 1978 Jonestown Massacre in Guyana.

The devastation of losing a house to foreclosure can lead to depression and a host of other conditions, according to the authors of new study who warn of a looming national health crisis. They are advocating for a new unified approach by financial and mental health advisers to provide homeowners with aid. The study, led by a University of Maryland researcher, found that one in five people in default on their mortgages have serious symptoms of depression. About one-third have seen their finances so crimped that they cannot afford to fill prescriptions and get enough to eat, which worsen health problems.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent advisory panel, recently recommended that healthy men not be given PSA blood tests to detect prostate cancer. But that won't mean the end of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death in American men. Dr. E. James Wright, associate professor and director of the Division of Reconstructive and Neurological Urology and chief of urology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, answers questions about diagnosis and the latest treatments, including measures to mitigate side effects such as incontinence and impotence.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's recommendation against routine use of a blood test that can offer early detection of prostate cancer has led to puzzlement and anger. The reaction has been similar to that following the group's suggestion two years ago that routine mammograms be sharply curtailed. As with mammograms and breast cancer , many of those who received treatment for prostate cancer after a blood test showed elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen - a marker for prostate cancer - are convinced that the screening saved their lives.

Concerned about the high rate of prostate cancer among men in the black community, Liberty Medical Center and 100 Black Men of Maryland will offer free prostate cancer screenings in the Baltimore area.The screenings, which begin today at Liberty Medical Center in Northwest Baltimore, will be held at several locations throughout the metropolitan area for a year.Everard O. Rutledge, president and CEO of Liberty Medical, said that prostate cancer is an often deadly disease for black men that can be cured with early detection, and treated effectively when detected later.

An estimated 30,000 men who have had prostate cancer surgery will relapse this year, and half of them will die. But many of those patients can be saved, a new study says, if doctors treat them with radiation therapy at the earliest signs of recurrence. In cases where prostate cancer appears to be returning after surgery, doctors usually forgo using local radiation treatment altogether because they assume the disease has spread. Hormones, which are helpful but cannot cure the disease, are typically given instead.

Six faculty members at Gilman School are participating in Swim Across America's "open swim" Sept. 18 to raise money for cancer research and to honor family members who are fighting or died of cancer. The faculty members are Carl Ahlgren, director of college counseling and a history teacher; his wife, Kristin Ahlgren, a lower school library assistant; Ned Harris, academic dean and a history teacher; Patrick Hastings, an upper school English teacher; Rob Heubeck, an upper school history teacher and technology coordinator; and Jim Morrison, an upper school science teacher, according to Gilman spokeswoman Jodi Pluznik.