Over the next couple of blogs we are going to be discussing advanced prostate cancer. If we define localized prostate cancer as that which can be treated with the hope and expectation of cure, advanced prostate cancer by definition is that prostate cancer which has escaped the confines of the prostate and can no longer be “cured.”

I place quotes around the word cured, because I want our readers to understand that many men live with advanced prostate cancer for many years. Often times their cause of death is totally unrelated to their prostate cancer. So even though prostate cancer can be outside of the confines of cure, it does not necessarily mean that it will be the ultimate cause of any specific patients demise.

One of the problems with dealing with the subject is in its definition. Advanced prostate cancer can be any of the following: biochemical recurrent, locally advanced, metastatic and many shades of gray in between. Each of these sub-classifications deserves its own treatment in our blog, because each carries with it different treatments and expectations. Prostate cancer that presents as metastatic disease is a very different animal than PSA recurrent prostate cancer after presumed definitive primary therapy.  So over the next month or so we will try to tackle a number of the sub-classifications of “advanced disease,” and give our readers even more to think about when thinking about prostate cancer.

Now that Passover has completed, I will do my best to tackle the subjects on a weekly or at worst bi-weekly basis. In other news, our new closer Gonzo has blown two of three saves. It’s going to be a long baseball season. Thankfully the NFL draft is in a couple of weeks and then we can look forward to thinking about the Ravens again.