Brother Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, Any advice? Options

[niner]

My brother, who just turned 50 yesterday was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's always had a healthy lifestyle, although stress management was never his forte. His PSA had been elevated for a while, and recently increased. It was staged as a Gleason 6, described as a 3 + 3. Six regions were sampled. Only one had cancer. It was in 30% of the cells. It was in a region at the bottom of the prostate, right above the external sphincter. I'm starting to read up on this, but have never really thought much about it before. Can anyone comment on the diagnosis? I'd love to hear advice regarding what he could do about it, particularly the kinds of things that he probably isn't going to hear from his oncologist.

Thanks.

[eternaltraveler]

I rotated with a urologist very recently and saw a great many cases of prostate cancer. With a gleason 6 and being that he is quite young he should have it treated. Do you know what his PSA is?

The treatment of choice will probably be radiation, either through seed implantation, or tightly focused external beams. Prostate cancer typically responds very well to these modalities. Radical prostectomy is associated with a lot more morbidity (incontinance and impotence, though both are still a possibility with both methods of radiation delivery.

Before any of these treatments he should be on hormone therapy for about 2 months or so.

If he needs a second opinion and is somewhere not super far from northern new jersey I know a good urologist.

[cnorwood]

If for whatever reason a prostectomy is done. Get it done by a hospital that will do it with a DaVinci robot.

[Blue]

LEF has a rather long article on prostate cancer:
http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-138.shtml

Also has some general cancer articles of possible interest regarding radiation etc:
http://www.lef.org/protocols/

Some possible useful supplements if already having prostate cancer:

Pomegranate:
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/...siteid=aacrjnls

Lycopene:
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/8/861
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=A...87c503c9a9f3f25
http://www.lycoredindia.com/linked_files/CT10.pdf

Green tea:
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/cont...tract/66/2/1234

Melatonin:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2571267[b]

This post has been edited by Blue: Aug 21 2009, 10:00 PM

[castrensis]

My brother, who just turned 50 yesterday was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's always had a healthy lifestyle, although stress management was never his forte. His PSA had been elevated for a while, and recently increased. It was staged as a Gleason 6, described as a 3 + 3. Six regions were sampled. Only one had cancer. It was in 30% of the cells. It was in a region at the bottom of the prostate, right above the external sphincter. I'm starting to read up on this, but have never really thought much about it before. Can anyone comment on the diagnosis? I'd love to hear advice regarding what he could do about it, particularly the kinds of things that he probably isn't going to hear from his oncologist.

Thanks.

Gleason scores range from 2-10, higher scores indicate aggressive disease with a poor prognosis. Score is computed by evaluating the differentiation of the cells in the largest portion of the specimen (primary score) then by evaluation of the differentiation in the next largest area of malignant growth (secondary grade); the primary grade & secondary grade are added together to compute the overall Gleason score. With 3+3, it indicates that the malignant cells are well-differentiated in each area of malignant growth, meaning they still closely resemble the cells from which the neoplasm arose. Generally, the more poorly differentiated the malignant cells, the more advanced the cancer & the poorer the prognosis.

Good news is that for folks in the US with localized disease utilizing standard medical treatments the 5-year survival rate is 96.9%.

This post has been edited by castrensis: Aug 22 2009, 06:02 AM

[lunarsolarpower]

Proton treatment is a pretty big thing around here. I had a roommate who was doing research in the department for over a year and he said he'd have it done if it ever became necessary. Additionally the few patients I've talked to who were doing it or had done it spoke quite highly of the procedure.

Protons have an incredible dose curve leading to highly targeted results.

[Brainbox]

Probably unnecessary to mention that strong alternative approaches could interfere with proven mainstream procedures. At least with chemotherapy I think and I'm even less knowledgeable regarding radiation therapy. But I'm sure I did read it somewhere.

Good wishes, luck and health for your brother!

[JLL]

Flax seeds might be helpful, as they seem to act as 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and improve benign prostate hyperplasia symptoms.

A randomized, double-blind clinical trial compared the effects of various doses (300 mg and 600 mg) of SDG on symptoms of BPH. This study found that levels of enterolactone and enteroldiol were significantly raised after supplementation, while prostate size was reduced (link). Notably, the authors conclude that the improvements in urinary symptoms from SDG were similar to those from androgen receptor blockers and more effective than 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors.

Soy isoflavones come to mind too, as androgens are a key component in prostate cancers. I remember reading that once the cancer is past a certain stage, androgen inhibitors stop working, as the cancer resorts to IGF-1 for growth. As someone already mentioned, green tea might be helpful for prostate cancer - even in later stages. As far as I know, green tea is not a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor (in fact, it seems to increase DHT in mice), so it must work through other mechanisms.

In the study, EGCG decreased the proliferation of both the androgen-sensitive and androgen-insensitive prostate cancer cells. The effect was dose-dependent. At the highest dose, the proliferation of the androgen-insensitive cells was decreased by 88.2% and 87.5%. Androgen-sensitive cell proliferation was cut by 59.7%.

That was an in vitro study, however, so it's difficult to say how much green tea one should drink to see an effect. But, as in the case of curcumin, adding piperine increases the bioavailability dramatically.

[rwac]

My brother, who just turned 50 yesterday was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's always had a healthy lifestyle, although stress management was never his forte. His PSA had been elevated for a while, and recently increased. It was staged as a Gleason 6, described as a 3 + 3. Six regions were sampled. Only one had cancer. It was in 30% of the cells. It was in a region at the bottom of the prostate, right above the external sphincter. I'm starting to read up on this, but have never really thought much about it before. Can anyone comment on the diagnosis? I'd love to hear advice regarding what he could do about it, particularly the kinds of things that he probably isn't going to hear from his oncologist.

Thanks.

I would suggest a ketogenic diet if he can handle it. I suppose the prognosis for prostate cancer is good enough that he can probably get away without this.

This paper even discusses this exact scenario, but I can't access an abstract.

Is there a role for a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in the management of prostate cancer?

[eternaltraveler]

Probably unnecessary to mention that strong alternative approaches could interfere with proven mainstream procedures.

exactly. Mainstream medicine has pretty good outcomes presently with prostate cancer treatment.

[niner]

All, I can't thank you enough for your help. ImmInst is a bottomless cup of brilliance! I've conveyed this to my brother, and am waiting on results of scans to see where we'll go with it.

[prophets]

sulforaphane (from broccoli) has been shown to induce apoptosis in prostate cancer. it would definitely be on my list, if i had prostate cancer.

[cesium]

The phytoestrogen tectorigenin extracted from the leopard lily looks promising.
http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/bgi092v1.pdf
http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/6/10/2626.full

[Googlebot]

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