In March, we had Dr. Pamela Munster(UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and AnCan Advisory Board Member) give a talk to our AS group titled “Novel Strategies to Treat Prostate Cancer”
There were discussions about an exciting new treatment for Prostate Cancer in the works, plus hear from the AS community about anxiety, finding the right medical team, and how relationships impact stress levels in this special presentation.
Hi-Risk/Recurrent/Advanced PCa Video Chat, Feb 21, 2022
AnCan was honored by the GU ASCO 2022 Conference last week, who accepted our abstract and poster. You can see just how effective our support groups (and recordings!) truly are: https://ancan.org/ancan-recognized-by…
Next week’s meeting will be on Tue, March 1. That’s because Feb and March mess up our Meeting Calendar, so we have to make adjustments to avoid consecutive nights!
All AnCan’s groups are free and drop-in – join us in person sometime! You can find out more about this and our other 10 monthly prostate cancer groups at https://ancan.org/prostate-cancer/ To sign up to receive a weekly Reminder/Newsletter for this Group or others, go to https://ancan.org/contact-us/
Editor’s Pick: Both new men this week are under 60; listen to their stories! (rd)
Topics Discussed
Younger man with challenging disease tries to find best Tx; lung nodules pose issue for another younger man; side effects of Lu177 PSMA; germline vs Somatic testing and teh PROMISE trial (link below); IHT brings some relief; survival stats; is joint pain a comorbidity of ADT?; bone density; low T? Get a complete testosterone work up.
Chat Log
George Rovder Arlington VA (to Everyone): 6:12 PM: rd@ancan.org
John Ivory (to Everyone): 6:34 PM: PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Our guest this month for Solo Arts Heal has played a role that will be familiar to many of you: a family caregiver. Barbara Dyskant cared for a former member of this group whom some of you might remember, her husband Barry Miller (who unfortunately passed away in 2020). Earlier, she cared for her daughter who survived two years on chemo for leukemia (now undetectable). She’ll be playing original songs; Rick Davis will host. Please join us at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT https://themarsh.org/soloartsheal/
Paul Freda Florida (Private): 6:34 PM: Ric Tall Allen has a new post that says there is data that Vitamin D6 can CAUSE make cancer MORE likely. Very unusual. You might want to check that out. … JFYI … Saw it on Healthunlocked …… “Actually, those toxicities are quite common. High Vitamin D pulls calcium out of bones and causes osteoporosis. We just saw, in the D-Health trial, there was a 24% increase in cancer among those taking high amounts of Vitamin D for years.”
AnCan – rick (to Paul Freda Florida): 6:39 PM: D3 or B6 Paul
Paul Freda Florida (Private): 6:41 PM: I believe it said just Vitamin D. He added that some dairy and a bit of sunlight is all you need to avoid ricketts.
John Ivory (to Organizer(s) Only): 6:41 PM: https://www.inova.org/doctors/jeanny-b-aragon-ching-md
Paul Freda Florida (Private): 6:43 PM: Like most things, there are limits. For example, I believe my kidney stone last year was due to my excessive consumption of Vitamin C. I follow Dr Linus Pawling’s advice. Just learned about that danger recently.
AnCan – rick (to Paul Freda Florida): 6:43 PM: Not really new news, Paul. You have to regulate your D intake to lep it at the right leve. I don’t read Health Unlocked. Not sure thre is anything here that is new to us …… check with Len. Suggest you bring it up …
Paul Freda Florida (Private): 6:45 PM: Reluctant to put a scare in to everyone with so little information. One study.
AnCan – rick (to Paul Freda Florida): 6:49 PM: allow the moderators to decide ….
AnCan – rick (to Everyone): 6:59 PM: Sean Collins at Georgetown
George Rovder Arlington VA (to Everyone): 7:00 PM: Dr. Sean Collins Website:
George Rovder Arlington VA (to Everyone): 7:01 PM: https://www.medstarhealth.org/doctors/sean-philip-collins-md-phd
Frank Fabish (to Everyone): 7:02 PM: Guys I need to cut out early. Early appt tomorrow
Pat Martin (to Everyone): 7:35 PM: How long has Sylvester been fighting the beast?
Len Sierra (to Everyone): 7:37 PM: Sylvester had low risk PCa and I believe he is cured.
Sylvester Mann (to Everyone): 7:37 PM: twenty-two years.
AnCan – rick (to Pat Martin): 7:37 PM: Sylvester nailed his disease with RT on recurrence and has durable remission
Len Sierra (to Everyone): 7:38 PM: Yay Sylvester!!
John Ivory (to Organizer(s) Only): 7:39 PM: If you haven’t exercised in a while, you’re also likely to have joint pain until you’re stretched out a bit
John Ivory (to Everyone): 7:39 PM: If you haven’t exercised in a while, you’re also likely to have joint pain until you’re stretched out a bit
John Ivory (to Organizer(s) Only): 7:44 PM: Wouldn’t Men Speaking Freely be good for Tony The Boss?
John Ivory (to Everyone): 7:53 PM: https://ancan.org/men-speaking-freely/https://ancan.org/men-speaking-freely/
Rich Jackson (to Everyone): 7:54 PM: Next ‘Speaking Freely’ will be March 17, 8pm EST. To connect, use the same link as got you here. Non-Technical call, men only, any serious disease (mostly prostate cancer men show up).
Rich Jackson (to Everyone): 7:56 PM: Thank you John Ivory.
Pat Martin (to Everyone): 7:57 PM: Doesn’t BAT encourage testosterone in cycle?
Chris Carrino (to Everyone): 7:58 PM: Any one try the new Orgovyx ADT? First timer. I’ll be up and running next week with video/audio
John Ivory (to Everyone): 7:58 PM: Sorry Rich–didn’t see you among all the faces here–you would have better described your meeting!
AnCan – rick (to Everyone): 7:59 PM: Chris – we have several men on Orgovyx tonight
John Ivory (to Everyone): 7:59 PM: @Chris Carrino–I’ve been on Orgovyx for a year. Has worked as well as leuprolide and no painful injections
Joe Gallo (to Everyone): 7:59 PM: Hi Chris, I started on Orgovyx last year.
Peter Kafka (to Everyone): 8:00 PM: A number of us have tried and still using Orgovyx. Join in at the next meeting and discuss. Next meeting will be Tuesday, March 1st at 6 pm Eastern time.
Hi-Risk/Recurrent/Advanced PCa Video Chat, Feb 15, 2022
AnCan will remember our beloved Moderator, Tech Guru, FB Manager and buddy, Jake Hannam on Feb 20 @ 6pm EST. All are welcome – drop-in. NB It will be on Zoom not our virtual rooms – Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/6516459299
Next week’s meeting will be on Mon, Feb 21. That’s because Feb and March mess up our Meeting Calendar, so we have to make adjustments to avoid consecutive nights! All AnCan’s groups are free and drop-in – join us in person sometime!
Editor’s Pick: Many watching this video live with disease anxiety – let’s talk about it. This will be a 2022 focus for AnCan (rd)
Topics Discussed
Second guessing your primary QB … tiime for a change?; learning about chemo; Dr.E hits another home run; where to get RT close to home – hypofractions?; diet and nutrition; let’s talk anxiety??; laxatives during chemo; is sugar really that bad …?; heart related issues during treatment; calcium levels and serum calcium. Along the way we also discuss leg cramps, opiates and sexual dysfunction.
AnCan – rick (to Everyone): 4:08 PM: Sun Feb 20 6.00 pm
AnCan – rick (to Organizer(s) Only): 4:17 PM: Another low PSA G9
AnCan – rick (to Organizer(s) Only): 4:28 PM: He was CSPC for a short ime – he got Provenge in 2016, 5 yrs ago
Carl Forman (Private): 4:31 PM: Dr Wyse at NYU Langone is his second opinion Carl Forman (Private): 4:36 PM: Sorry for the misspelling for Dr David Wise
Pat Martin (to Everyone): 5:00 PM: One big help when going thru radiation was getting nutritionist involved to help with digestive problems
Len Sierra (to Everyone): 5:01 PM: Good suggestion, Pat!
Chick Lindsay (to Everyone): 5:14 PM: Thanks for the help on selecting radiation oncologist. Most helpful.
Stan Friedman – Stamford, CT (to Everyone): 5:25 PM: sorry. I need to leave. stay safe.
Pat Martin (to Everyone): 5:28 PM: Flax meal…with a lot of water. Dried cherries is great.
Bill Bradford (to Everyone): 5:41 PM: Great meeting guys – thanks for sharing. I have to leave a bit early.
This article by Howard Wolinsky summarizes a study by NYU Langone Health in New York City. The study is about the disproportionate prostate cancer representation in LatinX and Black communities in social media presence. Stacy Loeb, leader of the study and urologist at NYU Langone Health and Manhattan Veterans Affairs, stated “Online information is increasingly used by patients and their families but falls short in terms of quality, readability, and diversity of representation.”
Howard Wolinsky is an AnCan Moderator and Advisory Board Member. Thank you, Howard, for spotlighting this important topic of minority representation in the prostate cancer community.
AnCan’s founder, Rick Davis, innovated virtual peer-led support groups back in 2010. He recognized the potential of peer advice as the best information a patient could find. AnCan’s 2021 research confirms what Rick knew intuitively.
Neuroscientist Herb Geller PhD, the abstract’s lead author, highlighted the following key research findings,
“Our research indicates that peer-led groups don’t just improve quality of life around the things we can control like diet, exercise and stress. Eighty percent of our participants feel the groups make them better advocates for themselves, and well over 60% take information gleaned back to their healthcare teams.”
While this poster is featured in the Advanced Prostate Cancer track on Feb 17, AnCan is proud of its work to establish the stature of the low risk Active Surveillance (AS) protocol and includes its AS findings.
Co-author and nationally recognized AS Advocate, Howard Wolinsky, said:
“Sixty eight percent of our AS participants told us the Groups made them better advocates and 27% reported lower levels of anxiety – that’s a major difference. Active surveillance is the Rodney Dangerfield of prostate cancer – including our study at GU ASCO recognizes AS patients”
Rick Davis, founder of AnCan and a prostate cancer survivor, says the research demonstrates the power of patient communities on outcomes:
“I realized the power of peer-led support groups from my own treatment. Bringing them to a virtual platform 10 years before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19 and Zoom meetings, made peer support available to those compromised by geographical, physical and social issues. Recognition by GU ASCO is a big step in legitimizing AnCan’s work for all peer-led support.”
