5. Made lawful to you this
day are At-Tayyibat [all kinds of Halal (lawful) foods, which Allah has
made lawful (meat of slaughtered eatable animals, etc., milk products, fats,
vegetables and fruits, etc.). The food (slaughtered cattle, eatable
animals, etc.) of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) is lawful
to you and yours is lawful to them. (Lawful to you in marriage) are chaste
women from the believers and chaste women from those who were given the
Scripture (Jews and Christians) before your time, when you have given their due Mahr (bridal money given by the husband
to his wife at the time of marriage), desiring chastity (i.e. taking them
in legal wedlock) not committing illegal sexual intercourse, nor taking them as
girl-friends. And whosoever disbelieves in the Oneness of Allah and in all
the other Articles of Faith [i.e. His (Allah's), Angels, His Holy Books,
His Messengers, the Day of Resurrection and Al-Qadar (Divine Preordainments)], then
fruitless is his work, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers.
6. O you who believe! When
you intend to offer As-Salat (the prayer), wash your faces and your
hands (forearms) up to the elbows, rub (by passing wet hands over) your heads,
and (wash) your feet up to ankles . If you are in a state of Janaba (i.e. had a sexual
discharge), purify yourself (bathe your whole body). But if you are ill or
on a journey or any of you comes from answering the call of nature, or you have
been in contact with women (i.e. sexual intercourse) and you find no water,
then perform Tayammum with clean earth and rub therewith
your faces and hands. Allah does not want to place you in difficulty, but He
wants to purify you, and to complete His Favour on you that you may be
thankful. 5. Surah Al-Ma'idah (The Table Spread with Food)
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men, after skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The ACS projects more than 27,000 deaths from prostate cancer in 2015 and is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung cancer. One man in seven will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
“When a prostate cancer tumor is in its early stages, it depends on hormones called androgens to grow,” said Nitin Patel, Ph.D., research scientist at the Institute for Genetic Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and corresponding author on the research. “Eventually it progresses to a more lethal form, called castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), and is resistant to drugs that block androgen receptors. We found that GPR158, unlike other members of the GPCR family, is stimulated by androgens, which in turn stimulates androgen receptor expression, leading to tumor growth.”
The team also discovered that GPR158 is associated with neuroendocrine transdifferentiation (NED) of epithelial prostate tumor cells, which plays a critical role in development of resistance to contemporary androgen receptor-target therapies. The scientists found that prostate cancer patients with elevated GPR158 expression experienced recurrence of prostate cancer. The GPR158 protein is a likely target for new prostate cancer drugs.
The researchers used a conditional Pten knockout mouse model of prostate cancer in collaboration with Keck School of Medicine of USC researchers Mitchell Gross, Chun-Peng Liao and Pradip Roy-Burman.
The team is now exploring the molecular pathways involved in the functional role of GPR158 in NED in the development of CRPC and exploring GPR158-targeted antibody therapeutics.
The study, titled “Expression and Functional Role of Orphan Receptor GPR158 in Prostate Cancer Growth and Progression,” will be published Feb. 18, 2015 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.
The research was produced by the laboratory led by senior author M. Elizabeth Fini. Other USC researchers contributing to the study include Tatsuo Itakura, Shinwu Jeong, Ebrahim Zandi, Susan Groshen, Jacek Pinski and Gerhard A. Coetzee.
Funding for the research was provided by National Institutes of Health grant R01-EY09828 and The Robert E. and May R. Wright Foundation.
New research suggests that a wait-and-watch approach for prostate cancer isn't being used often enough, and that more men are being treated than may be necessary.
Additionally, the researchers expressed concern about the numbers of men being treated with radiation therapy, regardless of their tumor specifics.
"Too many men are being treated for prostate cancer, and too many are being treated with radiation therapy," said study lead author Dr. Karim Chamie, an assistant professor of urology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
But, the researchers weren't able to tease out clear reasons why these things might be happening.
The study appears in the Feb. 19 online edition of the journal JAMA Oncology.
Prostate cancer can often be detected early, and according to the researchers, as many as 233,000 men in the United States are diagnosed with the disease every year. Some of these cancers need to be treated immediately, while others can be watched over time to see how the cancer develops. This is known as active surveillance.
Prostate cancers often fall into a category known as indolent -- this means the cancer generally won't cause problems or isn't expected to be life-threatening, according to background information in the study. Active surveillance may be an option for these cancers.
Because some prostate cancers will never cause a problem, and treatments -- such as radiation or surgery to remove the prostate -- can cause significant side effects, experts have been debating which patients need treatment and who can wait, the study authors explained. Prostate cancer treatments can cause severe side effects such as difficulty urinating and impotence.
Chamie said a better option to treatments in many cases is to monitor patients over time to see if their prostate cancer worsens.
In the new study, the researchers aimed to figure out why many men don't choose that option.
The investigators tracked almost 38,000 men in the United States who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2007. The researchers followed the men, who were all at least 65 when diagnosed, through 2009.
Only 10 percent of those diagnosed chose to forgo treatment, at least temporarily, the study found. Almost 58 percent of the men chose radiation therapy while 19 percent had their prostate removed.
The researchers said that the men who underwent radiation got treatment regardless of the severity of the disease. When it comes to radiation, Chamie said, "patient factors contribute very little to the decision-making process."
Chamie said financial incentives for doctors might play a role in the preference for radiation, especially since reimbursement for radiation is higher than for surgery.
Dr. Sandip Prasad, an assistant professor of urology at the Medical University of South Carolina, who co-wrote a commentary in the same issue of the journal, didn't go as far as to say that radiation is overused. Still, he said, "we believe treatment -- radiation or surgery -- shouldn't be 90 percent of what's being done."
The study only looked at older men, so researchers don't know if these trends are the same in younger men. The study also didn't ask patients why they made the choices they did. In addition, the researchers didn't gather information on survival so they don't know if radiation or surgery helped more than expected in the long run.
Might things be different now, a decade or so after these men were diagnosed? It's possible, Chamie said, with perhaps 20 percent of patients choosing to be monitored instead of 10 percent. "But the most common treatment will still be radiation," Chamie added.
Prasad said it can be difficult to convince patients to not act to treat their prostate cancer.
"Sometimes you almost have to sell it to the patient," he said. "Their innate instinct is to treat that cancer. The reality is that for prostate cancer, there are typically a number of excellent options. Unfortunately, we still don't know the key factors that push patients toward the choices they make."
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), also called androgen suppression therapy, is a treatment for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer cells usually requireandrogen hormones, such as testosterone, to grow. ADT reduces the levels of androgen hormones, with drugs or surgery, to prevent the prostate cancer cells from growing.[1] The pharmaceutical approaches include antiandrogens and chemical castration.
Several studies have concluded that ADT has demonstrated benefit in patients with metastatic disease, and as an adjunct to radiation therapy in patients with locally advanced disease. However, in patients with localized prostate cancer, confined to the prostate, ADT has demonstrated no survival advantage, and significant harm, such as impotence, diabetes and bone loss. Even so, 80% of American doctors provide ADT to patients with localized prostate cancer.[2][3][4][5][6]
The therapy can also eliminate cancer cells by inducing androgen deprivation-induced senescence.[7] Lowering androgen levels or stopping them from getting into prostate cancer cells often makes prostate cancer shrink or grow more slowly for a time. However, this treatment needs to be combined with radiation therapy (RT)[8] because ADT itself does not eradicate thecancer; it just decreases its aggressiveness
What are the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer?
Early prostate cancer usually causes no symptoms. But more advanced prostate cancers can sometimes cause symptoms, such as:
Other conditions can also cause many of these same symptoms. For example, trouble urinating is much more often caused by benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) than cancer. Still, it’s important to tell your doctor if you have any of these problems so that the cause can be found and treated, if needed.
What is prostate cancer?
To understand prostate cancer, it helps to know about the prostate and nearby structures in the body. The prostate is a gland found only in males. It is located below the urinary bladder and in front of the rectum. The size of the prostate changes with age. In younger men, it is about the size of a walnut, but it can be much larger in older men.
The prostate’s job is to make some of the fluid that protects and nourishes sperm cells in semen, making the semen more liquid. Just behind the prostate are glands called seminal vesicles that make most of the fluid for semen. Theurethra, the tube that carries urine and semen out of the body through the penis, goes through the center of the prostate.
The prostate starts to develop before birth. It grows rapidly during puberty, fueled by male hormones (calledandrogens). The main androgen, testosterone, is made in the testicles. The enzyme 5-alpha reductase converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is the main hormone that signals the prostate to grow.
The prostate usually stays at about the same size or grows slowly in adults, as long as male hormones are present.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
The inner part of the prostate (around the urethra) often keeps growing as men get older, which can lead to a common condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In BPH, the prostate tissue can press on the urethra, leading to problems urinating.
BPH is not cancer and does not develop into cancer. But it can be a serious problem for some men. If it requires treatment, drugs can often shrink the prostate or to relax the muscles within it, which usually helps with urine flow. If drugs aren’t helpful, some type of surgery, such as a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) may be needed.
Prostate cancer
Several types of cells are found in the prostate, but almost all prostate cancers develop from the gland cells, which are the cells that make the prostate fluid that is added to the semen. The medical term for a cancer that starts in gland cells is adenocarcinoma.
Other types of cancer can also start in the prostate gland, including sarcomas, small cell carcinomas, and transitional cell carcinomas. But these other types of prostate cancer are so rare that if you have prostate cancer it is almost certain to be an adenocarcinoma.
Some prostate cancers can grow and spread quickly, but most grow slowly. In fact, autopsy studies show that many older men (and even some younger men) who died of other diseases also had prostate cancer that never affected them. In many cases neither they nor their doctors even knew they had it.
What are the risk factors for prostate cancer?
A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, like smoking, can be changed. Others, like a person’s age or family history, can’t be changed.
But risk factors don’t tell us everything. Many people with one or more risk factors never get cancer, while others with this disease may have had few or no known risk factors.
We don’t yet completely understand the causes of prostate cancer, but researchers have found several factors that might affect a man’s risk of getting it.
Age
Prostate cancer is very rare in men younger than 40, but the chance of having prostate cancer rises rapidly after age 50. About 6 in 10 cases of prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65.
Race/ethnicity
Prostate cancer occurs more often in African-American men and Caribbean men of African ancestry than in men of other races. African-American men are also more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer as white men. Prostate cancer occurs less often in Asian-American and Hispanic/Latino men than in non-Hispanic whites. The reasons for these racial and ethnic differences are not clear.
Geography
Prostate cancer is most common in North America, northwestern Europe, Australia, and on Caribbean islands. It is less common in Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America.
The reasons for this are not clear. More intensive screening in some developed countries very likely accounts for at least part of this difference, but other factors such as lifestyle differences (diet, etc.) are likely to be important as well. For example, men of Asian descent living in the United States have a lower risk of prostate cancer than white Americans, but their risk is higher than that of men of similar backgrounds living in Asia.
Family history
Prostate cancer seems to run in some families, which suggests that in some cases there may be an inherited or genetic factor. Having a father or brother with prostate cancer more than doubles a man’s risk of developing this disease. (The risk is higher for men who have a brother with the disease than for those with a father with it.) The risk is much higher for men with several affected relatives, particularly if their relatives were young when the cancer was found.
Gene changes
Scientists have found several inherited gene changes (mutations) that seem to raise prostate cancer risk, but they probably account for only a small percentage of cases overall. For example:
Other inherited gene changes can also raise a man’s risk of prostate cancer.
Some common gene variations have also been linked to a higher risk of prostate cancer in some studies. More studies to confirm this are needed to see if testing for the gene variants will be useful in predicting prostate cancer risk.
Diet
The exact role of diet in prostate cancer is not clear, but several factors have been studied.
Men who eat a lot of red meat or high-fat dairy products appear to have a slightly higher chance of getting prostate cancer. These men also tend to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Doctors aren’t sure which of these factors is responsible for raising the risk.
Some studies have suggested that men who consume a lot of calcium (through food or supplements) may have a higher risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. But most studies have not found such a link with the levels of calcium found in the average diet, and it’s important to note that calcium is known to have other important health benefits.
Obesity
Most studies have not found that being obese (very overweight) is linked with a higher risk of getting prostate cancer overall.
Some studies have found that obese men have a lower risk of getting a low-grade (less dangerous) form of the disease, but a higher risk of getting more aggressive prostate cancer. The reasons for this are not clear.
Some studies have also found that obese men may be at greater risk for having more advanced prostate cancer and of dying from prostate cancer, but not all studies have found this.
Smoking
Most studies have not found a link between smoking and prostate cancer risk. Some research has linked smoking to a possible small increase in the risk of death from prostate cancer, but this finding will need to be confirmed by other studies.
Workplace exposures
There is some evidence that firefighters are exposed to substances (toxic combustion products) that may increase their risk of prostate cancer.
Inflammation of the prostate
Some studies have suggested that prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate gland) may be linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer, but other studies have not found such a link. Inflammation is often seen in samples of prostate tissue that also contain cancer. The link between the two is not yet clear, but this is an active area of research.
Sexually transmitted infections
Researchers have looked to see if sexually transmitted infections (like gonorrhea or chlamydia) might increase the risk of prostate cancer, because they can lead to inflammation of the prostate. So far, studies have not agreed, and no firm conclusions have been reached.
Vasectomy
Some studies have suggested that men who have a vasectomy (minor surgery to make men infertile) have a slightly increased risk for prostate cancer. But other studies have not found an increased risk among men who have had this operation. Research on this possible link is still ongoing.
Can prostate cancer be prevented?
Because the exact cause of prostate cancer is not known, at this time it isn’t possible to prevent most cases of the disease. Many risk factors such as age, race, and family history can’t be controlled. But based on what we do know, there are some things you can do that might lower your risk of prostate cancer.
Body weight, physical activity, and diet
The effects of body weight, physical activity, and diet on prostate cancer risk are not clear, but there may be things you can do that might lower your risk.
Some studies have found that men who are overweight may have a slightly lower risk of prostate cancer overall, but a higher risk of prostate cancers that are likely to be fatal.
Studies have found that men who get regular physical activity have a slightly lower risk of prostate cancer. Vigorous activity may have a greater effect, especially on the risk of advanced prostate cancer.
Several studies have suggested that diets high in certain vegetables (including tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables, soy, beans, and other legumes) or fish may be linked with a lower risk of prostate cancer, especially more advanced cancers. Examples of cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Although not all studies agree, several have found a higher risk of prostate cancer in men whose diets are high in calcium. There may also be an increased risk from consuming dairy foods.
For now, the best advice about diet and activity to possibly reduce the risk of prostate cancer is to:
It may also be sensible to limit calcium supplements and to not get too much calcium in the diet. (This does not mean that men who are being treated for prostate cancer should not take calcium supplements if their doctor recommends them.)
Vitamin, mineral, and other supplements
Some earlier studies suggested that taking certain vitamin or mineral supplements might lower prostate cancer risk. Of special interest were vitamin E and the mineral selenium.
To study the possible effects of selenium and vitamin E on prostate cancer risk, doctors conducted the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Men in this large study took one or both of these supplements or an inactive placebo each day for about 5 years. Neither vitamin E nor selenium was found to lower prostate cancer risk in this study. In fact, men taking the vitamin E supplements were later found to have a slightly higher risk of prostate cancer. For selenium supplements, the risk of prostate cancer was unchanged in men who had lower selenium levels at the start of the study. Men who had higher baseline levels, though, had an increased risk of high-grade (fast-growing) prostate cancer.
Several studies are now looking at the possible effects of soy proteins (called isoflavones) on prostate cancer risk. The results of these studies are not yet available.
Taking any supplements can have both risks and benefits. Before starting vitamins or other supplements, talk with your doctor.
Medicines
Some drugs might help reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
5-alpha reductase inhibitors
5-alpha reductase is the enzyme in the body that changes testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the main hormone that causes the prostate to grow. Drugs called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors block the enzyme and prevent the formation of DHT.
Two 5-alpha reductase inhibitors are already used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous growth of the prostate:
Large studies of both of these drugs have been done to see if they might also be useful in lowering prostate cancer risk. In these studies, men taking either drug were less likely to develop prostate cancer after several years than men getting an inactive placebo.
When the results were looked at more closely, the men who took these drugs had fewer low-grade prostate cancers, but slightly more intermediate or high-grade prostate cancers. Intermediate and high-grade cancers are more likely to grow and spread than low-grade cancers. Long term, though, this didn’t seem to affect death rates – both groups of men had similar survival.
These drugs can cause sexual side effects such as lowered sexual desire and impotence. But they can help with urinary problems from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) such as trouble urinating and leaking urine (incontinence).
Although these drugs are safe, they aren’t approved by the FDA to help prevent prostate cancer. Right now, it isn’t clear that taking finasteride or dutasteride just to lower prostate cancer risk is very helpful. Still, men who want to know more about these drugs should discuss them with their doctors.
Aspirin
Some research suggests that men who take aspirin daily for a long time might have a lower risk of getting and dying from prostate cancer. But more research is needed to show if the possible benefits outweigh the risks. Long-term aspirin use can have side effects, including an increased risk of bleeding in the digestive tract. While aspirin can also have other health benefits, at this time most doctors don’t recommend taking it solely to try to lower prostate cancer risk.
Other drugs
Other drugs and dietary supplements that might help lower prostate cancer risk are now being tested in clinical trials. But so far, no other drug or supplement has been found to be helpful in studies large enough for experts to recommend them.
Men who've had testicular cancer may be at increased risk for prostate cancer, although that risk is low, a new study finds.
"Men with a history of testicular cancer should talk with their doctor about assessingtheir risk for prostate cancer, given there may be an increased risk," said senior study author Dr. Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 180,000 American men for the study. They found that 12.6 percent of those with a history of testicular cancer developed prostate cancer by age 80, compared with 2.8 percent of those who never had testicular cancer.
Men who'd had testicular cancer were also more likely to develop intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer, 5.8 percent versus 1.1 percent, the study found.
Overall, testicular cancer was associated with a 4.7 times higher risk for prostate cancer and 5.2 times higher risk for intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer, the researchers said.
It's important to keep in mind that the chance of intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer is low, and that 95 percent of testicular cancer patients will not get prostate cancer, Siddiqui noted.
The study is scheduled for presentation this week at an American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Fla. Studies presented at meetings are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
"It is too soon to make any practice recommendations based on this single study, but the findings provide groundwork for further research into the biologic link between the two diseases," Siddiqui said in a society news release.
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