Women seem to be much better than men in organizing and petitioning the government for research funding. While the rates of breast and prostate cancer are roughly similar, breast cancer research consistently receives a lot more funding than prostate cancer.
There are many similarities between breast and prostate cancers. Both are cancers of exocrine glands, both are generally sensitive to sex hormones. The disparity in research funding makes it useful to monitor developments in breast cancer treatment.
A new article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology
Longitudinal Trajectory and Characterization of Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in a Nationwide Cohort Study
They studied 943 breast cancer patients for several years. They found significant cognitive impairment in patients receiving chemotherapy compared to controls. The impairment persisted and in some cases grew worse for at least 6 months after chemo had ended.
They found significant impairments in memory, attention, and executive function.
Advanced cancer patients, whether breast or prostate, are often trying balance quality of life with extending their lives. Significant memory loss is a serious quality-of-life issue, especially when attempting to spend time making more memories and reflecting on the past.
This study focused on patients with stage I–III disease but is probably applicable to those with metastatic disease.
The major alternative to chemo, ADT, has also been demonstrated to produce major cognitive impairment in some men, and some cognitive impairment in nearly all men. This puts us in a difficult position when trying to balance the quality of our remaining life with longevity.
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interesting.....however, once you're living "la vida loca" on Lupron and having done Chemotherapy, it seems pretty obvious. My memory sucks, my skills at calculating (percentages, etc) suck...and I get stressed really easy trying to concentrate on complicated papers (for instance medical papers I try to read on here). I need straight forward and pretty brief summaries in order to follow most things. Just part of the new "normal".
My experience is quite similar. I learned long ago that I would never make a living from my good looks, so my mind is all I've got. Losing memory, math skills, even the ability to organize simple tasks was devastating to me.
Adding insult to the grievous injuries, most medical professionals insisted that cognitive impairment on ADT was nonexistent or very minor. That wasn't my experience at all, and I've since met a number of men who make their living by thinking. All of them lost most of that ability on ADT.
Yes, it is pretty obvious, but sometimes obvious things have to be proved by a substantial study. Doctors are nothing if not stubborn.
I am 64 years old. Was diagnosed in 2016 (62) with APC. Gleason 8 stage 3. I have had DaVinci and radiation. PSA is persistent and I will start chemo / ADT by years end.
At age 50 I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. I have had a radical mastectomy. 4 months of chemo. 5 years of tamoxifen.
I can honestly tell you that I have been all around the world. To many places here in the United States. Done many things with my family and kids. Many things they talk to me about now and I don't remember. I am the same way with percentages and math. Things that I was good in now I need a calculator! Wish I could find the "calculator" that would bring back or help me with all the things I've done! So many things I don't remember. Breast cancer just screwed me up. Now have compounded it with PC.
My son gave me a brand new car. Let me order it and told me to drive the wheels off of it. So I've been to the beaches of California and back to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Walked the football field where I played High School football. Two weeks ago I was at Crater Lake in Oregon! Trying to make new memories so when this disease takes over I can fight and hopefully remember something. Not easy but it's the life and the card I've been dealt. I hate this foggy brain stuff. I am the same way Great John!
"Women seem to be much better than men in organizing and petitioning the government for research funding."
That is certainly the impression one will get during October. {I was aghast this morning, on this last day of PCa month, to see pink ribbon-related ads in the NY Times. Couldn't it wait until tomorrow?}
But there are women with female-specific cancers other than that of the breast, who feel as neglected as we do. Where is the hoopla for ovarian, uterine / endometrial & cervical cancers?
Yet one has to admire big-money organizations behind the October circus, even if the money spent on research seems to have little to show for it.
"Susan G. Komen"?
"In the 2009–2010 fiscal year, ending March 31, 2010, Komen reported approximately US$400 million in earnings. Of this, $365 million (91.3 %) came from contributions from the public, including donations, sponsorships, race entry fees, and contributed goods and services. Approximately $35 million (8.8 %) came from interest and dividends and gains on investments.
That same fiscal year, Komen reported approximately US$360 million in expenses. $283.2 million of this went towards program services: $75.4 million (20.9 % of total expenditure) went to research, $140.8 million (39.1 %) went to public health education, $46.9 million (13 %) went to health screening services, and $20.1 million (5.6 %) went to treatment services. The other $76.8 million went to supporting services, including $36.1 million (10 % of total expenditure) toward fund-raising costs and $40.6 million (11.3 %) toward general and administrative costs.
The Komen CEO salary in 2010 was $459,406 a year. Komen paid founder and CEO Nancy Brinker $417,712 in 2011."
I remember a Dr. Myers vlog post where he uncharacteristically expressed bitterness about the way old men are treated in America. PCa incidence rates rise with age, with the bulk of cases occurring after age 70. Susan G. Komen died at 33.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that in the spurious photographs in Myers' Prostatepedia, the men often look to be in their 30's?
To raise money we are going to have to look younger. Start using Grecian Formula if we still have hair, etc.
Patrick I can tell you one thing being a breast cancer survivor...male. The shoe was totally reversed for me. 12 years ago there were and is nothing that said male and breast cancer. Nothing. Now today you will see that it says males and females. Men and women. Oncologists had no idea what to do with me or what to give me other than what women get. I can tell you that the Komen Foundation sent me to UCSF and to Stanford with their research. You can say what you wish about their salaries and the money they spend but I am totally grateful for them taking me as just one under their wing and guiding me through. I Googled everything and found nothing 14 years ago. They directed me took me by the hand. I am proud to be a breast cancer survivor and they are part of that.
Patrick ... just an FYI .The Prostate Cancer Foundation ( a Michael Milken founder - remember him?). His 2016 compensation to that organizations CEO is $1,008,000 in 2016. This wasn't all about salarys. AND I don't want to divert from the original post . MANY of us here on this sight are looking for answers. NOT the salarys and proportions of their giving. Both Prostate Cancer Foundation and Komen give about 80% to research and back to the people that need help. I can tell you that Komen was there for me like no one else. Haven't found that yet in 2 years with PC.
There are many differences from prostate cancer, especially in the kind of chemo used. Almost everyone had a chemo COCKTAIL - a mixture of various chemos. The most prevalent chemos used were cyclophosphamide (76%), docetaxel (53%), anthracycline (48%), doxorubicin (44%), paclitaxel (41%), carboplatin (20%), etc. Others have found that anthracycline, a chemo never used for prostate cancer, was a major contributor of cognitive deficits:
Allen ... YOU are an exception. Thank you for incredible foresight. Your answers to everything/everyone second to none . Direction in itself is hope. You give that direction with heart and compassion each time. A blessing to so many of us. You are appreciated more than you will ever know...
Loss of memory and reduced cognitive ability may well affect many cancer sufferers due to treatments but basically the medical system cares about the body, not the mind. Since diagnosis of Pca in 2009, not one medico has ever cared at all about the state of my mind. I seem so be coping real well with one treatment after another, including chemo, and some of my best craft work efforts have been achieved during chemo cycles, plus some long emails to this wonderful group. I'm lucky, but many others who get cancer and have treatments will fare a whole lot worse, maybe its age, other health issues, and maybe a fragile mental state; The fact is about 1 in 5 ppl have some form of mental illness at some time in life. Afaik, I am not one of them, and I have felt no need to seek counselling about my mind, I know I just have to "suck it up bro" and just get on with doing whatever it takes to stay alive. I'm amazed at what I can remember, and if there's any doubt about the past I can always search my diary, but really, the past is less valuable as time goes by. I never drank much alcohol, or used any substances so my mind has remained clearer than those who did.
I seem to find balance in life while being a stage 4 Pca patient. What on earth can any medicos do about my old brain? I ain't depressed, bi-polar, so I am not sure that all ppl with cancer and who are ageing need any special attention. Some just seem to cope without any help.
My mother was a serious believer in talking through issues with a Psychologist.
I did not see that made her life that much better. I had a young wife who became unhappy, and off she went to a psychologist, and it made her hate me worse, for reasons she could not say, and hate much everything else, so the focus on her decline made her decline faster, deeper, so the midnight flit out of town was her only response. She hated facing reality. How can anyone make her life easier if spending time discussing it make things feel worse? Now of course it so happened that my mother and my young wife were both able to get the expensive "mental assistance" because it was all paid by Medicare. Had my wife had to pay for the expense herself, she'd never have gone to a "mind helper". The more sane, calm, practical I was about all things, the worse that wife became, and there really was not much I could have done, I just loved her, but she didn't respond, and I had a job to hold down, and limited time and money. I began to realise you could try to be perfect for other ppl and they still fell apart. Its extremely difficult to get wise about mental behaviors in others; its the land of inconsistencies and puzzling behaviors and most of us are only amateurs, and the pros don't solve much; the ppl whom talk to them can really only solve their own bothers, maybe.
I agree. Women do a much better job of banding together and getting the word out. Men suck at it, they just sit and take it, stinks since breast cancer has a much higher rate of cure than prostate cancer. And yes 26 months of lupron with chemo and my memory is awful its a good thing I don’t need it to work anymore 😜😜😜
I think your basic personality type has a lot to do with it. I've always been a positive, look on the bright side type of person. Very hard for me to be depressed about anything for more than five minutes. I made my living using my mental abilities, both in the military and afterward in civilian life. I haven't noticed any real changes mentally whereas I have seen a LOT of physical ones. You have natural mental changes as you grow older anyway. If you're thinking the same way at age 50 as you were at age twenty, you haven't learned or experienced much. I still have all my mental curiosity and cognitive abilities that I had before I got into this mess - as far as I'm able to judge. So if it does happen to some, it hasn't to me. But I also tolerated chemo much better than many do. We're all different, I guess
I'm also a positive, look on the bright side type of person. I make my living with my mind. That all changed on Lupron; it was like being hit in the head with a brick.
It doesn't seem to to that to everyone but it sure as hell did it to me.
Only sensible people will abandon most of the bad idiocy that is inherent in being 25 but even more sensible if they retain the best good traits, if any, that defined them at 25, and so it goes on to 35 and 45, and your age and socio-economic status will urge that it might be a good idea to not get around in hippy pants and purple pigtail.
Yeah, women MUST talk together, and they naturally share the experience, and when I see a women's cycling bunch ride past, its the sound of many voices jabbering on about something or other. A men's cycling group goes past in silence, and often the speed is high because the fastest are exerting their superiority by making everyone else keep up and they can't talk.
Women get Bca earlier in life than men, and so they kick up a big stink about it and gets lots of attention. Their daughters need them more to be grandmothers with the young children more than they need doddery old grandpa.
When the tribal behavior of most less advanced cultures is examined, this applies, and the menopause and early reduction of female hormones fuels the minds of 40+ women to care about their 20+ daughter's or son's kids.
There are exceptions of course, but nature meant that women "pause from men" to aid the tribe's survival. But the 60+ father of the 40+ generation is about useless, and could be senile and dangerous so he gets to sit around arguing what's best for thre tribe as an elder,often without agreement with the younger lot.
I am 71, and the 3 nephews and one niece have completely ignored me, so I know all about becoming utterly useless and irrelevant.
But old men often have a pile of dough, and this is what funds Pca research, while children's cancer and Bca, Oa etc have situations not backed by stores of dough but they tug our heart strings so much they get the attention and gifted funds.
So, the human species fuddles along, trying to improve its condition by getting rid of cancers and its far from a perfectly happy, just, fair kind of thing, depending who you are.
So what if a universal cure for cancer is found?
And then next day, what if a universal solution to prevent aging is found?
I fear that would make us all into eternal procrastinators, we'd never make a decision, starting with not having kids because you'd know you could start a family in 3,000 years time. It seems like because something grows from a sperm an egg, it immediately is never a perfect process, and to halt aging and disease, you'd have to stop cells reproducing, say at 25, when many of us know we are damn near perfect, better than the Kadashians or anyone else over 25.
Even if everyone made it to 120, a possible age maybe, then can we afford the cost of 55 years in retirement? Well, I guess we could if we were able to avoid the average cost of maybe $500,000 of medical fees for attempts to cure diseases.
Since diagnosis in 2009 with Pca I have cycled about 100,000km with most while chemically castrated by Eligard or Lucrin, and these last 11 weeks I've had Docetaxel and I have not noticed any mental decline. The ADT did not hit me on the head like a hammer, and I farewelled Rodger after it lost ability to rise to an occasion, and then lost all physical pleasure abilities, and then shrivelled up to half its size. No problem, because there were never ever any ladies around to share any sexual adventure, and most ladies had ceased all sex desire 20 years before I got walloped by Pca treatment.
Did I need to talk about Rodger Loss? not really, its a very boring subject.
The chemo has been hardest to cope with because it affects my muscles and my average cycle speed has dropped by another 2kph. But I stillenjoy a good ride and during this last chemo cycle I have cycled every single day which seems to have gotten me back to "normal" within the first 8 daya after chemo intake.
I've also done some of my best craftwork in my shed. I speak to few ppl. I don't need to.
Whatever happened to self reliance?
Sure, I might have a naturally positive view, but at 30, so many ppl, including many women complained I was so negative, but that was only because I ridiculed their absurd extremist feminist views as explained by such luminaries as Germaine Sneer, who had the greatest difficulties ever maintaining a co-operative relationship with anyone while under 40. So her thoughts and feelings were destructive to intimacy; if for example, all sex in marriage is rape, then does it not kill desire? The Germaines of this world called me negative, but I didn't care, and asked them if there was anything else they wanted to whinge about, so I could point out their stupidity.
The Germaines were quick to tell me to shut up, and I just pointed out that that were very poor listeners.........
Ah, humanity, crazy species........
I don't need a huge social network.
Its a very nice spring day here and I must away to my shed to do some more Farnarcling Around, ( something that used to make a young wife glow red with hate and anger, till she left ).
Its another day of wonderment, and I'll cycle to the clinic for a Psa test, then to cafe for lunch and 20km afterwards.
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