Health Literacy:        

Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

Promoting health literacy at organizational, provider and heath care consumer levels is important for more effective patient-provider communication.  This is particularly important for patients of color at risk for disparate negative health outcomes.

Barriers to
Health Literacy:

CT Health Senior Program Officer Elizabeth Krause recently coauthored an article in the American Nurses Association’s Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.  “Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Health Literacy” discusses how culture and language set the context for acquiring and applying health literacy skills for many patients of color.  

The CT Health Foundation’s website features an analysis of how the needle has moved in Connecticut over the last 10 years to close the racial and ethnic health disparities gap.

Prostate Cancer Information & Resources

The resource links below and every place on this OneWorld web site are provided for the convenience of our visitors; they are not OneWorld recommendations.  Use the information as additional resources; you should always speak with your personal physician before making treatment decisions. (OneWorld, Inc)

Short Course of Hormone Therapy Boosts Prostate Cancer Survival

Coupled with radiation, six months of treatment improved odds in locally advanced cases www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_110236.html
For more information on prostate cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

Prostate Cancer: Latest Treatments and Emerging Therapies
WebMD explains and evaluates the latest prostate cancer treatment. WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.
www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/.../prostate-cancer-treatments

Prostate Cancer – Top prostate cancer experts
Memorial Sloan-Kettering in NY/NJ: www.mskcc.org

"Prostate Mysteries Explored" program:

Although all men have one, the prostate continues to be a puzzling gland, prone to cancer, beset by enlargement, and troubled. Why is this so?

Yale docs say: More volunteers needed for clinical trials to understand why prostate cancer hits African-American men more. They spoke at a taping of N’Zinga Shani’s “21st Century Conversations” at Citizens Television in October 2009. You can get a copy of the entire hour conversation on DVD by requesting it from OneWorld, Inc.

Johns Hopkins Guide To Your Gleason Score

Prostate Cancer Grading - WebMD

Gleason Score guide

http://www.JohnsHopkinsHealthAlerts.com

1. Active Surveillance (formerly called watchful waiting) offer prostate cancer patients an individualized approach based or reclassification of the risk of disease progression over time. Active surveillance using carefully defined criteria can reduce the burden of therapy in patients with slow growing disease, and provide definitive therapy for those with more aggressive disease.  It involves lifestyle changes and an annual examination, and close monitoring of symptoms and overall condition.
   
   Active surveillance is typically offered to men with slow-growing prostate cancer that may not progress within their lifetime. In other words, the cancer is not likely to be fatal and treatment might cause unnecessary adverse effects. Patients on active surveillance undergo periodic screenings to determine disease progression or risk.
   
   
2. Treatment Options. The primary goals of treatment for BPH are to:
   Improve urinary flow & to reduce symptoms. Other options are:
1. drug therapies
2. minimally invasive procedures
3. major surgery
   
   
3. BPH Symptoms & Treatment

1. Medical treatment with alpha blockers  such as Flomax and 5 alpha reductase inhibitor (such as Proscar and Avodart)
2. Minimal invasive procedures (microwave, green light laser)
3. Surgery (TURP, open simple prostatectomy
   
   
4. Treatment of Prostate Cancer
   
   Unfortunately, doctors do not know what the best treatment is for each individual patient.  There is no correct answer.  Options include surgery, radiation therapy (external beam therapy, seed implantation), and active surveillance (referred to previously as watchful waiting).  All of these treatments are complex and require many considerations including side effects from the treatment (impotence, incontinence), success rates, and ultimately patient’s wishes.  It is strongly recommended that patients get a second opinion and have a competent and skilled medical advisor other than the treating physician to help them make the best decision.
   
   
5. PSA Screening
   
   There are mixed information about the benefits of PSA screening. We strongly suggest that patients empower themselves with reliable information. Yes, there are pros and cons of PSA screening; however, prostate cancer caught early via PSA & DRE and defined via biopsy provides good information that allows men to make sound decisions. Some forms of prostate cancer are more aggressive than others. Men do die and become incapacitated from the disease; therefore becoming informed before you are ill is just a wise course of action.
   
   
6. Sural Nerve Grafts
   
   Most health insurance companies consider nerve grafts to be investigational because there is insufficient evidence demonstrating their value in the management of individuals with erectile dysfunction following surgery.  They may be of some benefit in patients undergoing bilateral resection of the nerve bundles.  Success rate in these patients is approximately 30%.
   
   
7. PSA scores can be very misleading – therefore it is important to have a baseline established and be advised about how you should be monitored.
   
   
8. Don't worry unnecessarily.
   Take Action to cure your Enlarged Prostate, (B.P.H.) or Prostatitis; or survive your Prostate Cancer.
   All can be done safely and inexpensively.
   
   
9. Link to the U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services Comprehensive Site
   http://www.womenshealth.gov/mens/sexual/prostate.cfm
   
   
10. Surviving Prostate Cancer –Link to article in AARP Magazine by Jay Griffin
    www.aarpmagazine.org/health/surviving_prostate_cancer

THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK
The "New" Prostate Cancer InfoLink has been developed to become a primary source of accurate, current, and topical information about prostate cancer.
www.prostatecancerinfolink.net

U.S. Cancer Screening Trial Shows No Early Mortality Benefit from Annual Prostate Screening

NCI wants to understand why some prostate cancers are lethal even when found early by annual screenings.
www.nih.gov/news/health/mar2009/nci

New York Times Health Writer - Roni Caryn Rabin 

Robotic prostate surgery may mean big trade-off - The Associated Press

Higher risk linked to robot-assisted surgery for prostate cancer - Providence Journal

Study raises concerns about robotic prostate surgery - Boston Globe

What I need to know about Prostate Problems
Discusses prostate problems including prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Reviews common tests performed for these conditions and the side effects ...
kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/prostate_ez/

Prostate Health - Quality Vitamins And Nutritional Supplements
www.lef.org/Vitamins.../Health-Well.../Health...1/Prostate.htm

Australian Prostate Cancer Website
About Prostate Health ... Genetic risk factors appear to give no information about such clinically important details as the aggressiveness of the disease.
www.prostatehealth.org.au/newsitem.html?notice_id=565

The health or education information provided on this web site is not intended to constitute medical or educational advice or the provision of medical or educational services. By posting and maintaining this website and its contents, OneWorld Progressive Institute, Inc does not intend to solicit business from community participants, nor is this information intended to be a substitute for visits to medical doctors, other health professionals, and/or  educators located in Greater New Haven or elsewhere within our contact area.