The Prostate Net

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Cancer cells can reawaken after a period of dormancy - results from the SURMOUNT trial may help.Many cancers are known t...
01/07/2026

Cancer cells can reawaken after a period of dormancy - results from the SURMOUNT trial may help.

Many cancers are known to recur in the years following an initial treatment, some at much higher rates.

A clinical trial called SURMOUNT would monitor patients for sleeping cancer cells, which many researchers now think might explain at least some cancer recurrence. These dormant tumour cells evade initial treatment and move to other parts of the body. Instead of multiplying to form tumours right away — as is typical for metastatic cancer, in which cells spread from the main tumour — the dormant cells remain asleep. They are hidden from the immune system and not actively dividing. But later, they can reawaken and give rise to tumours.

Read the article at:

Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment.

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has launched a randomized phase III clinical trial called RECIPROCAL (Allia...
01/06/2026

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has launched a randomized phase III clinical trial called RECIPROCAL (Alliance A032304) to explore whether doctors can optimize the timing of targeted radiation therapy to minimize side effects while preserving efficacy in men with advanced prostate cancer.

The current standard of care for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer includes Lutetium-177 Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) targeted Radioligand Therapy (RLT), a targeted radiation therapy attached to a drug molecule and injected into the bloodstream.

While PSMA RLT improves survival, it can cause side effects, such dry mouth, fatigue and gastrointestinal issues. Serious side effects can include blood disorders, kidney damage or liver problems.

"Our goal with RECIPROCAL is to show that treatment can be smarter, not just stronger. By tailoring therapy to each patient's PSA response, we aim to reduce unnecessary toxicity and diminish side effects while still delivering the same survival benefit. Ultimately, we want men with advanced prostate cancer to not only live longer, but to also feel better during their treatment."

Read the article at:

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has launched a randomized phase III clinical trial called RECIPROCAL (Alliance A032304) to explore whether doctors can optimize the timing of targeted radiation therapy to minimize side effects while preserving efficacy in men with advanced prostate cance...

Another basic right falling by the wayside.
01/03/2026

Another basic right falling by the wayside.

With Trump’s health care cuts, I traveled to Ohio, Mississippi and Alabama — and encountered devastated families bracing for even more difficult challenges.

In this talk from Dr. Paul Cathcart, a consultant urological surgeon in the U.K., he discusses the fact that around 30% ...
12/30/2025

In this talk from Dr. Paul Cathcart, a consultant urological surgeon in the U.K., he discusses the fact that around 30% of men who receive External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) have recurrent disease after their primary treatment.

Acknowledging that salvage prostatectomy surgery is the "most toxic" of any local salvage options, he goes on to discuss the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach in treatment.

View his presentation at:

EAU Edu Platform highlights the best curated content in prostate cancer varying from scientific publications, to practical tools and educational materials.

A recent clinical trial, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), asked the question: "Is bip...
12/29/2025

A recent clinical trial, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), asked the question: "Is biparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) noninferior to multiparametric MRI in the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer?"

What this means in layman's terms is that a simpler MRI scan (biparametric MRI, or bpMRI) works just as well as the more complex and expensive MRI scan (multiparametric MRI, or mpMRI) for finding clinically significant prostate cancer.

In practical meaning, the study showed that:

- Both scans found serious prostate cancer at almost exactly the same rate
(about 29 out of every 100 men scanned).

- Neither scan was more likely to find harmless, slow-growing cancers that don’t need treatment.

- The simpler scan was just as accurate at telling who does and does not have significant cancer.

- Using the simpler scan did not cause more men to be sent for unnecessary biopsies.

- You don’t lose diagnostic accuracy by using the simpler MRI.

For patients, this means:

Same medical confidence

Less hassle

Lower costs

Better access

Care that focuses on what actually matters to their health and quality of life

Read the article at:

This multinational prospective noninferiority trial assesses whether biparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is noninferior to multiparametric MRI for diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer in biopsy-naive men with elevated prostate-specific antigen level and/or abnormal digital.....

A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund - "How Spain Safeguards People’s Health, Even During a Housing Crisis" - show...
12/22/2025

A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund - "How Spain Safeguards People’s Health, Even During a Housing Crisis" - showed several key important issues related to housing and good health:

- People tend to live longer and healthier lives when they have health care, access to nature, stable housing, and secure employment, among other factors.
- In the United States, nearly a million people lack one key lever of a good life: adequate and stable housing, which often severely compromises health.
- Housing instability can lead to job loss and loss of health insurance, which is often tied to employment.
- Those who have housing but are forced to allocate a significant portion of their income to rent or a mortgage are more likely to skip checkups and delay needed care and have chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.

Spain, however, has managed to break this cycle, even in the midst of a dire housing crisis. Eight and a half million people in Spain — roughly 18 percent of the population — have inadequate or insecure housing, 30,000 of whom are homeless. Between 2014 and 2024, rents in Spain have risen over 80 percent and home prices by more than 60 percent.

Despite all this, Spain’s health outcomes have remained high, and disparities are far less extreme than in other countries. The secret? Universal health coverage.

Read the article at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-spain-safeguards-peoples-health-even-during-j0ate/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-spain-safeguards-peoples-health-even-during-j0ate/

A high quality of life can, in policy terms, be understood as the product of some key interconnected components. People tend to live longer and healthier lives when they have health care, access to nature, stable housing, and secure employment, among other factors.

In a recent article from the Commonwealth Fund, it was reported that "Despite the critical role of primary care physicia...
12/12/2025

In a recent article from the Commonwealth Fund, it was reported that "Despite the critical role of primary care physicians (P*Ps) in preventive care and chronic disease management, P*Ps lack support for their mental and physical well-being, resulting in pervasive burnout."

More than two in five U.S. primary care physicians report burnout — one of the highest rates among 10 high-income countries. "In the United States, P*P burnout contributes to $260 million in excess health spending every year, largely from high turnover forcing practices to replace clinicians who have left. Burnout has also been shown to reduce clinicians’ productivity, increase the incidence of medical errors, and erode the physician–patient relationship. Beyond the harm to patients and the health system, burnout takes a physical toll on clinicians, worsening their health and contributing to depression and stress."

More importantly, for those diseases and high-risk populations where early detection is critical, it can be foreseen an increase in advanced stage condition at first diagnosis. For example with prostate cancer, where the impact among men of African Descent is already the highest in the world, lack of sufficient intervention in the primary care setting will only exacerbate the situation.

Read the article at:

This survey brief examines factors contributing to burnout among primary care physicians in 10 countries and strategies to combat it and improve system performance.

"Tattoos may do more than decorate the skin — they could also alter how the body responds to disease, according to new r...
12/09/2025

"Tattoos may do more than decorate the skin — they could also alter how the body responds to disease, according to new research.

A new study by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Switzerland investigated the toxicity of tattoo inks, focusing on the three most commonly used colours: black, red, and green."

The study found that tattoo ink not only remains in the skin but also travels through the body, accumulating in the immune system, where it can stay for years. Within these tissues, the ink triggers cell death, as macrophages cannot digest the captured pigment, causing inflammation that may weaken the body’s defences.

Read the article at:

Tattoos may do more than decorate the skin — they could also alter how the body responds to disease, according to new research.

"Cleveland Diagnostics has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company’s IsoPSA®...
12/09/2025

"Cleveland Diagnostics has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company’s IsoPSA® in vitro diagnostic (IVD) kit through the Premarket Approval (PMA) process.

IsoPSA is a blood-based test indicated as an aid in the decision for prostate biopsy for men ≥50 years of age with elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels.

In the U.S., greater than1 million men undergo prostate biopsies each year, yet up to 75% of those follow-up tests are negative for high-grade disease.

This diagnostic gap subjects millions to invasive, costly procedures that can produce physical risks, emotional stress, and significant healthcare costs. IsoPSA helps close this gap, giving clinicians and patients a more accurate risk assessment and greater confidence in biopsy decision-making.

Read the article at:

Cleveland Diagnostics has announced that the FDA has approved the company’s IsoPSA® in vitro diagnostic (IVD) kit through the Premarket Approval (PMA) process. IsoPSA is a blood-based test indicated as an aid in the decision for prostate biopsy for men ≥50 years of age with elevated PSA levels.

Policy shifts in the Trump administration mean that researchers are getting less money on average, and less time to spen...
12/02/2025

Policy shifts in the Trump administration mean that researchers are getting less money on average, and less time to spend it, which means less research was funded in areas such as aging, diabetes, strokes, cancer and mental health.

The White House has said it plans to continue this policy in 2026, while proposing to shrink the NIH’s budget by $18 billion, or nearly 40 percent.

Research for the article concluded the following:

Fewer grants in every area of science and medicine
More competition
A drop in grants mentioning diversity
Fewer fellowships for future scientists

"But many experts worry that the recent funding cuts and budget reductions may threaten America’s role as a global scientific leader.

“I personally know many scientists in my field leaving the United States altogether,”

Read the article at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/02/upshot/trump-science-funding-cuts.html

Circulate to your networks.

A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

A recent study by The Commonwealth Fund showed "More than two in five U.S. primary care physicians (P*P) report burnout ...
11/25/2025

A recent study by The Commonwealth Fund showed "More than two in five U.S. primary care physicians (P*P) report burnout — one of the highest rates among 10 high-income countries - citing Administrative burden as the top reason for their burnout."

"In the United States, P*P burnout contributes to $260 million in excess health spending every year, largely from high turnover forcing practices to replace clinicians who have left. Burnout has also been shown to reduce clinicians’ productivity, increase the incidence of medical errors, and erode the physician–patient relationship. Beyond the harm to patients and the health system, burnout takes a physical toll on clinicians, worsening their health and contributing to depression and stress."

The survey of 10,895 primary care physicians was conducted from March 12 to September 22, 2025, in 10 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In nearly all countries, at least one of five primary care physicians were experiencing burnout at the time of the survey, with the Netherlands and Switzerland as the exceptions. In half the countries, a third or more physicians were burned out. The U.S. topped this list with more than two of five P*Ps in crisis.

This has an obvious impact in the U.S. with diseases like prostate and breast cancer where early detection and intervention are key in successful management of the patient's condition.

Read the article at:

This survey brief examines factors contributing to burnout among primary care physicians in 10 countries and strategies to combat it and improve system performance.

A major prostate cancer screening trial aimed at finding the best way to detect the disease has been launched in the UK....
11/25/2025

A major prostate cancer screening trial aimed at finding the best way to detect the disease has been launched in the UK. The £42 million Transform trial is funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

The trial will recruit men aged 50-74, with a lower age limit of 45 for black men, who have twice the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer compared with white men.The trial will look at how rapid MRI scans of the prostate could be combined with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests in order to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis.The trial will also use spit tests, which extract DNA from saliva, to see if this is more accurate than PSA readings.

The opening of the trial comes a week before the National Screening Committee (NSC) - an expert body that advises the NHS - is due to announce whether to recommend the introduction of screening for the disease, the most common cancer in men in the UK.

Previously, the NSC had concluded that the harms of screening outweighed the benefits.

Read the article at:

The study aims to find the best way to detect prostate cancer - the most common cancer in men in the UK.

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Our Mission

The Prostate Net® is a non-profit patient education and advocacy organization founded 21 years ago by Virgil Simons, an African-American 22-year survivor of prostate cancer and a patient advocate. The core objective of The Prostate Net's mission is to:

1. Educate consumers most at-risk from a diagnosis of prostate cancer

2. Inform the community on other diseases and conditions of negative impact