NBA superstar Grant Hill, also an Atlanta Hawks co-owner, and African American health advocate, has teamed up with Dendreon to combat the prostate cancer racial disparities experienced by African American men. He discusses, along with Cancer ABCs CEO Joel Nowak, how men, particularly African American men, can combat the disparities.

They focus on how a man can develop their own playbook to beat prostate cancer, what role a man should play with his doctor and the importance of becoming an educated patient.

Mr. Hill shared a program he has started with Dendreon called Start Strong. Start Strong (www.startstrong.us) is focused on raising awareness of the racial disparities in prostate cancer incidence and the importance of talking to your doctor about the best treatment options.

Please note that during the interview, Mr. Hill provided the wrong web address for the Start Strong Program. The correct address is www.startstrong.us.

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Overall survival and cancer-specific survival for those with node-positive prostate cancer treated with surgery lived longer than those who elected radiation treatment.

Men diagnosed with node positive prostate cancer need to decide if they want to include a targeted treatment to their prostate gland along with a systemic treatment like hormonal therapy.

Most men who elect to include a targeted therapy will choose between either surgery or radiation. A retrospective observational study concluded that men who did elect to use surgery as opposed to radiation lived longe.

Read the study at;
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pros.24317

Cancer ABCs would like to thank:
Foundation Medicine
Myovant
Bayer
Dendreon
for their continued support of our podcast program.

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https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2021/08/22/annrheumdis-2021-220597

As per the link above, individuals taking the drug methotrexate experience an up to 62% reduced rate of an immunological response when given a mRNA Covid-19 vaccination like to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. This finding suggests that patients on methotrexate may need alternate vaccination strategies such as additional doses of vaccine, dose modification of methotrexate or even a temporary discontinuation of this drug.

In this podcast, Joel Nowak from Cancer ABCs, who is taking methotrexate, after having is booster shot of the Moderna vaccine was informed by his doctor that he should have not received the injection without having made a modification in his methotrexate. Joel talks about his frustration and anger that he was not informed about this complication when the research was first published, three months prior to his receiving his Covid-19 booster shot.

Joel shared his current plan to discontinue taking methotrexate and hope that the booster will still create some antigen effect. He will follow up in a few weeks and check his antigen level (blood test) and then if he hasn't received an adequate result go on a campaign to obtain an additional Covid vaccination booster while still remaining off methotrexate.

Joel’s story should serve as a warning to anyone taking methotrexate that they need to discuss this issue with their doctors prior to having a mRNA Covid-19 vaccination.


Cancer ABCs would like to thank its podcast sponsors for their support of this podcast program. Our sponsors include:

• Myovant/Pfizer
• Foundation Medicine
• Bayer
• Dendreon

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