Blog updates for September 2007

These retroactive updates to past posts are important reading for readers of this web site. Rather than trickle them in one by one we batch them together and post them all every so often. Their text is included right here so you do not have to go back to the original article just to read the update.

Sep 1. In Prostate Cancer Calculators an older 2003 recurrence table by Han et al [Full Text] [PMID: 12544300] was added. The Han table was based on a single surgeon at a single institution.

Sep 8. [NICE] guidelines have been added to the Free Downloadable Materials post as well as the Guidelines links section to the right. The guidelines are 149 pages but the first 15 pages give a good point by point summary.

Sep 14. In ED After Prostatectomy = Part 2. Rehabilitation table 1 of [PMID:1746047] summarizes the Advantages and Disadvantages of daily administration of PDE-5 inhibitors (Viagra, Levitra, Cialis) for ED (as opposed to on-demand administration):

• Advantages of daily administration: salvage of on-demand responders, improved treatment response in difficult-to-treat groups, disease modification, may approximate more natural sexual function, randomized placebo-controlled trials demonstrate efficacy and safety for ED of various etiologies.
  
• Disadvantages of daily administration: extended term follow-up limited -- safety and efficacy profiles require further elucidation, mechanisms of treatment effects incompletely understood, disease modification -- attractive concept but evidence-based data limited, patient cost, no evidence of tachyphylaxis to date but longer follow-up needed. (Tachyphylaxis refers to decreased response after initial administration requiring drug-free periods.)

Sep 19. Removed blogs from the Links section on the right that no longer seem to be actively maintained.

Sep 19. Replaced overly large email subscription box near upper right of page with a link to an email susubscription page. Also replaced the numerous RSS subscription options with a link to a Feedburner RSS subscription page giving roughly the same options. The recent switchover to Feedburner has facilitated these changes.

Sep 26. In Lycopene, Selenium and Vitamin E we added a quote from Fleshner, the author of the study. In [link] Fleshner says he recommends 200 IU of vitamin E daily along with selenium to many of his patients who want to do something to lower their risk. "On one hand I am conflicted, because we don’t have the definitive data," he says. "But I have a history of prostate cancer in my family, and I take these agents myself, so I am not telling patients to do anything that I am not doing."

Also, Fleshner and Zlotta have just published a review [PMID: 17893870] on nutrition and prostate cancer in the journal Cancer.

Sep 29. On Community Resources page added another VA Benefits link for Agent Orange: VA Benefits for Agent Orange .