Nothing like an after-hours plunge in a stock. Dendreon shares fell as much as 23 percent this evening after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it is reviewing the prostate cancer vaccine to determine whether national coverage is “reasonable and necessary,” but a final decision won’t be made for an entire year. The stock later regained some of its losses to close at $26.69, but remains well below its 52-week high of $57.67 on May 3.
The agency will take public comments through July 30 “on the evidence regarding the effects of this treatment on health outcomes in patients with prostate cancer,” according to a statement, adding that it is “particularly interested in clinical studies and other scientific information relevant to the …

Original post by Pharmalot and software by Elliott Back

Men who use statins to lower their cholesterol are 30 percent less likely to see their prostate cancer come back after surgery compared to men who do not use the drugs, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Researchers also found that higher doses of the drugs were associated with lower risk of recurrence. The findings are published in the journal CANCER…

Original post by Cancer Commentary and software by Elliott Back

Randy Owen, lead singer of the music group Alabama, has announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. (Source: Inside Surgery)

Original post by Inside Surgery and software by Elliott Back

When Dennis Hopper died of prostate cancer at age 74, my husband asked me: “Hey, I thought prostate cancer is slow-growing and doesn’t kill men.”
Well, he’s right about it usually being slow-growing, but prostate cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer death in men. His question made me realize that there are some facts that everyone should know about prostate cancer. (more…)
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth* (Source: Better Health)

Original post by Better Health and software by Elliott Back

Robert H. Silverman, one of the authors on the study implicating the new human retrovirus XMRV as an etiologic agent of chronic fatigue syndrome, has written an excellent review article on the current status of research on the virus. The article is behind a paywall at Nature Reviews Urology, so I’ll provide a summary of the salient points.
The article begins with a description of how XMRV DNA was isolated from surgically removed prostate tumor tissue. Sequence analysis of three strains showed that the virus is most closely related to xenotropic and polytropic murine leukemia viruses and hence was named xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. Five lines of evidence indicate that XMRV is not a laboratory contaminant:
XMRV was detected in RNA isolated from human prosta…

Original post by virology blog and software by Elliott Back