Mentioned Prostate Cancer on Monday Night Football

Posted by brianjarvis @brianjarvis, Dec 1 8:08pm

Just a few minutes ago, the commentators on Monday Night Football mentioned that one of the team’s coaches is currently being treated for prostate cancer. (See attached graphic they showed while they were talking about it.)

The commentators mentioned (and I read in a recent article) that he’s undergoing chemo. He joins a long list of many celebrities and other public individuals (athletes, actors, politicians, financiers, and others in the spotlight) over the past few decades who have been in the news with a diagnosis (or death) from prostate cancer.

I wish him the best with his treatments.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | Dec 2 3:34pm

In reply to @jeffmarc "@northoftheborder I have had neither chemotherapy or Pluvicto. The drugs have kept me undetectable." + (show)

@jeffmarc Apologies — I misremembered.

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | Dec 2 3:38pm

In reply to @brianjarvis "@juanmoczo Yes, prostate cancer is very commonly diagnosed, but the mortality rate is one of the..." + (show)

@brianjarvis And still, over 35,000 Americans die from (not just with) prostate cancer every year. It's a huge killer, even though prospects are excellent if it's caught and treated early enough, and they're improving even for de-novo advanced cases like mine.

heavyphil | @heavyphil | Dec 3 7:04am

In reply to @rlpostrp "Yes...I saw/heard that last night. I was immediately confused and questioned the use of the term..." + (show)

@rlpostrp Yeah, I thought the same thing; maybe tough guys in the NFL shy away from words like hormones because of their feminizing traits…
Or maybe viewers would think he was being given steroids or PED’s if they mentioned the H word…hope he’s NOT getting chemo, in any case.
Phil

chippydoo | @chippydoo | Dec 3 8:46am

In reply to @brianjarvis "As for raising awareness —> Last year, I was curious as to how many celebrities and..." + (show)

@brianjarvis 15 years ago or so they discouraged doctors from PSA testing. My neighbor had to demand that his doctor give him one or he was going to find another one.

brianjarvis | @brianjarvis | Dec 3 3:15pm

In reply to @chippydoo "@brianjarvis 15 years ago or so they discouraged doctors from PSA testing. My neighbor had to..." + (show)

@chippydoo Those were interesting times. I’ve been getting PSA tests since 2000 (at 45y) with no problems at all; I simply asked for it……

But, here’s what happened regarding PSA tests —> With the understanding that for a Gleason 6, side/after-effects of radical treatment can often be worse than the possible cancer itself.

But, in the early 2000s, so many men were opting for radical treatment for just a G6 (usually surgery) when it wasn’t medically necessary, that in 2012 the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against routine prostate cancer screening thinking that stopping screening would stop overtreatment (assigning PSA screening a “D” recommendation: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/prostate-cancer-screening-2012). Some doctors followed that USPSTF recommendation, some did not.

As it turned out, that knee-jerk reaction had bad downstream consequences, and resulted in many of the advanced cases we see today. But, it was as a direct result of so many unnecessary radical treatments for G6 and the quality of life impacts they caused.

Since then (in 2018) the USPSTF updated their recommendation to a “C” (https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/prostate-cancer-screening).

(Compare that to the “B” recommendation they give to breast cancer screening.)

chippydoo | @chippydoo | Dec 3 5:14pm

In reply to @brianjarvis "@chippydoo Those were interesting times. I’ve been getting PSA tests since 2000 (at 45y) with no..." + (show)

@brianjarvis Great history lesson that men should be aware of. Thanks for the detailed information.

lag | @lag | Dec 3 5:23pm

In reply to @rlpostrp "Yes...I saw/heard that last night. I was immediately confused and questioned the use of the term..." + (show)

@rlpostrp Many men receive chemo for metastatic prostate cancer. My husband is one of them; it was done after the spinal metastases became too numerous to hit with spot radiation. That was in 2016 and he is still here. You can see many other posts on this Mayo forum by men undergoing chemo for prostate cancer. You might have just overlooked them.

heavyphil | @heavyphil | Dec 4 7:35am

In reply to @brianjarvis "@chippydoo Those were interesting times. I’ve been getting PSA tests since 2000 (at 45y) with no..." + (show)

@brianjarvis Exactly, Brian…when that pendulum swings it can make a lot of unexpected damage; hopefully(?) we may be nearing the middle of the arc with PCa.
Phil

surftohealth88 | @surftohealth88 | Dec 4 11:26pm

In reply to @lag "@rlpostrp Many men receive chemo for metastatic prostate cancer. My husband is one of them; it..." + (show)

@lag

Yes - I saw many cases here where chemo was used , actually at this very moment @asolidrock is undergoing chemo.

I have no idea how others are "confused" and never heard of it, some other members had it THIS year.

Chemo is one of many tools in the whole arsenal of PC treatments.

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | Dec 5 5:26am

In reply to @surftohealth88 "@lag Yes - I saw many cases here where chemo was used , actually at this..." + (show)

@surftohealth88 I think it gets back to the "two prostate cancers" thing. Many people — even patients — know only about the slow developing kind, the one that you find out about in your late 60s, 70s, or 80s, is often borderline, and that you're more likely to die with than of.

What's less understood is the fast-developing kind of prostate cancer, the one you often find out about before 60, and spreads so fast that it may already have metastasised by the time you first know of it. It's the type that killed famous people like Johnny Ramone and Frank Zappa at a very young age, but fortunately, over the past 10 years or so, they've developed new practices and treatments for people like your husband and me, and they *may* be able to keep us alive indefinitely (we're the guinea-pig generation, but signs so far are promising).