Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comOlder men get less effective prostate cancer care
Seeded on Tue Dec 7, 2010 6:33 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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Age should not be a bar to more aggressive treatment. General health is more important.
Older men with other health problems and small low growth tumor will likely die of other causes before prostate cancer can kill them.
A man with other serious conditions may not survive treatment Neither surgery or radiation is a piece of cake.
Hormone therapy is not a cure and has potential life threatening side effects as well as quality of life problems.
Each man with prostate cancer must discuss his options with his doctor not directly involved with potential treatments to decide what is best for them whatever their age. Surgeons want to cut. Radiologists want to radiate.
Make and informed decision!
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I guess you did not read the article. It starts: "Old age is no hindrance to benefiting from prostate cancer surgery and radiation therapy, according to a new U.S. study that shows men over 75 often get less effective treatment than their younger peers."
This means that outcomes of men over 65 or men over 75 do not differ significantly from men under 65. There is plenty of data to show that unless it is highly qualified, the statement that older men "will likely die of other causes before prostate cancer can kill them" is nothing more than a medically unsupported old wives' tale.
Men with prostate cancer should consult someone other than "his doctor" about his treatment options. He should start with an general oncologist and a geriatric oncologist but in either case it should be a consultant who will not be doing the treatment regardless. And it is perfectly okay to tell the consulting physician that the person has private insurance and will not be using Medicare for the full payment (even if this is not true.) His primary care physician is much more likely to be a source of incorrect information. And any physician who thinks that he will be receiving payment from the Medicare system will be biased toward less aggressive treatments and the outdated "watchful waiting" approach.
The informed decision involves trying to remove the profit motive from the treatment options more than any other single factor, according to health economists.
The article doesn't mention that the "hormone treatment" is a GNRh agonist, such as Lupron, that attacks the pituitary gland. TAP Pharmaceuticals was fined for a very large amount for the way they promoted this drug to doctors. There may also be problems with changes to the brain and memory associated with it, but the FDA panel was composed of pharmaceutical experts from TAP; no studies have been done. I know that my father, on Lupron, now has dementia. Women were given Lupron in a smaller dose to try to stop endometriosis; it can interfere with spelling and memory, and cause apathy, and depression. I was also given Lupron. Problems with this drug have been noticed by others. These "hormones" are not wonder drugs, but drugs that make you wonder why they were ever approved.
More and more physicians are treating Medicare patients as second-class citizens with less aggressive treatment and far less follow-up. If prompted, they will tell you is all about the money. They claim (falsely) that they "lose money" every time they see a Medicare patient. This is simply false. They do not make as much profit as with private insurance patients. And medicine has become all about profits, and not at all about patient care.
It is likely that 37th in the world is the best this country will ever be able to do with a for-profit medical system that puts money over patient care. Especially elderly patients (but also to a lesser degree the poor) are considered "throw-away patients" by the for profit medical system. They have little money that can be extracted then they should be thrown away.
But that is the choice that Americans have made --- to dedicate over 65 cents of every medical care dollar to corporate profits instead of health care. It does not speak well of Americans.
Ain't it the truth. I've been avoiding hormone treatments for more than fifteen years. That's all docs want to administer. Finally, with a PSA in the high hundreds, a cancer metastasis compressed a spinal nerve and I was unable to walk unassisted until I underwent emergency radiation. That was more than two years ago and I'm not only walking now, I'm running. Sterling Greenwood/AspenFreePress
As a prostate cancer surviour who IS on the horrmone traeatments( I have 3 treatment's to go ) I can state for FACT !!!!! that tis for of treatment HAS CAUSED me to gain an gross amount of weight ( 100 lbs in 3 month's ) I have had to go through 2 eye surgery's that failed and in the end I have had to have BOTH eye lense's replaced with plactic just so I could see and the "light at the end of the tunnel" is still a 1 1/2 yrs away. PLEASE JUST LET ME DIE IN PEACE !!!!!