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1 week ago | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
Marketed as a natural remedy for an enlarged prostate, saw palmetto is a top-selling dietary supplement. It's extracted from berries that grow on saw palmetto palm trees, which are native to the southeastern United States. By one estimate, more than a third of all US adults who take supplements use saw palmetto specifically. Some evidence suggests that saw palmetto has anti-inflammatory properties, and its use as folk medicine dates back over a century.
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1 month ago | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
Prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate, is more common than you might think — it accounts for roughly two million doctor visits every year. The troubling symptoms include burning or painful urination, an urgent need to go (especially at night), painful ejaculations, and also pain in the lower back and perineum (the space between the scrotum and anus).
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1 month ago | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
Looking after a loved one who has prostate cancer can be overwhelming. Caregivers — usually partners, family members, or close friends — play crucial roles in supporting a patient's physical and psychological well-being. But what does that entail? You as a caregiver might not know what to say or how to help.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
Most men over 50 will develop an enlarged prostate. Also called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), this bothersome condition makes it hard to urinate and can eventually lead to other problems, such as infections, kidney stones, and bladder damage, if left untreated. Many different BPH therapies are available, including medications and various types of surgery. One of the newer surgical options, called aquablation, trims excess prostate tissues with highly pressurized jets of saline.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
Roughly one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives, but these cancers usually aren't life-threatening. Most newly diagnosed men have Grade Group 1 (GG1) prostate cancer, which can linger for years without causing significant harms. Prostate cancer is categorized according to how far it has spread and how aggressive it looks under the microscope. Pure GG1 prostate cancer is the least risky form of the disease.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
It used to be that radiation therapy for prostate cancer involved weeks or months of repeat visits to a clinic for treatment. Today that's not necessarily true. Instead of giving small doses (called fractions) per session until the full plan is completed, radiation delivery is moving toward high-dose fractions that can be given with fewer sessions over shorter durations. This "hypofractionated" strategy is more convenient for patients, and mounting evidence shows it can be accomplished safely.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Charlie Schmidt |Marc B. Garnick
A large European study provides encouraging evidence in favor of omitting biopsies for some men with elevated PSA values. November 8, 2024 By Charlie Schmidt, Editor, Harvard Medical School Annual Report on Prostate Diseases Reviewed by Marc B.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
thebeaconnewspapers.com | Charlie Schmidt
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash [Ed. Note: Many doctors caring for older men like to track the results of a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), changes in which can indicate increased risk for prostate cancer.] When a PSA blood test produces an abnormal result, the next step is usually a prostate biopsy. A biopsy can confirm or rule out a cancer diagnosis, but it also has certain drawbacks. Prostate biopsies are invasive procedures with potential side effects, and...
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Sep 10, 2024 | 
newsexaminer.com | Charlie Schmidt
By fighting off pathogens, the specialized cells of our immune systems help to keep us healthy and free of infectious diseases. Immunotherapies teach those same cells to recognize and destroy cancer. The drugs have been remarkably successful in treating melanoma – a type of skin cancer – as well as cancers of the lung, bladder, kidneys, and blood. Just one form of immunotherapy, a type of cancer vaccine, is currently approved for prostate cancer. kAm#6D62C496CD 2E r:EJ @7 w@A6 w@DA:E2= :?
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
newsexaminer.com | Charlie Schmidt
Cancer treatment can involve difficult tradeoffs, and that’s also true of the testosterone-blocking drugs used in treating prostate cancer. These drugs work in two different ways. Androgen deprivation therapies (ADT) shut down the body’s production of testosterone, a hormone that fuels prostate cancer growth. A newer class of drugs called androgen-receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) block testosterone by deflecting the hormone from its cell receptor.
