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Aspirin as a new paradigm in Prostate Cancer
Important of Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is a malignant tissue growth that consists of cells from the prostate gland. Generally, the tumor usually grows slowly and remains confined to the gland for many years. But, some type of prostate cancer are more aggressive, thus are more rapid grow and spread, so give more significant shortening of life expectancy in men affected by them.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and also the 2nd leading cause of death from cancer after lung cancer. In USA, based on American Cancer Society's data, it estimates about 192,280 new cases of prostate cancer would be diagnosed each year around USA and around 27,360 would die from it.
In USA, estimated lifetime risk of being diagnosed with the disease is 17.6% for Caucasians and 20.6% for African Americans. The lifetime risk of death from prostate cancer similarly is 2.8% and 4.7% respectively. From those numbers and data, we can say that prostate cancer has a significant impact on men health nowadays.
The Risk Factors
Just like other cancer, prostate cancer until know, doesn't have a certain cause. Because many factors are involved in it development. So, it's better to use the term of risk factor.
- Genetic, it can be denied that this factor has a major impact on cancer, because the cancer itself is a genetic disease. People with positive family history of prostate cancer have a higher risk of having prostate cancer in their lifetime.
- Age, increasing age is associated increasing incidence of cancer. Why? maybe it related to several factors such as accumulation of carcinogents, increasing error of cell replication, decreasing capability of repairing cell-damaged, etc.
- Hormone, for prostate cancer, testosterone has a major role. A high level of testosterone gives fuel for the cancer to growth and development.
- Some unproven risk factors such as smoking, obesity, environmental toxins are associated with increasing risk of prostate cancer.
Now, i will focus on the issue of usage of aspirin in treatment of prostate cancer patient.
Health News
On October 25th 2010, researcher from American Society for Radiation Oncology said that "Men with high-risk prostate cancer benefited from the aspirin."
Aspirin which is one of the most ubiquitous and pedestrian drugs, appears to be the proctective one's against the risk of dying for prostate cancer patient has not yet spread beyond the gland based on the new study.
"We show that patients taking anticoagulant [blood thinning] medication had better outcomes with regards to prostate cancer death and that this benefit
was most prominent in patients who had high-risk disease," said study lead author Dr. Kevin Choe at Monday ASTRO teleconference, a radiation oncologist with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
Aspirin was the one which seems to be the most benefit for prostate cancer patients compare to other the blood thinners that used in the study.
Our body coagulation system seems to be got an effect from the presents of cancer in some way.
"Cancer patients tend to develop clots in their legs and lungs more frequently and also patients who develop clots in their legs and lungs tend to develop cancer more frequently," Choe noted. "We hypothesized that anticoagulant medication may lower the chance of death from prostate cancer in men who have localized prostate cancer."
From the retrospective study of patients with localized prostate cancer that had been treated with surgery or radiation after follow-up about 7 years, there is a significant different of risk of death. The risk reduction is about 50%.
Also other potential benefit from blood thinner agent in prostate cancer patients is a better controlled of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) that indicates the growth of cancer cells.
The Explanation
During the process of metastasis or spreading, cancer cells are coated by platelets when they enter the bloodstream. This mechanism protects them from immune cells and also helps them stick to their next location. The blood-thinner agents may work by interfering with this process.
"It's premature to say that aspirin should be used in a standard-therapy way in all patients with prostate cancer," Choe said. "But we may expect to see this benefit in those who are taking aspirin for other [usually cardiovascular] reasons."
Conclusion
Prostate cancer is one of major men's health problems and associated with higher morbidity, mortality, and cost.
Recognizing the risk factors is very important in order to early prevention and early detection of prostate cancer.
Aspirin, one of the most ubiquitous, cheap, and pedestrian drugs offers us a new paradigm in cancer treatment. It lower the risk of death and better controlled of cancer growth when added to therapy program.
But, the evidence is not sufficient enough to give a recommendation, so it's needed to do more larger trials of aspirin in prostate cancer.
Thank you
Prostate cancer is a malignant tissue growth that consists of cells from the prostate gland. Generally, the tumor usually grows slowly and remains confined to the gland for many years. But, some type of prostate cancer are more aggressive, thus are more rapid grow and spread, so give more significant shortening of life expectancy in men affected by them.
In USA, estimated lifetime risk of being diagnosed with the disease is 17.6% for Caucasians and 20.6% for African Americans. The lifetime risk of death from prostate cancer similarly is 2.8% and 4.7% respectively. From those numbers and data, we can say that prostate cancer has a significant impact on men health nowadays.
The Risk Factors
Just like other cancer, prostate cancer until know, doesn't have a certain cause. Because many factors are involved in it development. So, it's better to use the term of risk factor.
- Genetic, it can be denied that this factor has a major impact on cancer, because the cancer itself is a genetic disease. People with positive family history of prostate cancer have a higher risk of having prostate cancer in their lifetime.
- Hormone, for prostate cancer, testosterone has a major role. A high level of testosterone gives fuel for the cancer to growth and development.
- Some unproven risk factors such as smoking, obesity, environmental toxins are associated with increasing risk of prostate cancer.
Now, i will focus on the issue of usage of aspirin in treatment of prostate cancer patient.
Health News
On October 25th 2010, researcher from American Society for Radiation Oncology said that "Men with high-risk prostate cancer benefited from the aspirin."
Aspirin which is one of the most ubiquitous and pedestrian drugs, appears to be the proctective one's against the risk of dying for prostate cancer patient has not yet spread beyond the gland based on the new study.
"We show that patients taking anticoagulant [blood thinning] medication had better outcomes with regards to prostate cancer death and that this benefit
was most prominent in patients who had high-risk disease," said study lead author Dr. Kevin Choe at Monday ASTRO teleconference, a radiation oncologist with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
Aspirin was the one which seems to be the most benefit for prostate cancer patients compare to other the blood thinners that used in the study.
Our body coagulation system seems to be got an effect from the presents of cancer in some way.
"Cancer patients tend to develop clots in their legs and lungs more frequently and also patients who develop clots in their legs and lungs tend to develop cancer more frequently," Choe noted. "We hypothesized that anticoagulant medication may lower the chance of death from prostate cancer in men who have localized prostate cancer."
From the retrospective study of patients with localized prostate cancer that had been treated with surgery or radiation after follow-up about 7 years, there is a significant different of risk of death. The risk reduction is about 50%.
Also other potential benefit from blood thinner agent in prostate cancer patients is a better controlled of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) that indicates the growth of cancer cells.
The Explanation
During the process of metastasis or spreading, cancer cells are coated by platelets when they enter the bloodstream. This mechanism protects them from immune cells and also helps them stick to their next location. The blood-thinner agents may work by interfering with this process.
"It's premature to say that aspirin should be used in a standard-therapy way in all patients with prostate cancer," Choe said. "But we may expect to see this benefit in those who are taking aspirin for other [usually cardiovascular] reasons."
Conclusion
Prostate cancer is one of major men's health problems and associated with higher morbidity, mortality, and cost.
Recognizing the risk factors is very important in order to early prevention and early detection of prostate cancer.
Aspirin, one of the most ubiquitous, cheap, and pedestrian drugs offers us a new paradigm in cancer treatment. It lower the risk of death and better controlled of cancer growth when added to therapy program.
But, the evidence is not sufficient enough to give a recommendation, so it's needed to do more larger trials of aspirin in prostate cancer.
Thank you
