Prostate Cancer

NEW YORK - Call it compassionate, even political. But ... scientific? Several experts say there's no hard evidence to support the federal government's declaration this month that 50 kinds of cancer could be caused by exposure to World Trade Center dust. The decision could help hundreds of people get money from a multibillion-dollar World Trade Center health fund to repay those ailing after they breathed in toxic dust created by the collapsing twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. But scientists say there is little research to prove that exposure to the toxic dust plume caused even one kind of cancer.

Chillin' Wit' is a regular feature of the Daily News spotlighting a name in the news away from the job. JOHNNY DOC is waiting for a challenge. "It's up in the air," he says. "If anyone challenges me to run, I'll run. " John J. Dougherty, the business manager for Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, isn't talking about running for political office — not on this day, anyway. It's Sunday, and he's talking about actually running in the Gary Papa Father's Day Run to raise awareness for prostate cancer.

Eating a Greek brunch, visiting dinosaurs in a museum, going for a run — ways to celebrate Father's Day are as varied as fathers themselves. Despite occasional clouds on Sunday, area families took to parks, museums and restaurants with the fathers in their lives. Here are four families who marked Father's Day in Philadelphia. --- Sunday was no day for participants in the 10th Annual Gary Papa Run to sleep in. Tricia Ushler, 34, of Wilmington and her family began waking up at 5:30 a.m. to prepare for the 5K run/walk named for Papa, the longtime 6ABC Action News sports reporter and anchor who died of prostate cancer in June 2009.

Saturday Blooming at the museum The Rosenbach Museum & Library will host its free 20th Bloomsday Celebration from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday in front of the museum at 2008-10 Delancey Place. The museum will celebrate Irish author James Joyce with dramatic readings from Ulysses by more than 75 creative Philadelphians. Frank Delaney, writer, BBC host, and Booker Prize judge, will launch the festivities as the first reader. Rain location is the Trinity Center for Urban Life, 22d and Spruce Streets.

In the span of three days, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs as many times as they had in the last three years. And now the Western Conference finals are suddenly up for grabs. What once seemed like the continuation of one of the most dominant runs in NBA history has turned into a genuine toss-up of a series after the Thunder stopped San Antonio's perfect stretch with two convincing victories in half a week, including Saturday night's 109-103 victory in Game 4 in Oklahoma City.

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

Amid the many messages you will hear about screening for prostate cancer in the coming days, I hope these stand out: There is at best a small potential benefit from prostate cancer screening, and there are substantial known harms. We need a better test, and we need better treatment options. The panel I chair, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, has just issued a recommendation against screening men of any age for prostate cancer using the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test.

DeSean Jackson can relate to LeSean McCoy. Both were second-round picks. Both became Pro Bowl pieces of the Eagles offense while still on modest, by NFL standards, rookie deals. But while Jackson held out of training camp last summer before playing out the final year of his contract, he urged McCoy to take a different approach as he enters the last year of his deal this offseason. "I think it would be in his best interest to come" to offseason practices and camp, Jackson said Friday.

Michael Jackson & Whitney Houston? In a revelation unexpected, strange, and a bit crazy, Michael Jackson's bodyguard tells London's The Sun that the King of Pop had a secret, weeks-long, sexually torrid affair with Whitney Houston. Matt Fiddes says the diva and the divo, who ultimately shared a similar fate, became lovers in 1991. "Whitney practically moved into Michael's [Neverland] ranch — and they had a fling like any other young couple," says Fiddes. But, alas, Houston broke it off. "I know [Jackson]

Technological advances are a major factor in rising U.S. health-care spending. Often, they lead to better care for patients. But now, nonprofit hospitals and private investors across the country are spending fortunes to build a wave of expensive, high-tech proton-beam cancer treatment centers before researchers have established that the treatment works better than cheaper alternatives for many types of cancer. Grassroots support for proton therapy is especially strong among victims of prostate cancer who say the treatment has spared them the nasty side effects of impotence and incontinence associated with surgery and other common treatments.