Peter Kafka, AnCan’s Board Chair, Lead Moderator for the Low/Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer VIrtual Group, and general renaissance man reflects on how readily accessible medical care is to many. Since Peter is just finishing his 6th and final cycle of chemotherapy for his own condition, he is well qualified to muse! (rd)
One aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that stands out to me is the tension amongst the nationalistic models of healthcare and preventative medicine that exist in the world. It seems to me that this current experience is exposing the need to push the door open to a more cooperative and universal model of access to healthcare. Once a vaccine is developed it will have to be available across the board to everyone otherwise national borders will forever be closed.
Those of us who have been dealing with various aspects of the prostate cancer spectrum for any time have no doubt noticed the disparities in the world regarding diagnosis and treatment. Yet the disease, like Covid-19 is universal the world over. Even within the United States, the options that are available to men who face prostate cancer are not even all over. In my own experience I have had to travel many miles to seek diagnostic and treatment options for my disease that were not available at home. And I know that many men who face a similar predicament do not have this option.
The term “Standard of Care” seems to relate more to the legal protection of the medical field rather than a measure of the best options that a patient might have. It is not a good yardstick, and lags way behind the rapidly advancing medical advances in the world of prostate cancer. Standard of care is often the medical minimum and I feel that all of us men, the world over deserves more than that. I know that I would not be alive today, six years on from diagnosis if I had settled for the standard of care treatment for my disease.
In the current situation with travel restrictions and closed borders some diagnostic and treatment options are no longer universally available, even to those who might be in financial position to afford them. Up until recently it seemed that money was the key that opened the door to the best healthcare. So, in my mind, during this unprecedented time of worldwide crisis it should give us pause to ponder if there perhaps a way forward to raise the bar and make the best healthcare more universally available to all. Can we imagine such a possibility?
Just a little over a year ago, our beloved gene expert and Board Member, Professor Bill Burhans, delivered a webinar we called Cancer Genetics 101. While Professor Bill is sadly no longer with us, two other good AnCan friends, Dr. Eli Van Allen and Dr. Corrie Painter Ph.D delivered their equally good take on the same content late last month sponsored by Cancer Research Institute, the historical research home of immunotherapy.
I have to admit, many of the questions were way more sophisticated than we produced. And in their inimitable fashions, both Eli and Corrie dumbed down teh answers to make them very intelligible for the many – but not all – lay particpants.
This webinar is definitley worth bookmarking for future reference.
Trevor Maxwell is a remarkable man. A young colorectal cancer survivor, he and Joe Bullock, another colorectal cancer survior, have formed Man Up To Cancer. This is a safe and suportive space for male surviors to speak about their condition.
Trevor comes to AnCan via our good friend at Inspire, John Novack, and also through our prostate cancer participant, Russ Smith who is active in Man Up To Cancer. Trevor’s recent video essay on situation is touching and piercing at the same time. Here is what he writes:
6.24.20
“When the storm of cancer hits, you need protection. Something to shield and strengthen you. My shield is an oak tree.”
This short film on YouTube (4 min) was produced and edited by my talented friend, Roger McCord. With stunning footage taken from ground level and from high above the coastline, the film captures the heartache and hope of my cancer journey.
AnCan is a huge proponent of inclkuding palliative care in your treatment plan and medical team!!
Palliative care is NOT about hospice or end-of-life ….. that is just a sub-set of palliative medicine. At AnCan we prefer to call it Symptom Management, the lingo used by UCSF. That is no coincidence as AnCan has an excellent longstanding relationship with the UCSF service. Dr. B.J. Miller is on our Advisory Board, and Dr.Mike Rabow, the Director of Symptom Management Service at UCSF, is a friend of the family too.
Last Friday, Dr. Rabow gave an excellent webinar on CureTalks titled Redefining Palliative Care – you can listen here. For those living with advanced cancer, auditing this webinar is a MUST in our view!
More good news to offset the difficulties of advanced cancer treatment!
If you have been paying attention, you will have noted that ADT (androgen deprivation therapy) drugs may protect against COVID19. A certain male protein, TMPRSS2, acts as a door handle for the virus to enter the lungs. ADT drugs suppress TMPRSS, and the LHRH antagonist, degarelix (Firmagon) has been shown to be very effective in controlling the virus in an Italian trial and is now being tested here in the US through the VA System; Prostate Cancer Foundation has sponsored both trials. Here are a couple of links to enlighten you:
Now the BBC is reporting this morning that dexamethasone may be a “lifesaving” COVID19 drug. Dexamethasone is a steroid, frequently used around the time of infusion for intravenous infused chemotherapy. In the UK RECOVERY Trial it has been shown to perform as a very effective agent to control the immune system, hence the aggression of the COVID19 virus. AND its inexpensive and readily available!
So if you are anything like our intrepid AnCan Board Chair, Peter Kafka, and currently on ADT and chemo, you may be very well protected against COVID19.
