Living with prostate cancer can be hard to deal with emotionally as well as physically, and can affect how you feel. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in men. It is fraught with both physical and psychological symptomatology. Depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, pain and psychosocial factors all affect those with prostate cancer. Impotence, erectile dysfunction, sexual issues and incontinence in these patients complicate matters further. Anxiety may exist both before testing and while awaiting test results.

Prostate cancer, or carcinoma of the prostate, is the development of cancer in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system.

For more information about Prostate and Prostate cancer (PCa) follow this link– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3571678/ or carry out your own searches on the Internet.

As already explained in my article about “The Cancer… Myth”, cancer cells simply go crazy and cannot self-repair. Prevention is always the best “cure”.

The survival rate for prostate cancer for 10 or more years (2010-11, England and Wales) is 84%. [Source: Cancer Research UK]. However, should you type, on the same Cancer Research UK website, “Prostate cancer mortality statistics” – you will find that proportion of all deaths are at 13% (or 11,287) – and they add “Prostate cancer mortality rates have increased by 21% since the early 1970s in UK”! Don’t we just love statistics and ‘wrong’ additions?

It is also important to note that incidence rates for prostate cancer are projected to rise by 12% in the UK between 2014 and 2035, to 233 cases per 100,000 males by 2035. 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime (+ 21% deaths?).

No one is questioning why more men are having and will have prostate cancer and why more men are dying. For what I have seen, NHS is simply happy to fill in statistics (one of many databases – http://prostatedatabase.org.uk), and to carry out PSA blood tests while pushing as many men as possible to having a biopsy.

Due to “web cookies” I have received a few advertisements on Facebook from a Prostate cancer clinic. Plenty comments on site and some very interesting. Most men said: “have blood test, check your PSA” – one said, “I have mine done ever two months”;  another said “I have a biopsy done every three months”. The majority of them, despite given free advice, didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about.

We can begin to talk about PSA and what it really means. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a protein produced exclusively by prostate cells. Based on ‘Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine’, written by doctors for the attention of doctors, it actually states: “About 40% of patients with a serum PSA of 4.0-10ug/L or more will have prostate cancer on biopsy, although 25% patients with a PSA of less than 4 ng/mL may also have prostate cancer” [page 518; 22^nd Edition]. This simply means that a PSA test is somewhat useless, it does not determine anything.

My simple advice is: keep your PSA low, introduce healthy foods to your diet and you will have some good chances of a longer and healthier life.

Davidson’s book also states “Chemotherapy with Docetaxel(1) can be effective and provide a modest (around 3 months) survival advantage”. What this book doesn’t say, but it is mentioned by Dr. D. Allen is that “A research team from the University of Wisconsin Medical School determined that although patients appreciated the risks involved in chemotherapy they did not have a clear understanding of its benefits or of possible alternatives to the chemotherapy.  Some 65% of the patients believed that chemotherapy was a cure, while their physicians consider it merely palliative.  Even when both agreed on the goal of therapy the patients still had a much higher expectation of success than did their physicians”.

So far we know that PSA doesn’t really mean much and Chemotherapy is useless most of the time. In-fact some studies point to: “The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA”. [Source: NCBI, Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2004]. Just in case you have missed the “statistics”, what they are saying is that over 97% of cancer cases treated with Chemotherapy within a five years period, die!

If PSA and Chemotherapy + drugs(2) don’t work – we should rely on biopsy. Wrong!

There are two problems with biopsy. One is that biopsy (similar to PSA) is unreliable and the other problem (denied by most physicians) is that cancer cells can spread when the needle is inserted and extracted – this occurrence is called “seeding”.

Biopsy status is of a strong prognostic factor but it may be misleading and it does not carry a gold standard of treatment efficacy. On average, it has been found that the rate of biopsy without tumour was 42%; with atypical cells, it was 28%; with carcinoma with treatment effect (CaTxEffect) 21%, and with carcinoma without treatment effect (CaNoTxEffect)  9%. The overall biopsy positivity rate (CaTxEffect + CaNoTxEffect) was 30%. It is unclear what happens to the other 70%. [Source: NCBI, PubMed, A Pollack et al.]

Is it worth to have a biopsy carried out? Keeping in mind that a negative biopsy doesn’t mean that you do not have cancer; it simply means that they couldn’t find the cancer cell(s). Every time you have a biopsy you must take antibiotics prior and after the procedure. There is also anaesthetic involved – local or general. The choice of the type of biopsy you wish to have will be a decision between you and the clinicians; there are a few choices.

There are also a few “treatment” procedures. All of them are done by passing an instrument through the opening in your penis (meatus). You will be given general anesthesia (asleep and pain-free – while you are under sedation), spinal or epidural anesthesia (awake but pain-free), or local anesthesia and sedation. Choices are:

• Brachytherapy – Radioactive Seed Implantation. Any procedure in which a source of radioactive material is placed near a tumor. The implantation of radioactive seeds for prostate cancer is a form of brachytherapy in which the seeds emit low energy radiation in order to kill cancer cells inside and immediately surrounding the prostate.
• External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT). Radiation targeted to a specified area and delivered by a special machine (e.g. a linear accelerator). Common forms of EBRT are IMRT, Protons, Cyberknife and Tomotherapy.
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is sophisticated radiation designed to achieve a higher dose to the gland than was previously achievable with older techniques. Why give a higher dose? Because a higher dose has been shown to improve cancer control rates. The IMRT treatment area includes the prostate and a small margin around the gland to treat possible microscopic disease just outside the gland. It does an excellent job of treating disease beyond the gland. Cancer control rates, however have not been as good as reported with seed implantation, particularly with higher risk disease. [Because IMRT uses more beams, a patient will receive this low level of radiation to a larger volume. Theoretically, this might slightly increase your risk of developing a new cancer in the future. – Source: UCH, No.55]
• Laser prostatectomy: This procedure takes about 1 hour. The laser destroys prostate tissue that blocks the opening of the urethra. You will probably go home the same day. You may need a Foley catheter placed in your bladder to help drain urine for a few days after surgery.
• Radical Prostatectomy Surgery to remove the entire prostate and usually the seminal vesicles; the three types of radical prostatectomy are retropubic prostatectomy, perineal prostatectomy, and laparoscopic/robotic assisted prostatectomy.
• Transurethral electrovaporization (TUVP): A tool or instrument delivers a strong electric current to destroy prostate tissue. You will have a catheter placed in your bladder. It may be removed within hours after the procedure.
• Transurethral incision (TUIP): Your surgeon makes small surgical cuts where the prostate meets your bladder. This makes the urethra wider. This procedure takes 20 to 30 minutes. Many men can go home the same day. Full recovery can take 2 to 3 weeks.
• Transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT): TUMT delivers heat using microwave pulses to destroy prostate tissue. Your doctor will insert the microwave antenna through your urethra.
• Transurethral needle ablation (TUNA): The surgeon passes needles into the prostate. High-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) heat the needles and prostate tissue. You may need a Foley catheter placed in your bladder to help drain urine after surgery for 3 to 5 days.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), back in 2015 pointed out that Monsanto Co.’s Roundup (active ingredient, glyphosate) cause cancer in humans. While it’s popular in the United States, glyphosate is banned, or about to be banned, in several countries because of health risks that may range from infertility and birth defects to kidney disease. The WHO report now says it could cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  Back in 2015, the herbicide glyphosate and the insecticides malathion and diazinon were classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. The insecticides tetrachlorvinphos and parathion were classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans

Malathion, WHO found, could cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma and prostate cancer.

Hence, instead of drugs and ARB(3), we should focus on  prevention. Despite your beliefs that medicine will save your life, facts are that allopathic medicine will do nothing of the sort.

The prostate will naturally get bigger with age. Benign prostatic hyperplasia affects about 50 percent of men between the ages of 51 and 60 and up to 90 percent of men older than 80. Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a normal part of the aging process in men, caused by changes in hormone balance and in cell growth.

Most doctors will prescribe Alpha blockers or Finasteride (amongst many others). Saw Palmetto (a plant) has been recognised by the medical establishment to be as effective as Finasteride but without the side effects. A bark, called Pygeum is also of great benefit to enlarged prostate.

Many studies have pointed out that nutrition and diet are very important for a healthy prostate. Please remember, I am not simply talking about an enlarged prostate but also about how to combat cancer naturally (the medical way of treatments and drugs, as per statistics above doesn’t work, anyway). As prostate enlargement is less common in Japanese men than “Western” men, the lesser prevalence of prostate enlargement in Japanese men is attributed to the Japanese diet that is rich in tofu and soy foods (a supplement to consider is Nattokinase). A diet that is rich in soy and tofu has been found to help prevent prostate enlargement. Tofu and soy are rich in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens. Estrogens and phytogens are known to help control prostate enlargement. Other sources of plant estrogens are legumes (broccoli, kale), tea, apples and onions. Beware – Soybean oil is extracted by several methods. Commercially, chemical extraction using hexane is common. Hexane can be very toxic and may cause cancer.

Roundup is not the only cause of prostate cancer. Red meat, a diet high in saturated fat, high levels of simple sugars and alcohol in the diet provide fuel to cancer cells. Unfortunately, a radical change of habits and diet is necessary should you wish to improve your chances of not getting prostate cancer.

There is much, much more to discuss about prostate and cancer. I sincerely hope that this blog provides you with some important information and, maybe, combined with other texts, you will be able to find sensible solutions and, most important, ways to prevent, get better or even cure the disease (it has worked for people I know).

 

Article by A B M Procaccini © – Counselling Psychologist, Naturopathist

Notes:

*(1) Docetaxel is one of the taxane type of drugs used in chemotherapy to treat cancers. Taxanes are a class of diterpenes and another widely used drug is Paclitaxel (Taxol)

*(2) After Taxotere fails, treatment options for metastatic prostate cancer are limited. The three drugs with FDA approval in this setting, Jevtana, Provenge and Zytiga, are associated with median survivals of less than 2 years. [Source: NCBI, Case Rep Oncol. 2012] – Don’t you just love it when they experiment with your body?

*(3) Androgen receptor blockers (ARB), such as bicalutamide or cyproterone acetate, may also prevent tumour cell growth but, apart from several serious side effects, even recent studies are not able to demonstrate higher survival rates.