Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Testing men for prostate cancer with PSA blood tests might save a few lives, but it often finds cancers that would never cause harm, leading to unnecessary treatments with side effects.
Correlational
People with prostate cancer that has spread to their bones who got zoledronic acid reported less pain over time than those who got a dummy treatment.
Descriptive
To make an mRNA vaccine, scientists need to build the mRNA in a lab, keep it from breaking down too fast, and make sure it triggers a strong immune response.
Scientists have tested many types of cancer vaccines—including ones using mRNA—in labs and human trials to see if they can help fight different cancers.
The first vaccine approved to treat advanced prostate cancer that doesn’t cause many symptoms is called Sipuleucel-T.
Every prostate cancer is different at the DNA and cell level, so one treatment doesn’t work for everyone, which makes curing it really hard.
In the UK, prostate cancer kills more men than almost any other cancer, and most men don’t feel sick until it’s already spread, making it hard to catch early.
One part of the study found that men with longer gene repeats had slightly higher cancer rates — but this might just be a fluke because they tested many different ways and didn’t correct for it.
Black men with prostate cancer had slightly longer gene repeats than those without it — but the difference was so small it could just be due to chance.
In Black men, the number of repeats in a specific gene doesn’t seem to affect whether they get prostate cancer — even if the number is short or long, their risk stays about the same.
Men whose prostate cancer still responds to hormone therapy live longer after spine surgery than those whose cancer doesn't respond, so surgery may be more worthwhile for them.
Quantitative
Most men who need spine surgery for prostate cancer that has spread to the spine had already had radiation, but it didn’t work well enough to avoid surgery.
After spine surgery for spinal cord compression from prostate cancer, most men who couldn't walk before can walk again, and many feel less pain.
Most men who need spine surgery for prostate cancer that has spread to the spine are already weak or can't walk when they get to the hospital.
Men with prostate cancer that doesn't respond to hormone therapy live much shorter lives after spine surgery than those whose cancer still responds to hormone treatment.
Most men who need surgery for spinal cord compression from prostate cancer have a form of the disease that no longer responds to hormone therapy.
Even when young men only have mild bladder symptoms like burning when peeing—along with blood in urine—they can still have bladder or ureter cancer.
Even when cancer was found in the bladder or ureter, the urine test for cancer cells came back negative every time—so it didn’t help catch the cancer early.
When doctors looked inside the bladder and didn’t see any tumors, taking random tissue samples from normal-looking areas never found cancer—so those biopsies don’t help.
When young men with blood in urine also have side pain, looking inside the ureter with a scope found cancer in one out of two cases—even though the CT scan showed nothing wrong.
In young men under 40 who have blood in their urine (but no infection or kidney stones seen on scan), about 1 in 5 turned out to have a bladder or ureter cancer when doctors looked inside with a scope.
TURP costs a bit more than open surgery for rural patients, but it’s less invasive, patients leave the hospital sooner, and it’s cheaper than newer laser treatments.
Doctors believe TURP is the best surgery for enlarged prostate if they have the right training and equipment — but many rural areas don’t have access to it.
Of the 47 men who had TURP surgery, about 1 in 8 had bleeding, some got a urinary infection or clots blocking their urine, and 3 needed a blood transfusion.