Dr. Anthony H. Horan 1940-2020 - Advanced Prostate...

Advanced Prostate Cancer

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Dr. Anthony H. Horan 1940-2020

ragnar2020 profile image
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Today, I received the sad news that Dr. Anthony Horan died in Fresno, CA. Dr. Horan was a member of the Western Section of the American Urological Association and the author of forty-nine peer-reviewed publications. His books included The Big Scare (2009) and The Rise and Fall of the Prostate Cancer Scam (2017). His obituary is posted below.

ANTHONY HARDING HORAN, MD

Anthony Harding Horan was born in New York City in 1940 to Francis H. Horan and Elizabeth Rogers Horan. Tony was raised in the city and at his family’s Cornwall, Connecticut home. He attended St. Bernard’s, St. Paul’s, Dartmouth (‘61), and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (‘65) before completing general medicine and general surgery internships and a urology residency at Columbia Presbyterian in New York. His training was interrupted by the Vietnam War where he served as an Air Force general surgeon in Cam Ranh Bay during the Tet offensive.

Tony aspired to become an MD scientist like his grandfather, Dr. John Rogers Jr., Columbia P&S (1892), a pioneer in the treatment of thyroid disease. In medical school, Tony worked on a summer project for Roger Guillemin, MD, and Andrew Schally, Ph.D., who fifteen years later earned a Nobel Prize for that work. Tony performed a pioneering procedure at Columbia

Presbyterian and he won first prizes for papers on human spermatozoa motility. He established a private urology practice in New York and in the 1980s he joined the Veterans Administration system as a urologist, serving in Walla Walla, Washington and Fresno, California. After retiring from the VA system, Tony practiced urology in Wyoming and later in Delano, California, where he had the opportunity to aid many adult and pediatric patients with untreated congenital malformations. Tony was an active member of the Western Section of the American Urological Association, contributing to medical science with 59 conference presentations and 49 peer-reviewed publications. His books, The Big Scare (2009) and The Rise and Fall of the Prostate Cancer Scam (2017), contested what he considered a world-wide epidemic of radical prostatectomies.

Tony was a surgeon and he was also an artist and outdoorsman. He was a rock climber and mountaineer, summiting the Grand Teton and Mt. McKinley on the first successful American ascent of the Cassin route. He exhibited paintings as a member of The Century Association of New York, and he sang in community chorales. He and his wife, Marcia Morrison, were avid backpackers in the Sierra Nevada. During the winter, Tony loved skiing, both downhill and cross country, with any family members who could keep up with him. Until his last months of life, Tony enjoyed tennis, golf and reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century in French.

Tony died on August 13 at his home in Fresno. He is survived by his wife, his son T. Bramwell Welch-Horan MD, daughter-in-law Jessica, grandchildren Charlie, Oliver and Phoebe and by his son Francis H. Horan. He is also survived by his brother, John Rogers Horan and sister Honora Horan, both of Connecticut, and his twin sister, Elizabeth Horan Edgerly of Rhode Island.

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ragnar2020
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wagscure259 profile image
wagscure259

What an amazing, adventurist, and talented human being. RIP

ragnar2020 profile image
ragnar2020 in reply towagscure259

Hi Wagscure259,

No doubt about that. A friend whom I met on this forum told me about Dr. Horan and his books, and after reading the books, I recommend them as essential reading concerning PCa.

Jeff

noahware profile image
noahware

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Horan's books, he was an extremely thoughtful and articulate author. As the diagnostic use of PSA quickly became mainstream after its discovery, he grew concerned about its misuse and the ensuing "epidemic" of radical prostatectomy that swept the nation.

He saw his profession's over-use of RP (for example, on elderly men with lower-risk PC) as a disservice to his fellow citizens, and he felt a duty to express his concern. As many are now aware, quite a bit of what is technically "cancer" from a pathologist's perspective (think, Gleason 3+3) is not a dire threat to the health and well-being of all the elderly men who have it.

[Other books address this, too... I have yet to read "Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers" by Dr. Scholz.]

But his books also present excellent science-based discussions of his belief that PC is an intrinsically systemic disease that, in its non-lethal form, is abundantly found even in populations with lower PC mortality rates. He offers a brief historical analysis of how PC treatment evolved, and how "standards of care" often become driven by consensus rather than by actual science.

The books are out of print, but worth seeking out. By all accounts Dr. Horan was a fine man, and I offer condolences to his family and friends.

j-o-h-n profile image
j-o-h-n

It's sad that a renowned doctor had to defend himself at age 79 in California courts (2019) in an order on petition for interim suspension. It only goes to show what happens to the elderly in this country. A definite hit job..........

May he rest in Peace and may his family be proud of his work for mankind.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 08/25/2020 1:35 PM DST

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