Male Hot Flashes and Childhood Survivor Recurrence News

December 8, 2009

If you are a prostate cancer survivor, you might know that men too suffer from hot flashes. In cases of advanced prostate cancer, androgen suppression therapy is commonly used, and about 4 in 5 patients on the androgen suppression therapy regimen experience hot flashes. A recent study conducted in France found that hormonal drugs can help survivors control that potentially annoying side effect. Considering the other therapies prostate cancer survivors might encounter, the researchers determined that medroxyprogesterone should be considered the best treatment for the hot flashes. If you undergoing androgen supression therapy and experience hot flashes, you should call your doctor to discuss some options to control this.

Survivors of childhood cancers should pay attention to research published from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Childhood cancer survivors originally diagnosed between 1970 and 1986 were identified for this long-term, retrospective cohort study taking place at 27 participating research centers in North America and Canada. More than 14,000 survivors were initially surveyed and followed for long-term health outcomes. It is one of the key tools researchers use to learn more about the long-term effects of a childhood cancer diagnosis.

Research was published this week that suggests that while the overall cancer recurrence prevalence 10 years after a childhood diagnosis is 4.4% and 6.2% at 20 years post-childhood-diagnosis, the prevalence of recurrence among Ewing’s Sarcoma- diagnosed pediatric patients (ES) and central nervous system tumor-diagnosed pediatric patients (CNST) was found to be 14.4% and 13% respectively. This just means that if you were diagnosed with and treated for ES or a CNST during your childhood, you need to be vigilant about your survivorship, including developing a screening plan with your physician.

Christian McEvoy MPH
chrsitian@ctchallenge.org

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