Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr., a true pioneer in the television industry, passed away Sunday morning lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was 82.

Friends say he impacted almost every corner of TV programming for decades. If he wasn’t in front of a crowd, he was behind the camera or behind the scenes, credited with shaping the television world.

Griffin began his TV career over half a century ago. His number one hit “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” propelled his career in 1950.

He launched Jeopardy! in the 1960’s, and the show still brings good ratings even today. The broadcasting pioneer sold his shows in 1986, as well as Merv Griffin Enterprises. They went for a reported value of $250 million, and a share of future profits. It was reported that Griffin made $80 million in royalties alone for composing the theme song to Jeopardy!.

Merv Griffin was initially diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996. He made good progress against the cancer but then his condition declined rapidly, and by Friday he was reported to be in grave condition.

Merv Griffin is survived by his only son, Anthony. “My father was a visionary,” he said. “He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized.”

FRIDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) — A component of green tea, combined with low doses of the cox-2 inhibitor painkiller Celebrex, may be able to slow prostate cancer growth, according to a U.S. study.

Previous research found that, individually, both the green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a known antioxidant, and cox-2 inhibitors helped fight prostate cancer in animals.

In this study of cultured human prostate cancer cells and mice, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that a combination of EGCG and the cox-2 inhibitor celecoxib (Celebrex) was 15 percent to 28 percent more effective in slowing the growth of cancer cells than either agent alone.

The study, which was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, was published March 1 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

“Celecoxib and green tea have a synergistic effect — each triggering cellular pathways that, combined, are more powerful than either agent alone. We hope that a clinical trial could lead to a preventative treatment as simple as tea time,” Hasan Mukhtar, professor of dermatology and a member of the Paul Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a prepared statement.

“Prostate cancer typically arises from more than one defect in the cellular mechanics, which means that a single therapeutic might not work fighting a particular cancer long-term. If tests in human trials replicate (the results of this study), we could see a powerful combined therapy that is both simple to administer and relatively cost effective,” Mukhtar said.

Attorney General and Tsawwassen resident Wally Oppal has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he says the treatment shouldn’t keep him away from his work for long.

Oppal said he is scheduled to have surgery March 20, and after the initial shock of the diagnosis he is confident about his recovery.

“I play basketball, I lift weights, I don’t smoke, I’m in fairly good health I thought, until they found this lump in a routine checkup,” Oppal said Thursday. “It’s very disconcerting. It’s a shock when you’re told you have cancer, but after you gather your emotional thoughts, you have to get your life together.”

Returning to the legislature after making an announcement in Vancouver about his condition, Oppal said he isn’t feeling any fatigue and doesn’t expect to be off work for long.

“I expect I’ll be a few days away, but I’m going to be working out of my Vancouver office,” the former B.C. Court of Appeal judge said. “I’m going to get a condo very close to it so they can bring me work.”

Oppal was joined at his Vancouver announcement by Premier Gordon Campbell and Tourism Minister Stan Hagen, who had a full recovery after surgery for prostate cancer. He urged older men to overcome their embarrassment and see their doctor for a checkup that includes a digital rectal examination.

Fifteen years follow up after studying 223 patients with localized prostate cancer showed that radioactive seed implants are a highly effective treatment in combination with conventional external beam radiation.Seed implants, also called brachytherapy, are small radioactive pellets about the size of a grain of rice. The pellets are implanted into the prostate; they deliver radiation to the prostate cancer from the inside.

Most good-prognosis patients who choose seed implants do not receive other treatments. Patients with more aggressive tumors may get seed implants plus external beam radiation.

Three out of four patients in the study remained disease free at least 15 years after treatment ended. It is not clear from the study if the patients would have fared equally well with either the seed implants or external-bean radiation therapy alone, however they are confident the combined therapy is very effective in treating prostate cancer.

Dr Abdul Qadeer has satisfactorily recovered from prostate cancer surgery as the minor complication has been overcome with medical treatment.

The Pakistani scientist who confessed to leaking nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya is in “excellent health” following cancer surgery, the military said Saturday.

Abdul Qadeer Khan is considered the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, making the country the known only Muslim nation to possess atomic bombs.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have come up with another reason for men to watch their diets: Low cholesterol might protect them from the most aggressive form of prostate cancer.

This isn’t the first time medical researchers have linked fats to cancer and its consequences. Recent studies have linked obesity to higher death rates from several types of the disease, and a previous Johns Hopkins study found that men on cholesterol-lowering drugs were less likely to develop fast-growing prostate tumors.

“We already know that maintaining a good range of cholesterol concentrations is important for cardiovascular health,” said Elizabeth A. Platz, epidemiologist of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. “Now we know there may be a benefit for other diseases, possibly prostate cancer.”

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In a message on his website, former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Lesh revealed that he will undergo surgery in early December to have the cancer removed.

“Since we’ve caught it very early, and it’s small and slow-growing, I fully expect to have a rapid and complete recovery,” he stated.

The 66-year-old, who plays with his band Phil Lesh and Friends, was a founding member of the Grateful Dead. He was the band’s bassist for 30 years before they disbanded in 1995 due to the death of frontman and guitarist Jerry Garcia.

Dr. Harry Neuwirth is an oncologist at Sutter Marin General Hospital. He says the prostate is a gland that produces semen. As men get older, especially past 50, the prostate can become a cancer magnet. He urges annual blood tests beginning at 50, and at 40 for men with a family history of the disease.
“Patients with localized prostate cancer have a lot of excellent options now,” Dr. Neuwirth said. “With PSA screening, about three quarters of the patients are curable.

In the statement, Lesh said all his scheduled appearances will remain intact. He also sent a message to everyone: “Speak to your doctor about having periodic regular PSA screening for early detection of prostate cancer—you may save your own life.” He added that he’s grateful to be alive. “The message is, be tested,” Lesh said.

Results from the largest study of men with prostate cancer treated with high-dose, intensity modulated radiation (IMRT) show that 89 percent of men were disease free eight years later. Patients were treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and classified into prognostic risk groups. After an average of eight years, 89 percent of the men in the favorable risk group were disease-free and none of the men in any group developed secondary cancers as a result of the radiation treatments.This report, published in the October 2006 issue of The Journal of Urology, is the first description of long term outcomes for prostate cancer patients using IMRT. Intensity modulated radiation is an improved form of three-dimensional conformal radiation (3D-CRT). IMRT uses enhanced planning treatment software that more precisely targets the prostate, allowing the beam of radiation to deliver a high dose to the tumor target while sparing the adjacent bladder and rectum from exposure to the higher amounts of radiation.

Dr. Michael J. Zelefsky, Chief of the Brachytherapy Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, said “This study confirms that we can improve patients’ quality of life by reducing the side effects of radiotherapy while maintaining disease-free survival.”

Bicalutamide (Casodex) is an antiandrogen or hormonal therapy. Daily treatment with bicalutamide is shown to cut the risk of progression of prostate cancer by 44 percent. It can also reduce the overall risk of death by 35 percent.

The study was done on 1370 patients who were randomized to receive either radiation and a placebo or radiation and 150mg once a day tablet bicalutamide. The findings showed that patients with locally advanced prostate cancer receiving the bicalutamide faired better than those with the placebo. This may be a more suitable treatment instead of castration therapies which can adversely affect the patient’s quality of life.

Bicalutamide has additional quality of life benefits relative to castration in terms of maintaining sexual interest, physical ability, and bone mineral density.

Hormone refractory prostate cancer is when the prostate cancer cells continue to grow after an initial period of success with hormonal therapy. Most prostate cancers are hormone dependent and require male sex hormones to grow, usually over time the prostate cancer cells develop the ability to grow in the absence of the male hormones.

In this randomized Phase III trial, men with hormone refractory prostate cancer that has metastasized will receive standard chemotherapy with the drugs docetaxel and prednisone. Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to additionally receive treatment with a monoclonal antibody called bevacizumab (Avastin).

Avastin works by stopping some cancers from developing new blood vessels. This reduces the cancer’s supply of oxygen and nutrients, which causes the tumor to shrink, or at least to stop growing. Drugs that interfere with blood vessel growth in this way are called angiogenesis inhibitors or anti-angiogenics.

This Phase III trial will answer the question of whether adding bevacizaumab to docetaxal and prednisone actually does improve survival over the current standard of care.