dunbr

I work in this field and directly am involved with the treatment of prostate cancers. What you describe is not standard of care, and I’d hesitate to say that everyone should be so alarmed of getting prostate or any cancer. It’s unfortunate that your father’s PCP wasn’t aware of such warning signs, and I’m sorry for your loss.

However, We’ve seen this before with prostate and breast cancer where early and often screening leads to not only false positives but undue stress on patients. Furthermore, catching a nonaggressive prostate cancer 2-5 years early may lead to the same outcomes as catching it when certain things like PSA are detected to be increasing. But you may drastically affect one’s quality of life. It can at times be a difficult balance.

We see more and more elderly patients being treated because they are living longer. For many though, “waitful watching” or “active surveillance” is the correct clinical decision and always is up to the patient.

Finally, while prostate cancer isn’t as publicized as breast cancer (we’re trying!). It is a well known cancer and there is awareness of it.

While there other treatment options. Radiation therapy is a very common treatment to patients of all ages and isn’t odd at all.

Just to clarify what you are describing is called “active surveillance” and is a step up compared to “watchful watching”. Both are ways to deal with prostate cancers.

It depends on risk, diagnosis, and age, but generally with active surveillance you will be actively monitored, you’ll monitor PSA volumes and prostate sizes (and get biopsies), usually on a regular basis. Watchful waiting is much less invasive. When someone is old, their cancer not aggressive and low risk, and is dealing with other health issues, subjecting them to numerous tests for no real benefit is a big stress to both them and their families.

I’d definitely include the food lab in such a list but I think it likely resonates with the tech/science crowd a bit more than say the general public. Kenji is really thorough and at times scientific in his explanations. I could see it being off putting to someone who just wants to know what works or doesn’t.

In a similar case of you recalling him mentioning the food lab, I believe it was his mentioning of the podcast “Cooking Issues” that made me a subscriber.