Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer develops very slowly; if you are 60 years of age you have a 60% chance of having prostate cancer, which you have probably had for 20+ years and it will grow so slowly you will probably die of something else. If your cancer is slow growing you should leave it alone. The availability of DCE-MRI and ultrasound tests will enable you to determine and measure your disease status with 97% accuracy without harming your body in any way. Repeating these tests 6 months later provides a 97% accurate progress report. This website provides the details.

For legal reasons we must start by stating that none of the many contributors to this website are medical doctors so this advice must be subject to your own medical adviser’s advice. All this information has come from the books in the reading list at the foot, nearly all written by medical doctors. It should also be said that until you become an expert on your disorder you will not be able to sort the wheat from the chaff of conflicting advice you will be given and will read and be given on this most important disorder. There are many learned books available for study that will finally get you better informed than nearly all of the medical fraternity – for instance they do not study nutrition in medical school. A Victorian med school introduced nutrition as a subject only in 2011. Urologists do not have time to read all the journal reports in areas that are not urology so many are not up to date on the many studies on the effects of food, etc, on prostate cancer (PCa).

(image by permission of Department of Veterans Affairs, Canberra, ACT)

Prostatitis, Benign Prostate Hypertrophy (BPH), and Prostate Cancer are the most common types of prostate disease. Millions of men are diagnosed with one of these disorders every year. Most are given aggressive forms of therapy. The lucky ones are those with a solid sense of self worth, an enquiring mind and a determination to have the rest of their lives as whole functioning happy males. None of the radical prostatectomy outcome studies encompass depression, or survival beyond 5+ years, yet PCa has been with most men for many more years than that without being a problem. To see how many men have had PCa most of their life without it being a problem:

Prostatitis is chronic inflammation of the gland. This is due to low immunity allowing the infection of the gland to cause inflammation and swelling of the gland. This causes pain on urination, ejaculation, frequent urgent calls to empty the bladder, pain when evacuating the bowels. Usually the treatment is to administer strong antibiotics that also kill off the natural gut flora and further reduce your immune system, which is 90% derived from the food you digest, but cannot fully digest when the gut flora has been killed off. So unless you deliberately boost your immune system you will be worse off than before the antibiotics. Boosting your immune system was all that was required in the first place. You can see from the following picture how a swollen gland would firstly give you the feeling of a full bladder when it was only partly filled, and secondly, would make it difficult to urinate through the urethra constricted by a swollen prostate gland.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), also called benign enlargement of the prostate (BEP), adenofibromyomatous hyperplasia and benign prostatic hypertrophy, is an increase in size of the prostate. BPH involves hyperplasia of prostatic stromal and epithelial cells, resulting in the formation of large, fairly discrete nodules in the periurethral region of the prostate. When sufficiently large, the nodules compress the urethral canal to cause partial, or sometimes virtually complete, obstruction of the urethra, which interferes with the normal flow of urine. It leads to symptoms of urinary hesitancy, frequent urination, painful urination, increased risk of urinary tract infections, and urinary retention. Although prostate specific antigen levels may be elevated in these patients because of increased organ volume and inflammation due to urinary tract infections, BPH does not lead to cancer or increase the risk of cancer. BPH involves hyperplasia (an increase in the number of cells) rather than hypertrophy (a growth in the size of individual cells), but the two terms are often used interchangeably, even amongst urologists.

(image by permission of Department of Veterans Affairs, Canberra, ACT)

If you consult an oncologist you will get hormones and chemotherapy; a radiologist – radiation; a urologist – surgery. None of them will tell you about other alternatives, most will say that alternatives are unproven, experimental, or dangerous. They will not tell you of the thousands of studies to the contrary, nor will they mention the growing number of current studies and government committee recommendations to stop aggressive treatment because it kills more men than it saves. This website is to tell you a little about the better, alternative ways, with only positive side effects, to rid yourself of these and other disorders by changing your lifestyle and food intake.

PSA blood tests are wildly unreliable, resulting in many misdiagnoses. Dr Richard Ablin, the man who discovered the PSA has asked everyone to stop using his test. Roger Mason The Natural Prostate Cure, 2012 ed, p117, reports that women also have PSA in their bloodstream, yet have no prostate gland, proving that this antigen is not prostate specific. Global fine needle aspiration, or biopsies often follow a rise in PSA (often caused by BPH and aging). Biopsies are dangerous as they can lead to cancer cells escaping from the gland and are only accurate by chance as it is so easy to miss a small area of aggressive cancer, particularly if the gland is inflamed and large. Radiation, or brachytherapy, permanently seeding the gland with radioactive pellets is less expensive than radical prostatectomy, but side effects include chronic diarrhea, exhaustion, rectal pain and fissures, incontinence, infections and impotence. If cancer returns (as it often does) it is not possible to then surgically remove the gland.

Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) is a simple examination of one side of the prostate gland (nearest to the rectum) that can be done by your physician. The theory is that any PCa will make the gland misshapen and rough and this will be detectable by an experienced physician’s finger inserted through your rectum.

Radical prostatectomy (RP) is the surgical removal of the gland. It is risky, expensive and of questionable value to any man over 70, according to a Dartmouth University study, which showed that 2% of the subjects died from the operation, 27% were partially incontinent, 85% impotent. The Dartmouth team told Newsweek “if the medical community were to apply the same standards of safety and efficacy required for approval of new drugs, it is likely that neither radical prostatectomy, nor radiation would be approved. 30% of the cancer returns and then further treatment is very difficult.

Hormone treatment is designed to reduce the production of testosterone; it has a temporary effect on decreasing PSA and of weakening the cancer. Side effects are erectile dysfunction 100%, increase in weight, development of “man boobs”, loss of energy, increase in depression. Research done in the last ten years on 600 dead men revealed a much higher level of PCa in men from 20 up –, than anyone had imagined. To see how many men had PCa for most of their life refer to the graph at the head of this file, Clearly PCa is extraordinarily slow-growing form of cancer. Many think it should not be called “cancer” as it does not behave like any other form of cancer (except for some breast cancers). The very use of the word “cancer” so terrifies men that they can’t wait to have a radical prostatectomy to get rid of the perceived horrors of the word. Urologists gain many more patients because of this fright, rushing them into making life-changing decisions they will regret for the rest of their lives, when in fact, waiting another year to carefully research the alternatives will probably produce no discernible change.

Castration: A standard treatment to reduce the production of testosterone in the belief this promotes PCa was based on work done by Dr Charles Huggins in 1940 when he began castrating men to reduce testosterone to zero. In 1966 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. Millions of men were castrated right up to this year – until Dr Abraham Morgentaler pulled the original research (from the Harvard Library) and found that a) the research process was faulty and b) was based on a study of one man! See chapter 7, Suzanne Somers, Bombshell. Despite the obvious contradiction between naturally reducing levels of testosterone as men age, with rising PCa, no one managed to check on this dreadful therapy for 80+ years. Hormone treatment is a kinder therapy than castration, temporarily reducing PSA and giving the false feeling of progress, but eventually the hormones have to be changed or stopped for 6 months, and still the PCa progresses slowly, exactly as it does for castrati. Roger Mason, The Natural Prostate Cure, reports on more then 200 studies that prove testosterone is good for preventing and controlling PCa click on the link: Prostate_Natural_Prostate_Cure_Mason

Hyperthermia is the internal heating of the entire gland. It is entirely without side effects and can be repeated any number of times – please click on the link: Prostate_David_Froggatt.

http://www.germancancerclinics.com/st-george-hospital-german-cancer-treatment

Klinik St Georg has a 20+ year history of this therapy and in that time no man treated has died from PCa. This is a 100% cure rate that cannot be matched by any other therapy. If they missed some PCa the therapy can be repeated any number of times. There are no side effects.

Do not let your doctor scare you into some aggressive therapy before considering this website and doing some heavy reading (study) of your own. Consider clicking on the link: Prostate_CISS_Article_M_Shirley

as an illustration of one man’s journey through this mine field, and articles from other men’s journeys in PCa. Keep in mind there are two urologists at St Vincents Hospital, Sydney, who have done 4,000 and 6,000 RPs charging fees of A$30,000 and A$20,000 respectively. Do the maths to comprehend the commercial reality of expecting unbiased advice from such surgeons.

Do not be persuaded by some of the statistics that suggest the very nasty potential side effects are better than unacceptable. A way to make things look better than they are for 70 years old (about the most likely age to be consulting about PCa) is to quote stats that include mostly 50 years old – for whom the outcomes are better. Study the suggested solutions to the almost certain erectile dysfunction, such as direct injecting your penis, having an insert implanted in your penis that can be pumped up by a pump and switch implanted in your scrotum. None of these things will give you the previous pleasure of normal sexual function and in the case of direct penile injections you run the risk of losing your penis following an erection that will not go down, causing clotting and tissue death, if urgent hospitalisation is not available.

If your disease is Gleason 6, or less, or only a tiny proportion of Gleason 7 then watchful waiting is well worth considering. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/769966?src=nl_topic

Using only a change in diet – including a range of supplements, lifestyle, exercise, all chosen to boost your immune system, may cause the PCa to regress to the point of insignificance. Ultrasound and DCE-MRI then give you the ability to measure how successful you have been without any holes, surgery, or life-changing radiation. Look at the relationship between countries consumption of animal fats and PCa – please check the Prostate cancer fat to death graph:

Please click on the David Froggatt link: Prostate_David_Froggatt as he is the first man we know of to start with a global (multicore) biopsy that diagnosed Gleason 9 PCa, followed by an ultrasound scan (Dr Bard New York) – that confirmed the biopsy results (though not the most aggressive rating of Gleason 9) he had at St Vincents, had hyperthermia (at Klinik St Georg), followed a week later by another ultrasound scan (New York) confirming he was clear of cancer!

If you decide to visit Dr Sean O’Connor on the Sunshine Coast (for an ultrasound) you travel on Jetstar to Maroochydore and back in the same day – fares $79 x 2 at present. 8.20am from Sydney. Hire a car and drive 20 minutes south to Coastal Medical Imaging’s Clinic in Currimundi, have lunch at the next door shopping arcade and get back on a 6.15pm flight, same day, arriving SYD 7.50pm.

Your GP will give you a referral and the scan costs $336 less about a third from Medicare. If your family is registered for the Medicare Safety Net – the 80% rebate band – it will cost you only $70 + airfares.

Please refer to chapter 4, p50 of OVERDIAGNOSED, Drs Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin, that reveals that about 80% of men our age have some degree of PCa, but only 3% will die of it. This leaves an enormous number of men able to be misdiagnosed. The only matter to be decided is what degree of PCa is present and having measured that, determining whether it will kill you before you die of something else. That’s where Sean O’Connor’s machine comes in. He can measure the amount of blood supply to any cancer areas. If blood supply is nil, or low, it means the cancer will either not grow, or will grow so slowly you will die of something else (like heart failure, old age, etc). In the unlikely event Dr O’Connor finds very active cancer that might kill you soon you can then decide whether to take the alternative diet/lifestyle/supplements route, or go to one of the two clinics in Germany – see below – and have it removed by hyperthermia. The Klinik St Georg is featured in the 2 hour movie “Cancer is Curable NOW” – I have a copy on my Dropbox, but it is 856MB – I do not know how to give you online access, but you are welcome to come in and copy it.

The ultrasound scan will provide 95% certainty. In addition Dr O’Connor and Dr Bard (in NYC) both recommend a DCE-MRI (Dynamic Contrast Enhanced). This requires the injection of a contrasting agent, gadolinium during the scan. Further specifications are: no anal coil, diffusion and spectroscopy small voxel. This increases certainty to 97%. These MRI scans are now generally available. New Tesla 3 machines give finer resolution, in fact down to 15 microns = 0.015mm. The contrast enhancer, gadolinium, enables the scan to show how fast blood disperses from a blood vessel. It reveals if the vessel was constructed to feed a cancer lesion, or is just a normal part of the gland’s blood supply. Together with ultrasound you get a pretty detailed picture of what is happening in the gland without annoying/inflaming it by more aggressive diagnosis. After, say, 12 months of antioxidant diet/supplements/lifestyle, etc, a follow up US and DCE-MRI gives you great confidence that your cancer is under control, i.e. not expanding. Remember you may well have had it for decades before something caused you to look more closely.

Research was done in 1980s, at The Cleveland Clinic, and later duplicated by Detroit pathologists in 1990, in all examining 600+ bodies. Both researchers examined people who had died for some other reason, who had evidence of PCa (and the women had breast cancer) from their 20s up.

and note that the probability of you having PCa is quite high and you have had it for decades without it interfering in your life. According to a 2004 article by Dr Thomas Stamey of Stanford Uni of California, a study conducted by researchers at Stanford concluded that a full 98% of all prostates removed at Stanford over the past five years were removed unnecessarily. Only 2% warranted removal due to cancers large enough to cause concern. This surprising result falls on the heels of other findings by Dr Stamey: for example, the elevated blood levels of an enzyme called PSA is a natural occurrence in men as they age and not a definitive mark of a cancerous growth. Though men with aggressive cancers sometimes exhibit elevated levels of PSA, mild elevation of this enzyme is natural and, as Dr Stamey explained, almost always relates to normal enlargement of the organ as the aging process in men continues – Robert Bard’s book Prostate Cancer Decoded, p 32-33.

The only alternative to ultrasound and DCE-MRI diagnosis is global biopsies – 24 to 50 cores. The studies are back on prostate biopsies. It is extremely damaging to the organ and highly likely to spread cancer and if there was no cancer before then ripping 50 bits of flesh from your prostate certainly may cause all types of problems, bleeding infection and inflammation….and metastases will surely be spread by blood and the lymph system if you do have some cancer.

The studies are definite…..

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/97872.php

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18372025

http://www.drgdiaz.com/prostate/prostatebiopsy.shtml

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/805575?src=nl_topic&uac=175015PT

It is obvious that slowly developing cancer never becomes a problem until some other major factor is introduced into our lives, eg, great stress, overweight, cessation of exercise, poor diet, depression, accidents, advancing age-related diminishing of the immune function. OR some surgeon deciding to disturb the sleeping cancer by taking multiple core biopsies – the norm is 24 cores – bound to inflame the gland, release cancer cells to grow elsewhere and give you serious metastasised PCa. Mammograms and biopsies do the same thing to women who have a small cancer (not going to kill them) that is spread by either biopsy needles, or the mechanical crushing of the cancer envelope while squashing the breast (especially small breasts) between mammography plates!

In a September, 2012, video Dr Myers went as far as to say “There is no basis for using surgery to treat Gleason 6 PCa” or Gleason 7 if there is only a small area of Gleason 4 (remember a Gleason score is the total of the two most active tissues viewed by your pathologist – so the score is out of 10. They are obliged to report the Gleason 4 tissue even if it is tiny in volume) You can access this latest video announcement from the Ask Dr Myers site: PCa: Treating Young Men With Curative Intent

Roger Mason mentions there are hundreds and quotes dozens of studies proving that low levels of testosterone and high levels of oestrogen cause PCa. He graphs how testosterone diminishes after about 40, while oestrogen rises giving a complete reversal of the normal ratio of testosterone to oestrogen. You can have these levels tested with a saliva test. Eating a low fat diet will reduce your oestrogen level and you can supplement testosterone to correct the imbalance. See chapters 9 & 10 of his book The Natural Prostate Cure:

Channel 9 60 Minutes program is doing a story on PCa – in production still – that has interviewed Dr Bard and Professor Douwes – the main point will be why if hyperthermia works in Germany are Australian uros providing surgery at all and why do we not have hyperthermia treatment in Sydney? Prince of Wales Hospital has begun (2013) work with Oncothermia therapy Trial. Results in a few years

BTW Dr Phil Brenner warned a number of his patients “… you will be dead in 3 years if you do not have a radical prostatectomy”. For one patient that was 16 years ago, another 4.5 years ago. It is a great disservice to frighten men in such a way, and unethical behaviour to not mention the alternatives, or to dismiss them as “unproven experiments” when there is a vast array of studies, books, etc. that show they work and have done so for many years. It is a professional outrage that they ignore the rulings of the recent US Task Force who advised to stop using PSA tests.

In brief: it is obvious that if you are worried about the possibility of PCa, knowing that PSA tests are a waste of time and money, you have a DCE-MRI in Sydney (Royal North Shore Private Hospital, St Leonards, has a brand new 3 Tesla machine) to confirm ultrasound scans and to check for metastases – about $550, no rebate; an ultrasound scan by Sean O’Connor, Sunshine Coast (see cost above); or go to New York and have a $1200 scan by Dr Robert Bard, who has done 7,000 of these to establish the amount of and degree of PCa present. If the scan shows only low blood flow to the cancer (Gleason 6 or below) you consider changing your diet, get fit, lose some surplus weight, improve your lifestyle, then rescan every 6 months and have a comparison of the amount of blood flow (thus PCa still present), or if there is a lot of blood flow (Gleason 8 or above) = dangerous, growing cancer, you fly on to Germany and have it removed in 2 hyperthermia treatments. Then you have another scan at Sean O’Connor’s clinic, or by Dr Bard, to be comfortable you have no cancer – you must continue the change in diet/lifestyle for the rest of your life, having further scans every time you feel nervous! Remember the cancer you find is a symptom of the disease, so getting rid of the identified cancer still needs treating of the disease – getting your immune system in the best shape since you were a teenager. Read The Natural Prostate Cure, Second Edition: A Practical Guide to Using Diet and Supplements for a Healthy Prostate, Roger Mason.

Roger recommends the testing (blood and saliva) of the following hormones to ensure you are in balance:

Androstenedione

Cortisol

Dehyroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

Estradiol

Estrone

Estriol

Human Growth Factor (HGH)

Insulin

Melatonin

Pregnenolone

Progesterone

Testosterone

Thyroxine (T4) and Triiodothryronine (T3)

To which you should add tests to determine levels of any other supplement you may be taking, such as:

Vitamins B, C, D, Selenium, calcium, magnesium, establish your essential fatty acids levels, especially the Omega 3:6 ratio, etc.

Keep in mind the lab reference ranges are often set by them after looking at the blood of tens of thousands of people who are by definition unwell. For some ranges the one for you might be just in the middle, or way out at one of the extremities (such as for vitamin D where an ideal level is at, or above the upper reference range), so you should get some other expert assistance (such as from a skilled nutritionist) to decide on your supplementation levels. This also helps overcome the doubts that may exist concerning the efficacy of the brand of supplement you are taking. The nutritionist of course wants you to buy their expensive brand, but others may work as well. The blood/saliva tests should be the ultimate determinate.

Note of warning: Dr Bard has formed a partnership with Drs Futterrer and Sperling who perform a procedure called “MRI-Guided Prostate Laser Ablation, a minimally invasive treatment for prostate tumors that dramatically reduces risk of impotence and incontinence by creating “safety zones” to avoid vital organs directly related to a man’s quality of life. This revolutionary new procedure utilizes detailed prostate images generated from an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to precisely plan the treatment and visualize the tumor ablation (destruction) in real time. Performed on an outpatient basis, the treatment is an effective method to eradicate the primary tumor. The procedure requires no surgery, anesthesia or catheter. Completed in about one hour, the procedure can be repeated if necessary and does not preclude any future prostate therapies.”. If you were in NYC and in a rush this could suit you – visit: www.sperlingprostatecenter.com. This therapy costs about US$35,000, can be done in a day, there is no history of side effects (claimed to be nil), nor whether it is a cure. Therefore, Dr Bard is no longer the independent advisor and supporter of watchful waiting, based on the use of his patented anti oxidants/beta-sitosterol supplements, etc, that he has been for many years.

Dr Snuffy Myers advised 8/12/11, that at a Washington, DC, NIH conference, early December, it was revealed that surgery for Gleason 6, or lower actually took more lives than it saved – see below.

Dr Sean O’Connor, Coastal Medical Imaging, 724 Nicklin Way, Currimundi, Q 07 5413 5000, [email protected], is trained in prostate ultrasound scans, spent 5 days training with Dr Bard January, 2012 – Sean is a Canadian, trained at Stanford and Toronto Universities. 3 men went to have scans early November 2011. DVDs of the scans were then sent to Dr Bard who compared the scans with his records (of the same 3 men) and is reasonably happy with Dr O’Connor’s work – though he complains his own 18MHz 195 degree model is better than Sean’s 10MHz 145 degree. Since then Sean has spent $100,000 updating his scanner to Bard’s standard.

Dr Bard presented his report to the JFR 2011 conference, September, in Paris, you will see in the Methods and Results paragraphs that Bard uses a single tissue Gleason grade out of 5, rather than the more usual (average of) 2 tissues = total score out of 10. As you can see that for those with low grade tumour he reports an 87% improvement with an anti-oxidant + vit D diet. You can do much better than that if you are prepared to work on your lifestyle, and full range of supplements as well. Please click on: Prostate_Cancer_Dr_Bard

While Bard is not specific, we understand the “non responders … were referred to alternative treatments possibly were sent to see Dr F Douwes at the Klinik St. Georg, Bad Aibling, 45 minute drive south of Munich, visit:

http://www.germancancerclinics.com/st-george-hospital-german-cancer-treatment

Note foot of first page “For localized prostate cancers (those within the prostate gland), St. George offers a one week trans-urethral hyperthermia treatment that has a 100% cure rate.” That’s very impressive and stacks up very well relative to the high return rate of PCa after a radical prostatectomy – currently 25% – to say nothing of the dreadful side effects caused by prostatectomies, chemotherapy, radiation, etc. Visit:

http://www.germancancerclinics.com/blog/articles/28-prostate-cancer-hyperthermia-cures-wthout-side-effects

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/185789.php

Please also visit:

http://www.hyperthermia-centre-hannover.com/en/hyperthermia-prostate.html

Dr Sean O’Connor’s site is:

http://www.coastalxray.com.au/

His scan is a superior and affordable substitute for PSA test – now sidelined by the US Government Authority, following the NIH Conference.

You should consider the new cancer paradigm which is: We have identified a cancer, that’s a symptom of the disease. Let’s leave it alone and treat the cancer by boosting your immune system. For more information on how to treat PCa with a diet change visit Roger Mason’s site: http://www.cancercontrolsociety.com/bio2002/mason.html

Diet: There are many excellent books on appropriate diets to cure cancer (refer to those at the foot of this article). One such diet used by a few members of this organisation is the attachment “Prostate cancer 2010 diet.doc”. After a thorough reading of the recommended texts you will see there is general agreement on what constitutes an anti-cancer diet. It then only remains to lose most of your surplus weight (get down to near your weight when you played sport as a late teenager), avoid stress and negative people as much as possible, exercise 10-20 minutes 3-4 times per week. Stop and smell the daisies, or meditate on how wonder life is now that you are on your way back to a fully functioning immune system. Do things that are delightful, spend time with your family members, do good things for others. An interesting development/side effect reported by some is the disappearance of minor opportunistic skin eruptions such as tinea, jock itch, influenza becomes a 24 hour disease – all because your immune system is in great shape and knocks off the intruders.

It worked for many, with other helpful changes such as substantial reductions in gland size, eg, in the instance of a contributor: “…now only 20ccs (confirmed by Dr O’Connor last August) when it was more than 30ccs when first scanned 3 years ago.” This reduces the pressure on the bladder that otherwise gets you up during the night for a pee.

Chew food down to a fluid state, stop drinking other fluids 20 mins before a meal and for 30 mins after a meal to allow your digestive system to work at full strength – diluting it later is ok, red wine with a meal is ok.

Intelligent Alternative Treatments

Intelligent Alternative Treatments