Whether on its own or in combination, Prednisone keeps men with prostate cancer alive

Globally, prostate cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer-related death. It affects millions of men. In most cases, it is very slow growing and the majority of men die of unrelated causes before the cancer itself becomes fatal. For this reason, many men used to elect not to treat prostate cancer. Obviously, once a surgeon begins cutting into the groin area, the risk of sexual dysfunction is high. However, now that men are living longer, the age calculation means more men are looking for effective treatment that maintains the quality of life. However, in a small number of cases, the cancer is aggressive and the treatment options usually come down to chemotherapy and castration. When the cancer is entirely localized, castration is usually effective. But a tiny percentage of cancers persist even after castration.

Prednisone plus Abitraterone gave much better results

For many years, doctors relied almost entirely on Prednisone to delay the tumor's development. This meant the chemotherapy could also be delayed and it was not necessary to begin the immediate use of opiate painkillers. This was, however, not a major victory for the medical profession. The cancer would inevitably develop and was always fatal. This is not to devalue the use of the corticosteroid. It played its part as best it could. Once this castration-resistant cancer gets started, it's unstoppable. However, there's now new hope in a combination of Prednisone and Abiraterone (Zytiga). The latest report of the team leading research into this combination shows the use of both drugs reduced the risk of tumor progression by half and produced a significant delay of death in a further 20% of cases. Taken overall, the survival rate has increased to 55%.

This study is encouraging because it involves more than one-thousand participants, making it easier to generalize the statistics to the whole population. Before taking the decision to administer chemotherapy and damage the quality of life, half the participants received the standard dosage of the corticosteroid. The other half received the combination. The basis of the comparison between the two groups was the length of time before it became necessary to administer the chemotherapy, beginning the use of opiate painkillers and the total length of survival. The average survival was three years with the combination as against only thirty months with Prednisone on its own. Although six months may not sound a big improvement, this is a major difference to the men involved. With the research team reporting the only side effect as increased tiredness, the combination seems to have a good safety record.

Prednisone: Good News from Italy

Whatever is the medical problem, it's always hard to achieve the best concentration of the active ingredients of the drug in the bloodstream at the right time. This is slightly less of a treatment issue when the problem is relatively stable. Should the concentration fall too quickly, the patient can simply take more of the drug. In a hospital environment where there's continuous monitoring of the patient, this is relatively safe because there's always someone monitoring intake and ensuring there's no risk of an overdose. But once the patient leaves a supervised environment, there are two difficulties. Firstly, there is the temptation to take more medication whenever the symptoms flare. Unless this is controlled, the patient is more likely to experience side effects, builds up tolerance too quickly, and may overdose. Secondly, it goes for the patient's need to sleep. Even though the sleep may be disturbed, it's a vital part of the recovery process. Waking the patient up during the night to take medication is not recommended. This has led to the development of sustained or modified-release delivery systems.

The idea is very simple. Based on the knowledge the body filters the active ingredient of the drug out of the bloodstream over time, capsules releasing the drug at a steady rate over a specific period of time maintain the concentration with a significantly reduced risk of side effects. There's a secondary question. Some medical conditions have a daily cycle where the symptoms vary in a predictable way. It's more convenient to take a capsule which delays releasing the drug until it's most needed by the body. This is particularly useful for taking drugs overnight. You don't have to wake up a patient any more - he or she can take a pill that will release the drug at predetermined time during sleep.

It's a great solution for a condition like rheumatoid arthritis which leads to morning stiffness and increased pain on waking. New research from Italy confirms modified release Prednisone is better than the low dose immediate-release form. The study involved nine-hundred-fifty participants with an average age of 57. Over a period of four months, the participants were changed from the immediate to the modified-release form. Some 97% showed significantly improved mobility on waking and reported less pain. Anyways, that doesn't mean that everyone will benefit. We are at an intermediate stage in the research. This Italian study is one of an increasing number of short-term studies, all of which confirm promise in the switch of format. We still don't have any long-term studies lasting for not less than one year. Prednisone has proved to be remarkably effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, but there's no data on how the body reacts to a spike in the drug about one hour before the usual waking time. Hopefully no adverse effects will be detected and everyone can benefit from this development.

Propecia and the science of baldness

There are an incredible number of myths about hair loss and that proves the underlying truth of the matter. Although scientists have a general understanding of how and why we lose our hair, all the honest medical practitioners will admit the understanding is less than perfect. Into this gap step the marketers. Knowing there's a real demand for reliable treatments, the ads sell hope and fuel the mythology that there's a cure for every possible situation in which we lose our hair. This is cruel, if not criminal but, despite the FDA stepping in periodically to curb excessive claims of medical effectiveness, the less than honest marketers continue to make the claims and sell their products. So what exactly is the science?

Because people prefer certainty over uncertainty, it's convenient for many to claim science has identified the baldness gene. Depending on who you ask, it's supposed to be attached to the X chromosome which men can only get from their mothers. That means you should worry if your maternal grandfather or any of his brothers were bald. Except this is not really true. Newspapers may sell copies on the suggestion there's only one gene and now we know which it is, we can focus all our efforts in persuading it to keep on making hair. But a number of genes contribute to the process of deciding how much hair grows, how thick it is, what color it is, and so on. Simply seeing a possible hereditary link is not the same as solving a complex genetic jigsaw puzzle to say exactly which genes do what in the overall process of hair growth. Worse, even if we were to come up with the definitive genetic guide to hair loss, no scientist has yet devised a way of switching a gene on or off. Let's say the conclusion is that one gene is responsible for deciding whether hair grows. There's no drug in the pipeline that can even begin to kick it back into life again and so restore growth.

The bad news then continues. Genes and chromosomes are not the only factors that cause hair loss. So even though you may decide not to worry because everyone on your mother's side has a full head of hair, your hair can fall out because of stress or some other less controllable factor. All scientists can say is that, with the exception of Propecia which has been through the formal clinical trials to get approval as an effective treatment, none of the natural remedies work. Ignore all the advertising hype for this miracle cure and that magic ingredient. Only Propecia has any effect on hair loss and that's only for male pattern baldness. If your hair loss has some other cause, Propecia is not going to help. So ignore all the ads and the myths. The truth is hard. For some men, hair loss is inevitable. You can try meditation and relaxation technique or acupuncture. They may make you feel better.