‘Dilbert' cartoon creator says he has same prostate cancer as Joe Biden
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip, which was canceled by most newspapers two years ago over the creator's racist comments, said Monday that he has been diagnosed with the same aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden.
'I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has,' Scott Adams said Monday during an episode of his YouTube show, 'Real Coffee with Scott Adams. 'So, I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones.'
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CTV News
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- CTV News
Here's how you can follow along as peregrine falcon chicks grow up in Edmonton
A peregrine falcon can be seen feeding its four chicks at the Bell Tower nesting site. (Photo: YouTube/Alberta Conservation Association) The first public peregrine falcon chicks are hatching in Alberta. A brood of four chicks can be seen at the Bell Tower on the Alberta Conservation Association's (ACA) live cameras. The feeds are set up at five nest sites in the Edmonton area, allowing viewers to keep 24-hour tabs on families during nesting season. Pairs started laying eggs in April, and the first on-camera chicks hatched at the end of May. Viewers will be able to watch them grow until the fall when the young will fledge. Bell Tower peregrine falcon chicks Four peregrine falcon chicks can be seen at a nesting site at Bell Tower. (Photo: YouTube/Alberta Conservation Association) Peregrine falcons – the fastest animals on earth with diving speeds of more than 320 km/hour – were endangered in Alberta until 1999, a result of steep population declines caused by pesticide use in the 1950s and 60s. The province reports just three pairs, and only one reproductive pair, were found in 1970. To protect the species, those birds were taken into captivity to breed. peregrine falcon Shell Scotford A peregrine falcon can be seen with four eggs at the Shell Scotford nesting site. (Photo: YouTube/Alberta Conservation Association) Thanks to recovery efforts, peregrine falcons were reclassified as a threatened species in Alberta in 2000. Only the Bell Tower nest had chicks as of Wednesday, but both the Genesee and Shell Scotford nests had eggs expected to hatch any day. The peregrine pair at the University of Alberta nest had no eggs because the female is a yearling and not ready to lay. However, the ACA said there is still lots to see as the couple hunt, eat and she undergoes her moult into adult plumage. U of A peregrine falcons A male (left) and female peregrine falcon can be seen eating at the University of Alberta nesting site. (Photo: YouTube/Alberta Conservation Association) The ACA said not to be alarmed should a few chicks disappear during the season. Due to high fledgling mortality in urban centres, two or three chicks are removed for conservation purposes. Those chicks will be raised by captive adult falcons (who have a hard time telling the difference between their own young and other chicks) and will be released into the Pembina and North Saskatchewan River valleys. 'The results are difficult to ignore,' the ACA says on its website. 'The peregrine population in Alberta has gone from one productive pair in 1970 to an estimated 80 pairs today. In southern Canada, the species has gone from three productive pairs in 1975 to several hundred.'
CBC
31-05-2025
- CBC
New treatments could turn advanced prostate cancer into a 'chronic disease' instead of a death sentence
Social Sharing Many people with advanced prostate cancer are living much longer due to new treatments, leading prostate cancer doctors say. Though they're not often a cure, these innovations are turning a disease once considered a death sentence into a chronic illness that can be managed for years in some patients. Dr. Laurence Klotz, a urologic oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and chair of prostate cancer research at the Toronto hospital, said patients with metastatic prostate cancer — meaning it's spread to other parts of the body — live "roughly twice as long now as they did 10 or 15 years ago, which is really a significant achievement." "The disease can be controlled, often for a long time — but a cure is generally not in the cards," Klotz told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC podcast The Dose. When former U.S. president Joe Biden announced recently that he'd been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to the bone, it raised questions about what the prognosis might be like for him and for others whose prostate cancers aren't detected at earlier stages. Biden's case may be "at the worst end" of a spectrum of prostate cancers, said Klotz. That's not only because the disease has spread but because of how quickly his cancer cells are likely to duplicate based on how they look under a microscope. But that scenario is quite rare, Klotz says. "So whereas, say, 15 years ago, the average patient with metastatic prostate cancer would live about three years, now the survival is more like five to six years," he said. There are also "big ranges around that estimate," said Klotz, who is also a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. "You have some patients who may live 10 or 15 years despite having metastatic disease. And unfortunately, you have others where the disease progresses very rapidly, despite all these new therapeutic advances, and the patient can sometimes die within a year." Thomas Flannery is among those whose advanced prostate cancer has been managed for many years. The Toronto resident was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 at 56, when his family doctor decided to run a prostate-specific antigen blood test as part of a routine physical. That led to a biopsy, which found cancer in both halves of the prostate gland and in the seminal vesicles, glands that produce the fluid that becomes semen. "I ended up having a radical prostatectomy with Dr. Klotz at Sunnybrook, and following that I went on three years of what's called androgen deprivation therapy," said Flannery. At that time, the disease had already spread to Flannery's lymph nodes. New treatments Androgen deprivation therapy suppresses the body's testosterone production, a hormone most prostate cancer needs to survive. It's part of a host of treatments Flannery has needed over the years, including a course of chemotherapy in 2020. New treatment options can be key to extending people's lives. The standard androgen deprivation therapy works by telling the testicles to stop producing testosterone, said medical oncologist and prostate cancer researcher Dr. Kim Chi. "Over the past five to 10 years, we know that just doing that alone, although it's very effective initially, the cancer can come back quite quickly," said Chi, who is also vice-president and chief medical officer at BC Cancer. That's because the cancer draws testosterone from other places in the body, such as the adrenal gland, and additionally, prostate cancer can produce its own testosterone, he says. However, a new class of drugs, called androgen receptor pathway inhibitors, block the body's ability to absorb those sources of testosterone, Chi said. "Not only are we blocking the gasoline, which is the testosterone, we're also blocking the receptor — or blocking the engine from actually receiving that gasoline," he said. "It's like putting a blockage in the fuel line." Extending your life Having these new drugs available has dramatically improved survival rates, said Chi, who is also a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. For the portion of prostate cancers that are shown to be associated with gene mutations, promising new drugs that target the genes seem poised to prolong life even further, he said, as do drugs that deliver strong, targeted radiation directly to the prostate cancer at a molecular level. "I'd like to see this turned into a chronic disease that we just manage and keep under control. No, we may not cure it, but we can keep it controlled for many years," said Chi. "If I can manage somebody for five, 10, 15, 20 years until something else inevitably takes your life, then we've done a good job, too, and I think we can get there." Lifestyle factors Now 70, Flannery says he advises others with advanced prostate cancer to stick closely to their drug regimens but also to pay close attention to lifestyle factors. He said he adheres to a Mediterranean diet because of its health benefits and has significantly reduced how much red meat he eats. "The other thing that's extremely important and really difficult to explain to people is the need to do exercise." A healthy diet and regular exercise help counter some of the negative effects of androgen deprivation therapy, he said, which can include metabolic syndrome — something that can cause weight gain around the midsection. "It's important to keep your weight to a trim amount," he said. "You don't have to be a gym rat, but you need to get yourself into shape so that you don't get secondary comorbidities like diabetes." WATCH | Dr. Peter Black on Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis Vancouver doctor on Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis 12 days ago Duration 5:09 At 70, Flannery is now retired from his job in the aerospace industry and works as a patient advocate, consulting with researchers on new treatment protocols. He's started a national support group for people with advanced prostate cancer and provides peer counselling. "Right now, I'm being the general contractor for the build of a new house," said Flannery. "I like to ride a bicycle. I like to ski both cross-country and downhill." He and his wife also enjoy sailing. All this, despite the fact that Flannery's disease has now metastasized extensively, including to the pleura, the sac that surrounds the lungs. "So currently I'm relatively healthy. Outward, no one would know that I have prostate cancer," he said. "I just have to take drugs every day."
CTV News
30-05-2025
- CTV News
Biden says he's ‘feeling good' in first remarks after cancer diagnosis announced
NEW CASTLE, Del. — Former U.S. president Joe Biden delivered the first remarks since he announced he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer Friday, speaking in a steady voice during a somber Memorial Day gathering and later smiling and saying he's 'feeling good.' Biden spoke at an annual gathering marking Memorial Day at Veterans Memorial Park in his home state of Delaware, not far from his home in Wilmington. The event coincided with the 10th anniversary of his son Beau's death. It also comes amid renewed questions about Biden's mental and physical health after the recent publication of a book about his fitness for office. Speaking to reporters after the Memorial Day event, he said he was already undergoing treatment for cancer, which entailed taking a pill, he said. 'The expectation is we're gonna be able to beat this,' he said. 'I'm feeling good.' Biden dropped his reelection bid in July 2024 after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump, after which those in his party questioned whether he could continue as the party's nominee. Questions about his decline and how the White House staff reacted to it are at the center of a recent book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which has renewed the debate. Asked Friday if he had a response to recent questions about his mental and physical health, he smiled and engaged with the reporter. 'You can see I'm mentally incompetent and I can walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,' he said. In response to Democrats who question whether he should have initially run for reelection at all, he said: 'Why didn't they run against me then? Because I'd have beaten them.' During his formal remarks, he called upon the group to remember the sacrifices of those lost in battle, whose echoes he said can still be heard. He also spoke of his son, Beau, who died at 46 of brain cancer. A twice-elected state attorney general, Beau Biden was considering a run for governor, and his death deeply affected the elder Biden. 'This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq, and, to be honest, it's a hard day,' the former president said. 'Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So, thank you for allowing me to grieve with you.'
