For personal stories click on these links:
Ian Duncan: https://sites.google.com/site/plateaudweller/
Andrew Richardson, now age 66.
In September 1995, when age 45 a CASA medical officer, conducting an examination as part of a flying license renewal, requested (without my permission) a PSA test. I had never heard of this test and no information was provided to me before the test was ordered. It returned a 6.3 and the slippery slope began.
I was working in China at the time, so sought advice from a Chinese doctor to reduce the PSA. I took a range of herbs. I began to learn as much as possible about PSA numbers. The herbs did reduce the number, but it rose again after returning to Sydney. This led me to a urologist at St Vincents Hospital Clinic where, in March 1996, I was subjected to a 6 core biopsy that returned a Gleason 6 score.
The urologist said “You have prostate cancer and you will be dead in 3 years if you do not have it out immediately, and I can fit you in next Thursday.”. He offered no other advice; I was devastated; I was unable to think straight; I left the clinic in tears; a friend drove me home; I set about changing everything – I had only 3 years to live, went on health retreats, I changed my diet, my business – from leading a large international company from the front of the bus, I shut myself off and retreated to the back of the bus; I separated from my then pregnant wife; I reduced my debt, handed my work to colleagues; sought out and adopted naturopathic advice on nutrition. It’s what you do when in a panic state brought on by “…3 years to live…”.
Through a book on prostate cancer, by Larry Clapp titled Prostate health in 90 days, I met leading Radiologist Dr Robert Bard, in New York City. I learned that he was able to accurately measure the size and activity level of prostate cancer by scanning with his Doppler Ultrasound machine. He encouraged me to stop thinking of approaching death. He sent me around the corner to have a DCE-MRI that confirmed no cancer had escaped from the prostate gland and when, six months later, I repeated the tests, that the cancer I had was not growing.
I read of the German therapy of hyperthermia and in 1997 I traveled to Klinik St Georg, in Bavaria, to have this therapy.
Dr Sean O’Connor, Sunshine Coast, Q, who was recently trained by Dr Bard, now offers the same Doppler Ultrasound scanning in Australia. A few years ago after Sean’s training I began to have his scans and DCE-MRIs in Australia every twelve months or so. The cancer did not grow.
My PSA steadily rose over the years, without any ill health and without any lessening of my bodily functions. I met men who had had radical prostatectomies that ruined their lives and was grateful I had been brave enough to walk out of the St Vincents Clinic and look for other options. 22 years later my PSA is now 94. I have excellent health and look back on this experience with considerable anger that urologists continue to ruin men’s lives by refusing to advise them of the complete lack of research that show treatment is any better than no treatment. A recent study of 700,000 men showed you have to scan 1,000 men to save one life!
Prostate Cancer is a big business. For millions of dollars are being made by surgeons – with some US surgeons charging $100,000 for the operation. In Australia $35,000 is the total cost one might pay to attend St Vincents Hospital in Sydney for a robotic procedure by Philip Stricker.
Dr Richard Ablin who invented/discovered the PSA test has said it was the worst thing he has done as it has plunged millions of men into radical treatment that has caused massive harm for zero benefit.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129564-400-prostate-cancer-test-has-been-misused-for-money/
When one looks at the study done by Cleveland University it is clear that most men will die with some cancer cells in their prostate. This study looked at men who had died accidently and specifically their prostates. It was found that 50% of 50 year old men had some cancer and 80% of eighty year olds. If a man presents with a slightly elevated PSA then his doctor will send him to a urologist for further tests , read “biopsy”. And 50% of these men will be a potential client. Millions of men have been caught in this trap and now the US Preventive Task Force is saying after reviewing 600 trials and studies, “everyone stop testing!”
More harm than good has been done and there is zero evidence that any treatment modality is standing out as better than doing nothing and just getting healthy and being brave.
A study published in Medscape from Herzev Hospital says that 93% of men undertaking a radical prostatectomy would never get another erection. I say the other 7% are lying for it is impossible to save the six sets of nerves that attach to the prostate and cause feeling and erections. Most men also suffer some degree of incontinence. The nerve sparing idea is nonsense.
It is also worth noting that men are always likely to have massive confirmation bias – a tendency to interpret their path as the “only” one that men should travel. Although I have met a few men recently who deeply regret their decision – and only wish they had done more research. But it is rare that a urologist will advise a man to research his options for they hold the belief that they are ‘right”.
Following an RP the patient is highly likely to say, “the surgeon saved my life”. And despite losing their manhood, sexuality and the strong possibility of incontinence these poor innocent men will say ‘it’s the best thing I have done” and they will always attempt to convince others to follow their path.
There have been three major comparison tests in the last 30 years. ….
- The PIVOT trial in the USA,
- The Bill-Axelson trial in Scandanavia
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18695132
- The ERSPC trial done in Europe.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2777060/
These three trials attempted to discern the long term survival affect of the radical prostatectomy. In summary half the men were operated on and the other half, not.
There was no difference in death outcome revealed in the PIVOT or ERSPEC trial and only a slight difference in the Bill-Axelson study. (0.065 or 21% of a 3% average death benefit rate from the RP but no detail on quality of life).
However the Bill-Ax study has been completely debunked as useless for the men with prostates were freely using hormones following any rise in PSA. This use of hormones we now all know will kill a man within 10 years for the hormones cause the cancer to reinvent itself and eventually become much more aggressive and kill a man. So it is comparing apples with oranges for those men without a prostate received far less hormones – but despite this the death outcome difference these men see has been called so small that it is “statistically irrelevant”. But this is the study that most urologists cling to in an effort to justify their cutting. It is madness for most urologists have no idea how to read or understand these statistics.
Prostate cancer is over diagnosed and over serviced, costing taxpayers a fortune and men and their partners their lives.
It is time men became brave. If they have fallen into the trap of testing then they must study the real statistics and realize that despite the word “cancer” this disease is highly unlikely to kill you.
Andrew Richardson
November, 2018
Peter Starr: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/09/06/survive-prostate-cancer-without-surgery.aspx?e_cid=20150906Z3_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150906Z3&et_cid=DM85080&et_rid=1105457167
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/12/cancer-free-i-beat-prostate-cancer-mish.html
From: David Froggatt <[email protected]>
Date: 20 June 2011 6:22:44 AM AEST
To: david froggatt <[email protected]>
Subject: Prostate FYI
Dear All,
I thought I would pass on the story of my recent experience in the hope that it may be of some benefit to someone at some time.
On May 20th, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The level of aggression is measured by what’s known as a “Gleason “ score. On a scale of 10, I came in with a 9.i.e. very aggressive. Not surprisingly, that day I was glad I had chosen dark underwear, and had aching muscles from reaching for the tissues. A tearful day indeed.
The options given to me by a urologist included radical prostatectomy (including lymph nodes “just in case”), radiation, chemo and hormone therapy. The likely outcome from this range of prizes was that I would end up with an old fella hanging in the breeze like a flaccid flag and spend a lot of time choosing the latest trendy, figure-hugging incontinence pads.
I chose to look for medically recognized alternatives overseas and I adopted the catch cry “I have prostrate cancer but I’m not going to take it lying down”. I followed the path taken by a friend of mine and, on June 16th, was told the cancer had gone completely. I’m no medico so I can offer no advice, but I can tell you what I did.
In Australia, I had a biopsy, something I will never have again. The reason for this is that if the cancer is released from the prostate capsule, metastasis sets in and it spreads through the blood stream. Seeing as biopsies use needles to pierce the prostate, blood is, indeed, released. The alternate measuring tool is the 3-D Doppler ultrasound equipment used by Dr Robert Bard in New York (www.cancerscan.com). His technique is non-invasive and gives a picture of the whole prostate rather than just random core samples, which is what happens with biopsies. I saw Dr Bard, had the scan ($1200) and had confirmation of cancer. He then sent me around the corner for an MRI scan ($1600) and it confirmed his diagnosis that there was no metastasis. There was no cancer in the lymph nodes. It was totally contained within the prostate.
For treatment, I went to Munich (http://www.germancancerclinics.com/st-george-hospital-german-cancer-treatment) and received hyperthermia therapy. I had two 3 hour sessions over one week (6000 Euros including meals and accommodation) and drank German beer. I returned to Dr Bard and had another scan and it was then that he told me the therapy had wiped out the cancer cells.
My post treatment regime consists of hormone therapy for six months, which means I get to experience some of the delights of menopause. I also have testosterone blockers for the same period (no pun intended). Testosterone promotes the growth of cancer cells within the prostate. On top of that, I have a raft of non-prescription supplements recommended by Dr Bard. The theory is that, with supplements, a largely vegetarian diet, exercise, yoga and meditation, healthy cells will replace the dead cancer cells.
I haven’t been “cured” of cancer. It could come back but, with a few lifestyle changes, that will hopefully never happen. Also, I can always return and have more hyperthermia, which works. The beauty of that treatment is that it doesn’t prevent me using any other treatment in the future, should I choose to do so, unlike any of the options presented to me in Oz.
Hyperthermia is not only for men. It can be used on any cancer, anywhere. Also, in my humble opinion, the only reliable test for the initial stages of prostate cancer is a digital examination. PSA tests and biopsies are as reliable as a politician’s promise.
So, I intend on being around to take the piss out of each and every one of you for some time yet, and I look forward to taking the opportunity of doing just that in the not-too-distant future.
Update September 2015: I now go up to the Sunshine Coast to “Coastal Imaging” and see Dr Sean O’Connor for my ultrasounds. He has invested in the same equipment that Dr Bard has, and has been to New York to have lessons on how to use it.
My last scan six months ago showed that I had a prostate the size of a 20 year old man and that there was no sign of vascularities or tumour. Dr O’Connor also noticed that the hyperthermia had caused fibrosis, which is a kind of scarring, on my prostate. This makes it very hard for a tumour to take hold.
In summary, after nearly 5 years I’m still cancer free. I’m still vegetarian 95% of the time, take my supplements, do yoga, and avoid sugar. I enjoy alcohol, with limits, meat and dairy on some occasions.
I’m also working my way through my bucket list. So far so good.
Love and best wishes,
Dfro (unsuccessful rap recording artist)
TO ABSTAIN FROM DOING HARM
By Michael Shirley, age 81
Every doctor knows this quote, part of the Hippocratic oath they swear, yet every day, Australian urologists do terrible harm to men based in part on the widespread use of a hopelessly misleading PSA test. Dr Richard Ablin, the inventor of the PSA test said it had proved inaccurate and was “hardly more effective than a coin toss. PSA testing can’t detect prostate cancer (PCa) and, more important, can’t distinguish between the two types of prostate cancer – the one that will kill you and the one that won’t.” he wrote in a warning opinion piece in the NY Times, March, 2010 and then in 2014 in his book The Great Prostate Hoax.
This was not news. In 2004, Dr Thomas Stamey of Stanford University Hospital, previously a well known promoter of the PSA test, announced that of the thousands of glands that had been removed at his hospital, 98% should not have been removed! Anyone else practicing their “life saving” skills with an error rate as high as 98% would be drummed out of their profession.
Dr Bradley Hannenfent, in his book “Surviving Prostate Cancer without Surgery”, said radical prostatectomies were “legalised genital mutilation.” Yet every day 10 to 15 of these procedures are practised on Australian men. The medical fraternity excuse themselves by saying the PSA test is all they have, and as thousands of men die each year from PCa, they prefer the test, followed by DRE and biopsy as their only way to determine if a prostatectomy is required to save a man’s life. That the other 98% may live a shortened, miserable, uncomfortable life appears to be of no concern to them. With an error rate of 98%, commercial interest may be playing a part in blinding them to non-invasive alternatives to surgery.
In February, 2010, the well known organisation Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, invited Dr Charles “Snuffy” Myers (from USA) to address men in some of our capital cities, on the subject of advanced prostate cancer. I attended his 2 hour presentation to 400 men at one of Sydney’s leading cancer research laboratories, The Garvan Institute. In this address, Dr Myers outlined a number of therapies – all based on hormones and diet. This presentation was professionally videotaped.
At the end of the session he deliberately pointed his finger at the audience and instructed us in words to this effect: take your treatment in your own hands and demand change of your medical practitioners, or they will go on doing what they are currently doing. Importantly, he did not mention surgery as a useful therapy.
The PCFA sold me a DVD of this lecture which was missing the last 15 minutes of this very advice. When I asked why this had been omitted I was told there was insufficient room on the DVD. This was untrue – not only a breach of the Trade Practices Act but also highly suggestive of manipulation.
There are many people in the cancer professions who believe we always have cancer cells running around our vascular and lymph systems. Lowell Wood, Intellectual Ventures, Seattle, WA, considered by some to be the smartest person in the world, says metastatic cells run around the bloodstream more than a million times before they land. They are after all just cells that failed to be accurately created in the normal course of cell copying/replacement/splitting. If you are healthy your immune system both recognises these imperfect cells and kills them off, thus no cancer forms on any body site.
Other cancer professionals consider this approach to be anathema. But as we age, our immune system begins to flag and we start doing things that further depress it, such as drinking caffeine, eating the wrong foods, too much alcohol, not exercising and putting on weight, just to mention a few. In my opinion this gives the cancer cells the opportunity to survive our immune system’s reduced cancer-killing ability. The cancer professionals can only detect cancer when it has grown exponentially beyond the few-cells stage.
I was lucky in having my cancer found while it was still small (though it was an aggressive Gleason 7, occupying about 15% of the gland), giving me the opportunity to boost my immune system to kill off the cancer. I was especially lucky to find a scientist/author who had suffered a radical prostatectomy 15 years earlier and who began a life of research, lecturing and writing about how to make the best of the dreadful side effects of such surgery, who recommended some dietary supplements. A thousand hours of research on the internet and a few dozen books later I was again lucky to track down Dr Robert Bard, a radiologist in New York, who agreed with boosting the immune system approach, and who could accurately measure (with ultrasound detecting vascularity of the gland) any minute changes in the number and location of cancer cells, a service which was then unavailable in Australia.
Dr Bard and many others say that prostate cancer is the same as some breast cancers – both are cancers of a duct and both come and go during an average life time. In other words, at some earlier time in your life your immune system may have cleaned up a cancer. His advanced ultrasound scanner can “see” exactly what is going on by looking for irregular patterns in the vascular system and following any irregular, larger than normal arteries and veins. Cancer requires a lot of blood to prosper and so develops larger vessels that are easy to find as they are not as regular in structure as can be found in normal tissue. He then follows the blood supply, taking thousands of pictures (not an exaggeration) along the way for later comparison, and provides an immediate description of the state of the cells. This included my Gleason score, and whether the cancer was benign or aggressive. US$975 and 15 minutes was all it took for me.
With only a change in diet, exercise and lifestyle, in 6 months all the cancer found in the Sydney 24-core biopsies was gone! Dr Bard found a small, Gleason 6 tumour (missed by the 24-core biopsy) and advised that it was of little consequence. After 12 months it too was gone. At 18 months the gland had shrunk back to its size when I was 20! This took no surgery, no radiation, no chemo, no hormones, just a lifestyle and nutrition change. The only side-effect: I had never felt better in decades!
The traditional PSA test has 2% accuracy; digital rectal exam is 5% accurate; multi-core biopsies about 50-60% – and Dr Bard’s scanner about 95%. Bard’s scanner is the secret to keeping your fear in check while trying a diet and lifestyle change. It is hard to remain calm, relaxed and happy (essential) when your Sydney medicos are telling you to: “Forget Dr Bard, he is just experimental. You’ll be dead in 3 years if you do not have it out”. This was said to a friend who, thoroughly frightened, then had a radical prostatectomy, with some of the aforementioned side effects.
Dr Sean O’Connor, Sunshine Coast, Q, has been trained by Dr Bard and provides a service in Australia with an option of sending a copy of the scans to Bard for confirmation.
Mine is a good example of how misleading PSA can be. I had a low (1.5 to 1.7) level for 6 years, no other symptoms except a rough rear to the gland discovered by a DRE, but 24-core biopsies revealed Gleason 7 cancer. This diagnosis was confirmed by Professor Cohen, Perth, and by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, so there is no doubt I had dangerous cancer but a low constant PSA. A man, now a friend and mentor, 17 years ago had PSA of about 5, and was told to have a radical prostatectomy, or he would be dead in 3 years. He is still very much alive and doing well with diet. He has a steadily rising PSA – now in the mid 70s – but Dr Bard says he has no cancer.
It is essential that you find a way to accurately measure your cancer and then be able to see what effect a change of diet/lifestyle will have. Dr Bard says if you want to drive your car at the speed limit you must have a measuring device, that is a speedometer. I believe he can certainly provide the PCa measuring device. Dr. Bard is writing a new book reporting on 5,900 men he has scanned and advised over 20 years who have had an experience similar to mine. He is only scanning and advising, he is not technically treating them – you treat yourself. After 10 years, only 5 of these men have died of PCa. This is an astonishing result. There is certainly something to be said for an anticancer diet and healthy lifestyle. The surgery alternative for men with PCa, or women with breast cancer is fraught with nasty side effects, yet a change in diet and lifestyle may well fix both. Note, I do not suggest cure, for unless you continue the changed diet/lifestyle, you have not changed the original cause of the cancer getting out of your immune system’s control. I believe that is why there is a 25% to 35% recurrence of the PCa in men who have had radical prostatectomies. I would very much like to know what percentage of breast cancer also returns after radical mastectomies, or lumpectomies – I’ll bet it is similar, and for the same reasons.
Don Benjamin, the CISS Convenor/Research Officer, says the old cancer paradigm was: we have found a cancer; that is the disease. Remove it and you will be free of cancer. The new paradigm is: we have found a cancer that is a symptom of the disease. Leave it alone and let’s treat the disease. I am convinced this is correct. It worked for me and for those 99.92% of Dr Bard’s patients. Keep in mind that if you approach a surgeon for an opinion he/she will most likely be recommending surgery; if a radiologist, radiation will be recommended; if an oncologist, chemotherapy; if a nutritionist, nutrition. So you need to have a fundamental understanding of these “natural” biases, when seeking advice.
Another analogy is to consider a young uninformed woman who goes to her Holden dealer, defines her car need well, the Holden dealer knows they cannot fulfill her specification, the VW dealer opposite has exactly what she needs, but he is not going to tell her about it. None of the cancer professionals are likely to tell you of Dr Stamey’s findings either.
In 2010 a Seattle company, Dendreon Inc, got the FDA’s approval for the use of their Provenge vaccine, which works by boosting the immune system (but a course at present costs US$90,000!). Provenge was approved after a few years of clinical trials on men who had been sent home to die of their PCa. It improved their lifespan. Success on these men (by definition they had very advanced PCa) confirms my diet/lifestyle approach and lends considerable weight to the possibility that the immune system might still be able to kill off much larger cancers than anyone thought.
Dr David Servan-Schreiber of Pittsburgh University Hospital has recently published a study of cancer on which he worked for 16 years. Please read “ANTICANCER – a New Way of Life” which is available in Sydney. Servan-Schreiber is certain that what you eat and the way you live is fundamental to understanding and treating cancer of all kinds. His was brain cancer. Vitamin D is now proven to be vital for many aspects of health and cancer but since The Cancer Council introduced the “slip, slop, slap” campaign we have all retreated from the sun; 80% of Americans have been found to be Vitamin D deficient. If you are to rid yourself of your cancer you need everything to be perfect, including your vitamin D level.. Please read Professor Michael Holick’s “The Vitamin D Solution”, available in Sydney, $35. Vitamin D deficiency explains why African-Americans have double the PCa rate of European Americans – they are almost entirely deficient in Vitamin D and Holick explains why. It is simply because of their dark skin. It is so easy to remedy, but you must start with a simple blood test to know what is going on in your body.
In all matters requiring change there’s a tipping point at which there is a sudden changing of minds. I hope we are approaching this with PCa therapies now. You may remember the Flat Earth Society which had survived for centuries, despite great thinkers like Aristotle and Galileo who were certain the earth was round. As an undergraduate economics student and cross-country navigating pilot, I tried to debate the subject with a Flat-Earther in 1958 at the NSW Public Library. I failed. He had a plausible, reasoned explanation which negated all the skills I had learned that depended on and demonstrated a round earth!
Then there was the invention of the radial ply tyre – steel by Michelin, fabric by Pirelli. The existing cross-ply industry put about such scare stories about radials that it was many years before universal radial tyre acceptance followed. Thousands died unnecessarily in the intervening decades.
When the satellite town of Elizabeth, SA, was being designed with 100% PVC plumbing, the earthenware industry was up in arms with extraordinary, ridiculous warnings. I suggest that a similar transition is taking place with the existing urological experts scaring us off alternatives from which they cannot make a living. I hope it will change soon and suddenly. Learn everything you can about PCa. Be positive and confident, eat well, take lots of antioxidants, exercise, drink red wine, lose surplus fat, become healthy and seek the company of loved ones and encouraging friends. Chances are you will feel better than you have done for years and your cancer will disappear.
PS. November 2019, update. Now age 80 and 12 years since the original dx of Gleason 7 and the fright comment: “You will be dead in 3 years if you do not have it out”. PSA now no longer tested, no symptoms, general health excellent, 7 ultrasound scans by Dr Sean O’Connor and 5 DCE-MRI scans on a Tesla3 machine all say the PCa is going nowhere.
The Journey by Michael McGrath, age 72
30 July 2013
In October 2010 my wife and I were out walking. I said to her that I was feeling so well – life was good! She said “that’s great, but you really should have your cholesterol checked” as no such general health tests had been done for some years. My GP ordered blood tests for cholesterol and a PSA checks as well as doing a DRE.
What a Pandora’s Box was about to be opened? Cholesterol became the least of my worries. I had a PSA reading on 11/11/2010 of 7.5 (last reading several years earlier was about 4) and was referred to a urologist.
On 6/12/2010 a Prostate trans rectal needle biopsy was carried out. The results were grim. I had high grade prostate cancer with a Gleason Score of 7. We reeled at the news, a bit like an out of body experience. I was now entering the medical system big-time!
By 15 December I was having a CT Scan/Abdomen/pelvis and bone scans and a chest x-ray.
By this point I had gathered my wits and decided to remain positive which was just as well for what was yet to come.
As a sideline up to this point, my urologist advised that a large kidney stone discovered during these tests, would have to be removed before further treatment could begin. I had a long history of medullary sponge kidneys but had no major trouble since 1974, having passed smaller stones without problems. This area of treatment was really no trouble.
The “plan” delivered by the urologist was to commence immediately. Firstly, a course of six months of androgen therapy to reduce testosterone was commenced. This medication was delivered by slow release implant to last three months. Investigation into this medication showed a very long list of “possible” side effects, ranging from “standard” to “severe”. These included : Hot flushes, headaches, decreased libido, mood changes, sweating, fluid retention, body pains (loss of feeling in the arms), insomnia, weakness and fatigue, loss of muscle tone, bursts of energy, hypertension, respiratory problems, fluid retention, nightmares. Those underlined I experienced. There are still more on the manufacturer’s official list of side effects.
Of course, once the implant was injected, any development of side effects, even severe ones, could not be reversed because of the “slow release” formula. The instructions were to inform your physician of side effects but how they could be dealt with was not indicated.
The next step was to prepare for 39 doses of radiation therapy over an 8 week period, on completion of the androgen therapy. This necessitated visits to a major hospital for information sessions etc. To facilitate the precise focus for delivery of radiation, three gold seeds the size of grains of rice were to be inserted into the prostate under anaesthetic by the urologist. These were the “targets” for the radiation. Prior to the surgery I was to take a short course of antibiotics to prevent infection as this surgery was to cross the bowel. The medication was collected from the pharmacy and put aside until needed, so I did not check it immediately. In the days prior to the surgery I checked the tablets to find that instead of the expected antibiotics capsules, I was now in possession of a box of 25 Tamazipan – sleeping tablets!! The label placed on the box by the pharmacy showed the name of the prescribed medication but the back of the box showed the actual contents. These medications with similar names would have been on the pharmacy shelf side by side. I promptly returned these to the pharmacy and after some expressions of shock, I was informed that there would be “an investigation”. I heard no more of that up to now. What would have happened if I had unknowingly taken sleeping tablets instead of antibiotics prior to anaesthesia? By now, I was starting to wonder about the organisation in the medical system and the very next experience incited those thoughts.
Arrangements were made to surgically implant the gold seeds. After being placed under general anaesthetic, it was discovered that said gold seeds were not in possession of anyone at the hospital! Upon waking afterwards I was informed of this “news” – much to the embarrassment of hospital staff. I was later advised that this incident was caused by miscommunication between the two hospitals and that I would have to go through it all again the following week! At this point I was rapidly losing faith in “the system”.
It was about this time that I saw on a church notice board the following thought: “Weave in faith, God will find the thread”. That became my lifeline and I could not dismiss it from my thinking. About the same time my daughter told me about a friend of hers, David Froggatt, who also had a diagnosis of high grade prostate cancer (Gleason 9) and was proceeding along a different path from that proscribed by the medical fraternity.
He first went to see Dr Robert Bard in New York – a radiologist with special interest and long experience with cancer cases. (David’s story is also related on this website). From there he went to the German Cancer Clinic – St George, had hyperthermia treatment and returned via Dr Bard to Australia with an outcome far different from that outlined by his doctors here.
After my meeting with the Oncologist at the major hospital to discuss planning for radiation treatment, I raised my concerns that I had a perfectly good bladder and bowel and I questioned the effects of radiation. My query was swiftly dismissed. My suggestion of hyperthermia brought a similar dismissive response at the same time mentioning an outrageous (and totally false) cost. I left that meeting most unhappy with the outcome. Having decided to visit Dr Bard for an appraisal of my situation, I postponed my appointment to start radiation treatment.
Soon after my wife and I found ourselves at Dr Bard’s New York rooms for his check of my prostate with the Power Doppler Ultrasound. His thorough viewing of my situation concluded that there was “insignificant prostate cancer volume”. It was contained in the capsule and a confirming MRI indicated that there was no evidence of prostate malignancy.
When I returned from New York, I cancelled my radiation treatment and that evening the oncologist phoned to find out why, indicating that they did not want me “falling through the cracks”! I offered the reports to support my decision but was told that “would not be necessary”. So ended that part of the journey.
Soon after arriving back in Australia, we discovered Dr Sean O’Connor – radiologist – nearby on the Sunshine Coast (once again through my daughter) and he was able to supply the same type of testing as Dr Bard so I see him on a regular basis to check my current status. To date the prostate cancer has remained “in the capsule”.
In January 2013, Dr O’Connor’s latest test indicated a small lesion on the right that he felt should be checked by MRI. The PSA test also taken in January, showed my reading had climbed to 9.5. My urologist, who has been supportive of my decisions throughout the past 2 ½ years, said that it was now time to do “something”, proposing a resumption of androgen therapy. My response was, “I am going to Germany for hyperthermia”. I have to acknowledge my urologist as a man with an open mind. He did not argue against any plans that I made outside of “conventional” treatment and in fact, almost encouraged me to seek more information about hyperthermia treatment.
I would have gone to Germany two years sooner except that I had been advised by one of the German Clinics that they could not proceed with Hyperthermia treatment unless the gold seeds were removed. My urologist said that the seeds could not be removed as there is no instrument suitable for such a task but he also said he could see no problems as the gold is inert and should not pose any difficulty.
In the meantime, we made further enquiries through the website and were put in touch with Dr Axel Weber at Klinik Marinus Am Stein, in Brannenburg. He said the gold seeds were no problem as he had done this many times with the seeds in place. He uses Oncothermia treatment as well as local hyperthermia, in conjunction with a range of natural therapies designed to boost the immune system. All treatments were totally painless. At this clinic, he and his capable and professional staff provide an atmosphere of wholistic, caring therapy and the patients themselves create a wonderful bond which is supportive and healing in itself through the sharing of their own journeys through the many forms of cancer treated at this Klinik.
The purpose of my visit there was to undertake Hyperthermia / Oncothermia treatment which is primarily two sessions of Oncothermia taking 120 minutes each, delivered via catheter directly to the prostate. Oncothermia utilises both thermal therapy combined with an electric field. The synergy enables the method to achieve even better and more gentle results. The cell metabolism is disturbed due to the heating and the destruction of the tumour cells is supported. Also, I had four 60 minute sessions of local hyperthermia / oncothermia which delivers the treatment externally to the area. All of this treatment was totally painless.
During my stay at the clinic a variety of natural therapies are available. The purpose of these is to support and build up the immune system to fight the imbalances caused by modern life plus the presence of active cancer in the body. Therapies included: Magnetic therapy, mistletoe, ozone own blood transfusions, oxygen therapy, vitamin C, selenium, thymus peptides, reflexology and therapeutic massage and more.
Prior to commencement of all this treatment, the clinic conducts extensive blood tests and ultrasound checks to ascertain the overall health of the patient, not just the area of medical concern. These tests revealed that my general health otherwise was good. In fact, the PSA test immediately prior to commencing treatment revealed that my reading had decreased to 8.29, prior to treatment. Dr Weber prescribed Finasteride for three months only on conclusion of the treatment at the clinic as a supportive measure. There have been no side effects of this medication. Dr Weber advised that the PSA would rise immediately after treatment (8.99) and then gradually decline over the next months.
Six weeks after returning to Australia, I had a PSA test as well as seeing the radiologist for a Doppler vascular study using trans rectal 4D real-time B-mode examination analysis correlated to a digital rectal examination. The results of the Ultrasound showed “no significant areas of abnormal vascularisation. The focal area of decreased signal on T2 in the mid gland on the left demonstrates normal vascularisation”. All areas in and around the prostate were “normal”.
The PSA in Jan 2013 registered 9.5. The result in mid July was 6.3 (6 weeks after treatment) – below the level of concern. Dr Weber advises that this will decrease further in coming months and will be confirmed by a future PSA test. My urologist was surprised to say the least and has planned no further treatment for me other than a PSA test later in the year.
The treatment I received was definitely Oncothermia – even the brand name was on the equipment used. For prostate cancer the therapy is delivered by a special catheter with electrode attached to computerised equipment – via the penis. This electrode is located then right next to the prostate. There is no discomfort at all – no sensation of heat (I know David Froggatt mentioned being aware of heat especially at the end of the treatment time).
Oncothermia is a gentler form of hyperthermia but with the addition of the electrical current has definitive effects as you will see in the information below.
Other patients at Klinik Marinus were being treated for a variety of cancers – throat, breast, lung, etc including metastases (one of rectal cancer which reoccurred in the breast – she left the clinic with blood tests clearing the tumour completely – The doctor told her that he will see her in 15 years!! Her US doctors had told her to “get her affairs in order”! She had received so much radiation previously that she was not to be treated any more and still suffered badly radiation burns.
http://www.hindawi.com/cpis/medicine/2013/274687/
This is a paper delivered in Hungary which goes into scientific detail about the difference between the two.
http://www.oncotherm.org/web/ information directly from the major website about oncothermia including links to newsletters, symposiums, studies etc
http://www.oncotherm.de/web/phy/Br.%20EHY3000_E_R.pdf – this brochure lists the uses and provides a list of successfully treated tumours
This is another link – A Szasz was instrumental in the development of Oncothermia
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19811397
Oncothermia treatment of cancer: from the laboratory to clinic.
Source
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, St. István University, Budapest, Hungary.
Abstract
Oncothermia is a long-time applied method (since 1989) in oncology. Its clinical results excellently show its advantages, however the details of its mechanism are under investigation even today. The method is based on a self-selective process of energy concentration and targets the membrane of the malignant cell, using the temperature gradient and the beta-dispersion of the membrane proteins. To prove the theory we show the experimental evidences in vitro experiments where we showed the definite difference between the conventional heating and the oncothermia at the same temperature. In the next step, we studied some xenograft nude-mice models, verifying the temperature-dependent and non temperature dependent factors. In addition, the synergic effect with some chemotherapies were studied, having more efficacy of the oncothermia with drugs than the conventional heating. These experiments show the definite advantages of the oncothermia compared to its classical counterpart, acting on the same temperature. We have also proved the beneficial effect of oncothermia treatment in the veterinary practice Oncothermia is applied in numerous clinics and hospitals, and we would
like to show some characteristic case-reports and also the clinical benefit on the survival time elongation of liver-, pancreas-, brain-, and lung-tumor-lesions.
PMID:
19811397
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]