Trouble With The Man Gland: Journeys Of a Scientist Patient Exploring The Science of Advanced Prostate Cancer - Paperback

by Otto F. Sankey (Author)

Although it is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, prostate cancer is highly misunderstood. The disease has little effect on many, yet it is deadly to others. The book is a form of expedition-an expedition to explore the scientific wildernesses of biology, chemistry, and physics of the mechanisms that promotes and fuels the deadly form of Prostate Cancer. Readers will journey through the modern understanding of the disease that physicians use to exploit its weaknesses, and that result in therapies to reduce or mitigate its devastation. The expedition is for those who want to dig deeper into the subject of advanced prostate cancer. The account is written in understandable terms for a layman, yet retains some scientific rigor without the numbing jargon used in evidence-based scientific and medical journals. The terrain covered is not the initial treatments of prostate cancer-watchful waiting or active surveillance, proton therapy, brachytherapy, external beam therapy, or radical prostatectomy. There are many good books on these topics. This book is primarily about when prostate cancer takes a turn for the worse, and becomes advanced. Most books stop, or say little, on this topic. We pop the hood and take a look at the inner workings of the disease-the science of the disease, its weak points that therapies attempt to exploit, and we examine some of the experiments that got us to our current understanding. This information is difficult to find in an easily digestible form. Books are less likely to be found on these topics as it is not "mass market," and frankly are much more difficult to write. Hundreds of scientific papers have to be researched to keep up with developments. It should appeal to those with the curiosity of a cat, or the inquisitiveness of a scientist. The magic of several beautiful experiments is explained. As such, prostate cancer patients, scientist, engineers, and biotechnologists who want to get an overview of the science applied to this important health menace will benefit from the expedition. Advanced prostate cancer is a disease that must be fought, and fought hard. Like a military fight, its afflicted must become warriors against the disease. Part of the war chest of a warrior is intelligence (information). We need information to synthesize if we are to produce wisdom. And an abundance of wisdom (and luck) is needed to be successful in the fight. It is not just a patient's physicians that lead the prostate cancer journey that a prostate cancer warrior takes, but instead it is a partnership between patient and physician. The expedition for the reader results in providing current information about the science of the disease so that the prostate cancer warrior becomes a kind of Captain Clark, who works side by side with his co-expedition physician leader Captain Lewis to explore the forbidding landscape of this disease.

Author Biography

Otto F. Sankey is a Regents' Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Arizona State University in Tempe AZ. He has worked in several areas of physics, mainly theoretical and computational materials physics and biological physics. He is a founding at member of the Center of Biological Physics at ASU, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, recipient of Arizona State University Faculty Achievement Award - Most Influential Paper (Research), recipient Distinguished Alumni Award University of Missouri-St. Louis, and twice recipient of teaching awards at ASU. He has authored with students, and collaborators around the world 225 papers in scientific journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Nature Nanotechnology, and Physical Review Letters. His work is highly cited by fellow scientists. He was diagnosed with advance prostate cancer in October of 2013. Since then he has become a prostate cancer "warrior" fighting the disease, facilitates an UsTOO prostate cancer support and education group, and initiated a personal expedition exploring the science of prostate cancer, which he wishes to share with this book.