Prostate Cancer Blog

Archive for the ‘Prostate Cancer Treatment’ Category

I had twenty sessions of EBR (External Beam Radiation) therapy followed by two sessions of Temporary Implant HDR (High Dose Radiation) Brachytherapy (not all hospitals have the necessary specialist equipment to offer this option, though).
My treatment also included a three year course of hormone treatment with the testosterone-stopper CASODEX. It is now four years since I was diagnosed and all is well. The brachytherapy was the unpleasant part. 15 catheters were inserted into the affected parts of my prostate gland through the perenium under general anaesthetic and I was peeing, pooing and cumming blood for about a week afterwards! A highly radioactive bead is sent on a wire down each catheter in turn for twenty seconds. The whole thing is repeated 24 hours later when the catheters are first checked to make sure they haven’t moved overnight. In my case six had to be repositioned and this was done whilst I was conscious – painful! It wasn’t a pleasant experience but it seems to have worked, fingers crossed.
The advantage of radiotherapy over having the prostate removed is that I didn’t end up having any bowel or urinary problems, which is a high risk with surgery. Also, luckily, now that I am off the Casodex and my testosterone levels have returned to normal, I have resumed sexual activities (without viagra, too!) except my ejaculate volume has decreased to just a few drops, but that doesn’t worry me too much.
Hope this helps, and good luck.

Amplified ED problems make life not worth living

Hi, i think the first reply to your question is cruel, as cancer is frightening for everyone regardless of the stage of diagnosis.

The fact that the stage is early hopefully means the treatment wont be too invasive. Give yourself time and do the things in life you would usually enjoy. depression and anxiety can become habitual so try and force yourself to think positively. Not easy i know but making myself think positive thoughts has helped me to overcome depression.

Hope you find the support and help you need.

It would have been very helpful if you had said what stage prostate cancer you are talking about and your age since there is a tremendous difference between very early prostate cancer and metastatic disease and also the slow growing prostate cancer which is often found in elderly men.

Often with early prostate cancer that is still confined to the prostate gland the Dr may just wait and watch since often prostate cancer progresses very slowly. There are a variety of treatment options from radiation, implanted radioactive seeds, surgery, anti-androgen therapy and many more options depending on the size and location of the prostate cancer.

Here are some good web pages that discuss your various treatment options and their side effects.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/cancer/treatment/264.html

http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/site/c.itIWK2OSG/b.1420081/k.93C6/Side_Effects.htm

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_Prostate_Cancer_Treatment_Side_Effects_Impact_Mens_Outlook.asp

http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20080319/life-quality-after-prostate-cancer

Read up at these sites and then add additional info about your age and disease staging and I will try and answer any specific questions that you might have.

all the best

I am diagnosed Prostate Cancer by high PSA.PSA is 5 and I am 58 years old. I am worried a lot.
How to find the best doctor who will give me best possible cure will know all experimental options available?
I called University Hospital and they gave me appointment on 27th sept,07 which is one month later and this is not right. I feel I should have biopsy as soon as possible and if tumor is still localized ,then it should be removed as soon as possible.
There are so many doctors and so many treatments. Every one is saying that he is the best and have best results. I am confused and my life and future is at stake. Can somebody guide me how to pick the best doctor and best procedure and most importantly what you will do if you are in my place?
Also what kind of diet ,exercises and non medical measures will help. I have a wife and five kids and they all are worrying equally. Sorry for trouble and thanks for the possible help.

The National Cancer Institute has a list of designated comprehensive Cancer Centers throughout the US. These centers are among the best cancer programs in the world, they share information, most of them are involved in innovative cancer treatment and research.

NCI: Designated Cancer Centers

http://cancercenters.cancer.gov/cancer_centers/cancer-centers-list.html

You might also ask other people with this disease where to go and what the best treatment might be:

Prostate Cancer Foundation

http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/

NCI: Prostate Cancer

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate

ACOR: The Prostate Problems Mailing List

http://listserv.acor.org/archives/prostate.html

I received radiation for 2 months in 2003.Since that time my PSA COUNT is an average of 0.6.
I this within normal limits and is not supposed to drop lower than that after treatment?

I’m not sure what your question is, but your PSA is great and “Fer” is no doctor.

Honestly, its better you consult a specialist. I really want to help but I don’t think I can give better answers than specialist do. Sorry.

good luck

Love is omnipresence, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

a family member has stage 3 prostate cancer. his insurance is declining to pay saying it was a pre exsisting condition. where should he go for help. obviously time is of the essence.

I dont know what stage 3 is.. BUT I had prostate cancer in 2005 and was given a harmone shot called lupron to start with .. One lupron shot will put the cancer on hold for about 4 months.. and if his cancer isnt real bad there is a possibility that it can keep him alive 8-10 years… The shots cost about $1,200.00 to $1,500.00 each.. dont know if this will work for you.. If he is near California .. he might call Loma Linda University Medical Center..Proton Radiation Department.. They treat lots of prostate cancer there and it is a Seven Day Adventist Hospital.. I have no idea if they would help him if he explained his situation.. all I know is that they are some of the nicest people I have ever met.. wish I could help more..

I saw studies that pomgranate juice had helped men after receiving radiation treatment & now they’re recruiting for double blind clinical study. ? is that since it fights free radicals, will it interfere with radiation treatment. Friend has 9 more scheduled radiations and has already undergone 30+

If you take pomegranates and make the juice, it may help a little, but the real help are several things. I cannot legally tell a person not to get chemotherapy, but I can tell you that if I had that diagnosis, I would not get that garbage. Treating the symptoms without getting rid of the "root cause" is just NOT good science in my opinion.

If your friend continues to choose that route, the best thing to combat radiation is GREEN TEA. You can get an extract of green tea that is very powerful and each tsp. is equivalent to 20 cups of green tea, but without the caffeine and fluoride. Typical green tea is loaded with fluoride and that depletes the body of iodine.

I have two basic suggestions for your friend that may help him. The first, is to look at his front teeth, in particular 2 upper and 2 lower. If any of those have infection, trauma, etc. that has a huge potential for being the root cause of the prostate issue. He will need to see a REAL dentist, not the guy down the street that is using the typical "standard of care" dentistry and still believes amalgam fillings are safe. As an aside just for your own enjoyment and education on this issue, watch this video:

http://www.milldental.com/millennium/webvideo/MercuryDanger/SmokingTooth_200k.wmv

The next thing I would do is get the book called, "Cancer can be cured" by Father Romano Zago. Once you have read that book and you want to follow it, I know a company that is producing the product and people are actually being helped, unlike the radiation and chemo that allows the root of the problem to continue and the body to deteriorate while they try to treat the cancer itself.

EDIT: Wow, the "don’t eat or drink antioxidants" post is quite alarming and completely against any advice given by real experts. Doctors have no clue what they are talking about in regard to nutrition and just ask yourself, what gets rid of free radicals in the body? Antioxidants. To limit your intake of that is to allow free reign of free radicals and to limit your intake of antioxidants not only promotes disease, but but shortens your life!

The other post referring to Green Tea inhibiting the effect of chemotherapy is correct. Green Tea protects the body against radiation and toxins. A now released study of the Japanese people that went through the radiation from the bomb in WWII showed that the people that drank over 20 cups of green tea per day did not have the radiation poisoning that people who did not drink the tea.

In 1972, according to the American Cancer Societies own figures, 33% of cancers had a five year survival rate. We should also point out that at that same time 33% of cancers went away on their own.

Today, according to the ACS, the five year survival rate for cancer has risen to 40%.

However, what they do not tell you is that

1.The statistics are invalid because they combine data of both local and metastasized cancers; and that the comparisons are not randomized [Ulrich Abel, Advanced Epithelial Cancer", 1990 (no longer in print) ]
2.Cancers not factored into the original statistics are now factored in, such as skin cancers, many of which are not fatal and that the statistics are purposely inflated by including people with benign cancers.
3.Technology has helped us to find cancers earlier, thus the survival time from diagnosis to eventual death has lengthened.
4.They are now including in their stats non deadly skin cancers.

We pride ourselves in America for being technologically advanced and that our technology is rooted in a foundation of good science. Wrong. When it comes to medicine, little at all is based upon science. Again we shall point to the Office of Technological Assessment’s paper: Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technologies in which we are told that fewer than 20% of all medical procedures have been tested, and that of those tested, half were tested badly.
Medicine in America is not about healing.

When you are diagnosed with cancer, you are suddenly worth $300,000.00 to the cancer industry. Most telling, according to Ralph Moss in his book Questioning Chemotherapy, is that in a good number of surveys, chemotherapists have responded that they would neither recommend chemotherapy for their families nor would they use it themselves. Dr Dan Harper, reported about an unpublished cohort study in which it was revealed that only 9% of oncologists took chemotherapy for their cancers.

Irwin Bross, a biostatistician for the National Cancer Institute, discovered that many cancers that are benign (though thought to be malignant) and will not metastasize until they are hit with chemotherapy. In other words, he’s found that many people who’ve been diagnosed with metastatic cancer did not have metastatic cancer until they got their chemotherapy. For many cancers, chemotherapy just does not improve your survival rate. Some of these are colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, bladder, breast, ovarian, cervical and corpus uteri, head and neck.

Knowing this, oncologists still recommend a regimen of chemotherapy.

When President Reagan had his colon cancer successfully removed by surgery, his health was reported daily as he recovered. On his return to work, a spokesperson appeared, proclaimed him cured, and that was that. However, very nearly every patient who undergoes surgery for colon cancer gets put on chemotherapy afterwards. Why not President Reagan?

Dr. Charles Simone, who today handles cancers with diet and lifestyle changes was hired on as the president’s personal oncologist. The public never learned of this because the good doctor, was stuffed into a grocery truck and made his entrance into the white house through the backdoor where deliveries are made. When questioning some top oncologists in the country, their were a lot of questions presented to them, one of them being: “Knowing the odds of successful outcome using chemotherapy are nil in many cancer cases, why do you continue to prescribe chemotherapy?”

The answer was this: “We give it to patients so they won’t give up hope and fall into the hands of quacks.” Quacks? Implicit in the definition of quackery is the sale of worthless or dangerous nostrums for profit. Who exactly are the quacks here?

If a person dies during a chemotherapy study, that information is NOT included in the write up because the patient did NOT complete the study. This is NOT good science, but it seems our medical industry hides behind white coats and when you have a lot of BIG money to spend, first it’s easy to spend other people’s money and second, money doesn’t talk, it SCREAMS.

To fight cancer, as any disease, if you attack the disease itself, you are treating symptoms and chasing it instead of confronting the "root cause" of the problem. It is more than obvious that doctors have NO clue of how the body works and are practicing medicine (that is administering drugs) instead of concentrating on making that person healthy.

Chemotherapy is simply destructive, costly, and ineffective in the majority of cancer victims. Like the oncologists, I would not subject myself to that insanity, but that is me who is working tirelessly to make people healthy and does NOT treat diseases, but focuses on promoting health.

good luck to you

My husband had seeds implanted and radiation 2 years ago. The first 2 month were kind of hard as he had burning with his bowl movement . It will depends on which treatment you use and there are several . He is back to his old self now and just has yearly check ups. Good luck.

Has there been a breakthrough in prostate cancer treatment?

This is the free alternative for cancer patients.Do it and you will know from the future test results.You can also do it alongside any medical treatment.It is very natural and works like chemotherapy – destroys only the cancer cells.
Cancer hates oxygen and cannot live in a high-oxygen environment.If you want to supplement the medical treatment you receive(or not receive) with some alternative therapy then this is for you. You need to help your body to build up your immune system.The breathing exercises – pranayam is a holistic approach creating extra oxygen supply in the body and will slowly help with the health problem.Do the pranayam to see the benefits.Build up your timing slowly and after four weeks at the suggested maximum duration you will start to notice benefits gradually.If you feel tired or dizzy,stop and resume later.
What is known: pranayam helps the body heal itself. How it works in the body is not known – but people may build their own theory. You have to do it yourself for your benefit.
The small print: Keep doing pranayam after you are better for minimum 30 minutes a day for rest of life to maintain health.

People who have been treated successfully, should do pranayam as well, as there is a chance of recurrence.

The pranayam techniques:
Bhastrika – Take a long deep breath into the lungs(chest not tummy) via the nose and then completely breathe out through the nose.Duration upto 5 minutes.

Kapalbhati -(Do it before eating) Push air forcefully out through the nose about once per second. Stomach will itself go in(contract in). The breathing in(through the nose) will happen automatically. Establish a rhythm and do for 20 to 30 minutes twice a day.(Max 60 min/day) Not for pregnant women. Seriously ill people do it gently.

Anulom Vilom – Close your right nostril with thumb and deep breath-in through left nostril
then – close left nostril with two fingers and breath-out through right nostril
then -keeping the left nostril closed deep breath-in through right nostril
then – close your right nostril with thumb and breath-out through left nostril.
This is one cycle of anulom vilom.
Repeat this cycle for 20 to 30 minutes twice a day(maximum 60 minutes in one day).
You can do this before breakfast/lunch/dinner or before bedtime or in bed.Remember to take deep long breaths into the lungs.You can do this while sitting on floor or chair or lying in bed.

Bhramri Pranayam -Close eyes. Close ears with thumb, index finger on forehead, and rest three fingers on base of nose touching eyes. Breathe in through nose. And now breathe out through nose while humming like a bee.
Duration : 5 to 10 times

Only by doing you will benefit and will feel good that you can do something to help the body.Copy and print this to improve your technique and stay focused.This is simplified pranayam for everyone and you do not have to go to classes to learn. This is for life, unlike short term classes where you do it in the class then stop when classes are over.

For Prostate cancer follow the pranayam and you can notice the benefits in 3 months.