Radio Shows | Prostate Cancer Treatment | mp3 … wma … wav

You're right and we're talking about prostate cancer. Did you know an astounding one in six men have prostate cancer? Nearly two hundred thousand men in the U.S will get it this year and thirty thousand will die.

The risk really escalates when you hit sixty but if you have a family history of it or if you're of African American descent, your risk is also higher.

The prostate is in front of the rectum and under the bladder. It surrounds the urethra, a tube through which urine flows. The prostate produces the fluid that helps move sperm out of the man's body during ejaculation.

With age, the prostate, which is normally the size of a walnut can grow larger and squeeze the urethra making it difficult to urinate. It may also indicate the presence of cancer.

Traditional treatments can involve surgery and radiation but a new therapy on the horizon does neither.

Scientists have developed a new agent called VN/14-1. It affects something called retinoic acid which is important in maintaining normal cell growth. Prostate cancer cells have abnormally low levels of retinoic acid so what VN/14-1 does is keep the compound from breaking down.

Normal levels of retinoic acid slows the multiplication of cancer cells and causes them to die. In the lab, daily injections of VN/14-1 into mice with human prostate cancer resulted in a 50 percent reduction in tumor size.

That's very promising.

If the side effects are few, we may see more patients seeking treatment. Since they can live with the cancer for years, many choose not to undergo traditional treatment like radiation which lowers quality of life.

The new therapy may give them added years without the painful treatments.

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