The Truth About Biopsy “Track Seeding”
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
2y ago
UPDATE: 7/26/2021 Originally published 2/16/2015 More than six years ago, we published the blog below in hopes of reducing patient fears that a needle biopsy of the prostate could spread prostate cancer (PCa). The concept is called “track seeding” or “needle tracking”. Back then, we referred to occurrence of track seeding in prostate biopsies as exceedingly rare, and we continue to stand by that. In the intervening years since 2015, we found only two published individual case studies that cited evidence of post-biopsy track seeding, and one case study of what appeared to be track seeding afte ..read more
Visit website
ED After TRUS Biopsy of the Prostate
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dina
2y ago
UPDATE: 7/22/2021 Originally published 8/12/2015 Since the original blog is six years old as of this writing, it’s time to revisit recent published literature on the topic of prostate biopsy and risk of post-biopsy erectile dysfunction (ED). Early in 2021, two separate literature reviews were conducted, and both had similar findings. The first included 7 full text articles from which data was assembled and analyzed. Based on standardized erectile function self-report questionnaires, the authors found that scores dropped an average of 4.61 points at 1-month post-biopsy; however, ED had resolve ..read more
Visit website
News Flash: MRI Screening Reduces Unnecessary Prostate Biopsies
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
2y ago
Did your doctor say it’s time for a biopsy, based on your PSA results? Do you shudder at the idea? How do you know you really need to have 12+ randomly placed needles throughout your prostate gland? The answers to these questions can be found in a Swedish paper published online July 9, 2021 by the respected New England Journal of Medicine. What’s particularly exciting about this study by Eklund, et al.[i] is its randomized design involving 12,750 men eligible for prostate cancer (PCa) screening. Let’s talk about PCa screening Cancer screening is good, right? It offers the best odds for success ..read more
Visit website
An Apple (or Cranberry) a Day Keeps Prostate Cancer Away
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dina
2y ago
UPDATE: 7/21/2021 Originally published 1/16/2017 When it comes to prostate cancer, a growing body of research continues to identify preventive and therapeutic nutrients in fruits. These compounds are referred to a phytonutrients or phytochemicals (“phyto” means plant). Apples have high concentrations of two types of phytonutrients that have a variety of biological actions that help deter prostate cancer: proanthocyanidins and flavonols. There’s another fruit you may not have heard of, called the sugar apple. It’s not an apple as we know it. It’s part of a group of exotic fruits called Annona ..read more
Visit website
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: AI Finds Incidental Prostate Cancer in Routine CT Scans
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
2y ago
Imagine this scenario. Your doctor orders a pelvic CT scan to check if the pain you’re experiencing is due to a kidney stone or other blockage. After the scan, he says, “I’m happy to tell you there’s no evidence of stones and your kidney looks fine. Oh, and incidentally, you have prostate cancer.” Of course, no professional would sound so casual about prostate cancer. However, the term incidentally is clinically correct when a medical scan or test for one condition reveals another disease—often, cancer—that was not suspected to begin with. In the scenario described above, your medical record w ..read more
Visit website
Gleason 6 Revisited
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dina
2y ago
UPDATE: 7/12/2021 Originally published 6/22/2015 At the time we posted the blog below on Gleason 6 prostate cancer (PCa) tumors that don’t seem to behave like cancer, new terms like “indolent PCa” and “insignificant PCa” were showing up in published studies. The growing use of these terms signaled recognition that a) not every low-risk PCa tumor needs to be treated immediately, and b) some PCa tumors may never need to be treated at all! The word indolent means lack of activity; in medicine, it means causing little or no pain. Regarding the word significance, we posted a 2016 blog stating that ..read more
Visit website
Not For Your Prostate Only: Time for a Dietary Wakeup Call?
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
2y ago
The scary data tells it all. To judge by the statistics, the U.S. is a nation of fat, sick people. Take, for example, these numbers from the Centers for Disease Control: In less than a 10-year period (2000 to 2018) the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. This means over 1/3 of persons are living with serious health risks. In 2008, the annual medical cost of obesity in our country was $147 billion—and that was over 10 years ago, so we can be sure it’s higher now. At that time, obese people had medical costs of $1,429 more than those with healthy weight. Obesity is determined ..read more
Visit website
MRI/Ultrasound Fusion May Come with a Pitfall Called Registration Error
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
3y ago
I came across a study written by a team of German urology/radiology research team. The authors are all physicians, and their report compares three commercial MRI/ultrasound fusion technologies: BioJet (D&K Technologies), UroNav (Invivo Corp.) and Trinity (KOELIS).[i] Their comparison study occupies the intellectual space where technology and medicine meet, since fusion literally integrates the brainpower of clinicians into engineered devices. It therefore seems apt that a German medical team, trained and experienced in a culture renowned for dedication to engineering precision, would condu ..read more
Visit website
Does Eating Eggs Increase Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer?
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
3y ago
How do you like your eggs? Scrambled, soft-boiled, over easy, poached? No matter how you cook them, you may want to think twice about how often you consume them. It seems that there is a powerful link between eggs and lethal prostate cancer (PCa). Humpty Dumpty may indeed have a “great fall”—at least in the number of eggs men eat—if the results of an important study are taken seriously. Why should we take the 2011 study by Richman, et al. to heart? For one thing, its authors hail from three venerable institutions, Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medica ..read more
Visit website
What is Favorable vs. Unfavorable Risk for Intermediate Prostate Cancer?
Sperling Prostate Center
by Dr Sperling
3y ago
If a college student plans to go on for a higher degree after graduation, grade point average (GPA) can make a difference in being accepted into grad programs. A perfect 4.0 GPA is desirable. A+, A and A- all have the same 4-point equivalence, so what’s the point of adding a plus or minus sign? Perhaps, in qualifying the letter grade, the professor is offering the plus as a positive reward or incentive, and a minus to warn of falling to a 3-point B for the course that would lower the student’s permanent GPA. When it comes to intermediate risk prostate cancer (PCa), there’s also a sort of plus ..read more
Visit website

Follow Sperling Prostate Center on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR