[adrianhoward]

But it's only going to help men with aggressive prostate cancer that can't be cured with surgery because it's already metastasized.

But since my Dad died of exactly that seven years ago, and there seems to be at least some genetic component to folk who get aggressive prostrate cancer, it's cheered me up quite a bit.

[tsotha]

I hope this drug ends up being extremely effective, but you're going to be much better served by getting your prostate checked every year plus keeping an eye on your PSA levels. Better to catch the monster early and cut it out before it spreads.

[adrianhoward]

Unfortunately PSA tests are pretty much debunked as a good diagnostic tool for -detecting prostrate cancer- [edit: what I should have written is "increasing survivability" - although the detection stats are also poor] (This NYT op-ed covers some of the high points http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html). It's even more useless than normal for me since I'm overweight which tends to mask the hormone levels to some extent.

Even if you have an accurate diagnosis you're more than likely to die of something else since it's mostly very slow to grow and metastasise - and the risk of having it cut out quality-of-life wise are non-trivial.

I'm in my forties. The chances that I already have prostrate cancer are about 1/3. The chances that it'll kill me are only about 3/100. The odds that a PSA test will help me figure out the difference are in coin-toss territory. The vast majority of men with prostrate cancer will die of something else (with my weight there are a lot more likely options ;-)

What I'd really love is for researchers to figure out the genetic/environmental factors that make some prostrate cancers become extremely aggressive, metastasise and kill people in months. That would be trez useful. In the mean time having a much more effective treatment for that instance is just about the second best news I can think of.