Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer

or Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Understanding Treating Maintaining Quality of Life

This one-page website is here so that men facing this disease may find a pathway to current helpful resources.

The Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer (HRPCa) Association was a volunteer organization of one hundred men with HRPCa, their family members and their caregivers that existed from 1999 to 2016. Members were from all over the U.S., Canada, and the globe. They were not doctors or medical professionals. They were people who believed in sharing what they learned with others because HRPCa (or CRPC) is a serious disease stage. They communicated through an online discussion group and a website.

The association was founded by five men facing the disease at a time when there was little that the medical community could offer beyond a dismal prognosis. The men sought answers that would maintain quality of life and extend survival. What they learned is that there was a lot of information out there that enabled them to understand this disease better, to take control of the treatment knowledgeably, and to treat the disease more effectively. The knowledge gave them confidence and reduced the stress of living with the disease. They firmly believed that patients would get the best results when they worked cooperatively with a good medical team. Perhaps most importantly, they provided hope, encouragement and guidance along the journey with HRPCa.

Since 2010 an array of new treatments has become available and oncology specialists are hard at work figuring out how best to use sequence and combine them for maximum benefit. The prognosis is now more hopeful than dismal but a cure has yet to be found.

This tribute page is dedicated to the original founders Bob Cummins, Jim Wolf, Bill Aishman, Bob Benson and Howard Hansen; the numerous others that kept the group going after the founders died of their disease; and to the more than 30,000 men who die of hormone refractory prostate cancer every year.