DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please, please, please answer a question about organ donations. I belong to a bridge club with 12 members. Every time we meet, this discussion comes up, and there are 12 different opinions. Two members are in their 90s, three in their 80s and the rest of us are in our 60s and 70s – not exactly spring chickens. Our state has a check-off on our driver’s license for organ donations, and we all think this is great. But some of the gals think this is foolish because after age 60, no organs would be taken for transplant. Is there such a cutoff? – Anon.

ANSWER: There is no age cutoff for organ donation. It’s a common misconception to think that there is. The suitability of an organ for transplantation is based on other criteria. Indicate on your driver’s licenses that you wish to be a donor. More importantly, tell this to all your family so that when the next of kin is asked about a donation, that person will respond according to your wishes.

Kudos to your bridge club for its altruism. The demand for organs far exceeds the supply. Would that everyone would follow your example.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My sweetheart has been told he has bladder cancer. Is it treatable? Is the prognosis dim? I’m stressed. – P.D.

ANSWER: Your sweetheart must be stressed too.

Bladder cancer is treatable, often curable, and the prognosis isn’t always dim. The five-year survival rate for bladder cancer patients is in the 80 percent range.

The prognosis depends on the size of the cancer, the number of cancers in the bladder, how early the cancer has been discovered, the depth it has penetrated into the bladder wall and whether it has spread to any distant body sites.

Bladder cancer has one disturbing quality: It has a high recurrence rate. For that reason, all bladder cancer patients are put on a schedule for follow-up cystoscopies – scope examinations of the bladder.

Treatment depends on the same considerations used to determine prognosis. Most newly discovered bladder cancers are on the bladder surface and can be removed through the cystoscope. Often, after cystoscopic removal, BCG is instilled into the bladder. BCG is a vaccine used for TB prevention in many parts of the world. The vaccine stimulates bladder cells’ immunity to cancer recurrence.

If the cancer is large, has penetrated into the bladder’s muscular wall or has spread to sites outside the bladder, treatment might entail surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of all three.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am a 55-year-old male. I have developed Peyronie’s disease. I have searched the Internet for solutions but find minimal information on truly successful treatments.

Although my condition is painless and not nearly as severe as some of the illustrations portrayed on the Internet, it has taken a toll on me, mentally and emotionally.

What information can you share with me on this condition and successful treatments? – J.

ANSWER: Estimates say that 1 percent of adult men have Peyronie’s disease, so you are not alone. It comes on between the ages of 45 and 60. The penis begins to curve horizontally or vertically because scar tissue has formed on its tough inner wrapping. The bend can be painful, and often it makes it impossible to have sexual relations.

The reason this develops isn’t known for sure. The consensus opinion is that slight, usually unperceived trauma is responsible for the formation of scar tissue through the years.

Treatments are many, but that isn’t a good sign – a multitude of treatments indicates that there is no perfect one. Vitamin E, a drug called Potaba, injections of the blood pressure/heart medicine verapamil or injections of cortisone into the scar tissue have met with some success.

For some men, the condition either gets better or disappears on its own.

If the condition is severe, surgical correction is possible.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have been taking Adalat for high blood pressure for several years. I live in a place with very productive grapefruit trees in my backyard. On the printout with my medicine is a note to avoid grapefruit. I have asked knowledgeable people about this and have gotten the answer that it takes about two hours for the blood pressure medicine to clear my system. Grapefruit after that time should be acceptable. So I have been eating grapefruit as a before-bed snack. Do you agree? – L.H.

ANSWER: The grapefruit story goes like this: Grapefruit increases the blood levels of some medicines. Your Adalat is one of them. The increased level of medicine could drop your pressure too low.

This grapefruit (and grapefruit juice) effect stays around for 24 hours. Medicines affected by grapefruit should not be taken if any grapefruit has been eaten in the past 24 hours, or if any grapefruit juice was drunk in that time.

The only way to resume grapefruit eating safely is to switch to another blood pressure medicine.

Doctors and druggists should warn patients about the handful of medicines for which grapefruit can be a problem.

Out of curiosity, have you taken your blood pressure when you were eating grapefruit? Was it lower than usual?

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.