Posted on 11/06/2019 2:40:24 PM PST by Eddie01
For 20 years, political junkies of all persuasions have been tuning in five nights a week to watch Chris Matthews grill the day’s top troublemakers on MSNBC’s Hardball.
But it wasn’t until he was missing from the anchor chair for a few nights this fall that his fans learned why he’d gone MIA: The network announced that Matthews was one of the more than 174,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, and he had undergone surgery to take care of it.
Here, Matthews talks with Men’s Health about how he found out, what he did about it, and how he recovered from the cancer that will hit one in nine men over their lifetime:
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 54, so I have a certain sympathy for Chris Matthews. That said, he’s still an @sshole.
{doctor}we will manage
There is a drug, actually an immunotherapy, hardly anyone knows about called Provenge. It was approved by the FDA after some controversy. It got a very strict label so insurers only pay for it in limited circumstances. The company could not sell enough, went bankrupt, it was sold to a multi-national who then sold it to a Chinese company.
But it’s still available. Everything I’ve read (which I admit is not complete) tells me that Provenge, and all immunotherapies, should be given as early as possible to be most effective. Not after you have late stage metastatic cancer.
There are a lot of PC drugs out there now, but if I had to make a decision today without doing any more homework - a decision I hope I never have to make - I’d opt for Provenge immediately after surgery. Then follow with other drugs. Even if I had to finance the cost out of pocket. So I’m interested to see what Matthews has to say about his treatments. Just put this out there for anyone who may find it it is worth the time to investigate.
One factoid is that a huge number of men get Prostate Cancer, but in the majority of the cases it is so slow growing intervention is considered more dangerous than leaving it alone. It’s been a while since I looked in detail, but from autopsies of elderly men something like 80% of them had PC when they died - but died from something other than PC.
Not to diminish the danger or awareness of PC. If diagnosed you gotta watch it closely. But in many cases a man will die from something else. That is not the same as BC. Though both diseases can be treated, in part, by surgery since breast and prostate can be removed (unlike lungs for example) without killing the patient. The problem is that you can remove these tissues but you can never be sure that some of the cells aren’t still circulating and will eventually metastasize somewhere else. That is what makes them great candidates for immunotherapies - remove the glands/tissue, the teach the body to kill any remaining cells related to the removed tissue.
I am not a doctor, just something I researched years back (unrelated to me personally).
The fact that he has cancer does not excuse his lying and smearing.
Did Obama discover it for him?
What about the “Cancer” of Low Ratings? I see no chance of recovery.
I hate to say this, but maybe that tingle he felt was the first sign.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Big fibber, you didn’t hate to say that.
A patient doesn’t need Provenge if surgery and maybe some follow up radiation does the job.
Provenge is somewhat falling out of favor with the oncologists at MD Anderson. Provenge is for advanced prostate cancer patients. The clinical trials indicated that it extended average survival by only four months. Part of this problem is that it doesn’t really lower PSA or testosterone
Lots of newer ADT (androgen deprivation therapy) drugs, such as Xytiga and Xtandi, can stop progression of metastatic prostate cancer for many years in some cases. I’ve been at it for just over five years now.
I am putting off immunotherapy until my PSA starts rising again, and it won’t be Provenge. There are a number of recent developments and clinical trials with quite a bit of promise with much better results than Provenge.
Jim Allison, PhD, heads up the immunotherapy platform at MD Anderson and the Moon Shot Program. Allison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on immunotherapy. He pretty much invented the field.
“Prostrate” versus “prostate”....big difference.
Does he blame Trump for it?
I agree with you.
Not to be pedantic, but it was a median 4 month survival advantage, not average 4 month but that is actually significant when you are talking about 86% risk of death in 36 months. But there is more to it than that. The 3-year survival rate was over 30% compared to about 12% for chemo. And, patients who were on the placebo were allowed to cross over to a frozen version of Provenge so in a way it was competing with itself.
This is partly why I said it was approved somewhat controversially. But at the end of the day survival rates cannot be manipulated statistically. Either patients live or they don’t. And in all 3 phase 3 trials Provenge patients lived longer than placebo/crossover/chemo.
I know the drug is out of favor. Personally I think it is just misunderstood.
Look at the in-vivo post hoc data. It basically breaks down into Gleason score quartiles. The people in the lowest Gleason scores quartile perform the best on the drug. The people with the highest scores perform the worst. The theory is that the drug, being an immunotherapy, takes several months to ramp up the immune system. But this is also why you only see a median of 4 months - because this includes all Gleason score patients. If you took only the first quartile Gleason scores (for the uninitiated the lower Gleason score indicates early disease cycle) the survival numbers are much improved.
So like I said, I am not against other drugs and if put in the spot I would take them. For the most part they don’t interfere with Provenge as it is only a 6 week treatment. It’s just a little complicated and expensive and not covered for most people and unfortunately not well understood. But from the data I know, knowing only what I know now (which I admit is limited), I wouldn’t hesitate. But put in the spot I would of course check it all out again I know there are more recently approved drugs and some coming.
Yeah, not good for anyone. Going to have to go through this in a few weeks too.
Chrissy has prostate cancer, not hemorrhoids. He is still a perfect a$$hole.
Are you for real? Ignorance shouts.
Dad was one of the happiest men I’ve ever known with many interests...I’ve also been through the prostate cancer deal and wouldn’t wish it on anyone - along with any other cancer.
Amazing how supposed conservatives lose all sense of sanity because of their own Lib Derangement Syndrome.
If the cancer wins, will any of us grieve?
We may not celebrate his illness as the left would ours, but he will not be missed over here.
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