There is hope if you look a little bi... - Advanced Prostate...

Advanced Prostate Cancer

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There is hope if you look a little bit further

RGD115 profile image
7 Replies

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer 2 years ago just before Christmas [ nice Christmas present from my consultant--- l think not ]. My whole world was turned into stress and worry every day my PSA 6.1. Then 6 months later up to 6.3 this is when things changed my diet l mean l stopped eating all things l liked most like no chicken no beef no chocolate no tea no coffee no fatty foods no sweets no cakes and most important NO SUGAR on my next visit to hospital my PSA had gone up to 8.9 at this point my consultant only had one one thing on his mind radical surgery saying it was important to act now before things get really bad at this point l started looking at alternative options and solutions amongst the worries this is when l came across proton therapy and started making enquiries and was made to feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel it got worse when l went to Prague as my PSA is now 13.9 but and my Gleason 4+3 but they mad me feel like l was a person not just oh you have cancer it must be cut out there attitude is for cure not disappointment and am glad l made this decision as l feel my quality of life is so much better now but when l had then proton the professor recommended l keep on hormone injections for 18 months to 2 years l had my first just after l finished the proton treatment but now back home it is not easy to have so if anyone can advise me how and where l can get l am all ears and by the way there is very little side effects from proton treatment Incontinence lasted only 2 weeks not like having radical surgery or radiotherapy that could last 12 weeks or maybe forever if you can finance it l would advise anyone to consider this treatment it is so much more pleasant and 97% successful and gives a new meaning there is life after prostate cancer before treatment l use to go to toilet every 1-2 hours now 5 - 6 hours this what l call a nice result just by looking that little bit further and saying l want to cure this not live with it l hope this helps someone go that little step further

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RGD115
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pjoshea13 profile image
pjoshea13

RGD,

You wrote:

"no chicken no beef no chocolate no tea no coffee no fatty foods no sweets no cakes and most important NO SUGAR"

No COFFEE! Are you crazy? LOL. Check out my post:

"Foods/Supplements-Vitamins: Coffee"

The coffee studies show better survival. Can't be milky though.

Tea is not a problem, but don't expect benefit if you use enough milk that the proteins bind all of the tannins.

Chocolate is OK too, if you go for the darkest.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/180...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/168...

A recent thread contained a talk by Dr. Freedland where he mentions a typical response when he asks a patient about diet: "I've given up red meat!" There is no real basis for this, except that large portions lead to too much phosphorous.

grandroundsinurology.com/nu...

"Fatty foods"? Dr. Myers recommends the Mediterranean diet, which is 40% fat. Good for the heart. Stay away from inflammatory fats that are high in omega-6, such as corn oil, but giving up fat will not help.

askdrmyers.wordpress.com/20...

Quite the reverse, because you will be on a high-carb diet. That will lead to insulin resistance, elevated insulin & triglycerides. Dr. Myers says that his low-fat patients do not do well.

Don't believe what you read on the Internet regarding sugar. Sugar does not speed-up cancer. In any case, prostate cells do not generally use glucose for fuel. Sucrose is not a good carb, but don't agonize about needing some in your coffee. Fructose is better.

-Patrick

RGD115 profile image
RGD115 in reply to pjoshea13

At first l saw a Chinese doctor/herbalist and she told me chicken has the most cancerous spores beef doesn't digest for a long time coffee l can only drink with sugar as with tea so now l drink a very good Chinese herbal tea chocolate has sugar cakes are full of sugar when l applied these with a special herbal medicine it made me loose 2 stone in weight also it cured a lot of my incontinence to a state that every day life was much more bearable don't get wrong l was still eating turkey- lamb-and pork as with many nutricus vegetables it helped a lot but couldn't kill the cancer cells that is why'd had the proton treatment which many of the men ( English ) at the clinic said it was the best decision they had made .

AlanMeyer profile image
AlanMeyer in reply to RGD115

The urinary urgency that you experience after radiation is caused by inflammation of the prostate. The radiation inflames the gland causing it to swell and clamp the urethra. As a result, more pressure is required to get any urine through. When you urinate, only a small amount comes out before the pressure drops to a level that can no longer push through. That causes you to have to urinate much more often, and get out less each time.

After the end of radiation, the inflammation gradually dies down and your urinary behavior slowly returns to normal. This happens to almost everyone. I doubt if it had anything to do with your diet.

As for the advice from the Chinese doctor/herbalist, I'm unimpressed. I don't know what "spores" have to do with cancer. I'm guessing that she offered no published evidence for any of her advice.

I'm also unimpressed by the Czech doctors' claims of 97% cure rates. They used to advertise 98%. To them, a "cure" seems to mean that there hasn't been a significant PSA recurrence since the treatment - even if the treatment occurred last week and even if the patient is still on ADT.

Proton beam therapy is a good treatment, and I hope it cured you. However I have seen no evidence that it's any more effective than standard x-radiation treatment. To the best of my knowledge, no proton beam centers in the U.S. are claiming that their treatments are more effective than x-rays, though some argue that they have lower side effects. Personally, I think the Prague center's advertising is unethical and that makes me more suspicious of their treatments.

Best of luck.

Alan

RGD115 profile image
RGD115 in reply to AlanMeyer

I think what you say is not quite right about my diet and manly the herbal medicine l took as you were saying that the urinal track swells at point of radiation and resumes from swelling after well l noticed improvement 1 year before l had any proton treatment from the herbal medicine. !!!!!

AlanMeyer profile image
AlanMeyer in reply to RGD115

Sounds like I was diagnosing a different problem from the one you were treating with herbal medicine. What was the medication? Or was it the whole diet and not just one thing?

I'm glad it worked for you.

Alan

Sisira profile image
Sisira

As regards effective treatments, quite apart from the ease of tolerating side effects, think wisely of treatments that can cure your PCa or put you into long term stable remission. In both situations your PSA should remain undetectable. It is better to learn what all these treatment protocols can do and their limitations : Radical Prostatectomy ( RP ), Radiation Therapy ( Proton, 3D Conformal, IMRT etc. ), Androgen Deprivation Therapy ( ADT - Zoladex etc. ) , Anti Androgen Agents, Chemotherapy, Immuno Therapy ....... . Prostate cancer is heterogeneous meaning some cells are hormone sensitive and some are not ( hormone refractive ). Some of the above treatments can kill any type of PCa cells but ADT though Systemic ( whole body ) can mostly suppress the growth of PCa cells. Depending on your age, pathology, symptoms and your personal preference you may pursue the best course of action But today in terms of long term survival benefits early chemo therapy combined with ADT can be considered as the best if your case warrants after weighing the pros and cons. If you don't like such a hard hitting approach, then the other option would be to buy time with different hormone therapies until the cancer become castration resistant and metastatic. Even now there is the possibility of micro metastasis to be manifest due to microscopic cancer cell leakage to our blood system even when the PCa is confined to the prostate gland. Managing this decease is really tough at different stages. At all times our main goal should be long term survival.

All the best to you in your treatment choices leading to stable and happy life.

Sisira

in reply to Sisira

Not a doctor here, but I find it curious that the standard protocol after radiation, and now proton beam, is to continue ADT for another year and a half. And this for cases where the cancer is confined (at least scan-wise) to the prostate. I got HIFU treatment. My surgeon said I didn't need to continue with ADT, my urologist recommended another 18 months (which again is the standard post radiation protocol). I am off ADT. I wanted to be able to gauge the results of the HIFU and would not have been able to do that if I were still chemically castrated. I will have my PSA monitored. I am in no rush to get back on ADT unless the lab work says otherwise. This is just me talking, your mileage may vary. I'm still annoyed that my urologist ignored my request for breast radiation to combat gynecomastia. Now I am left to deal with embarassing breast tissue. Having a mammogram wasn't much fun. I guess some doctors haven't heard about the "ounce of prevention" mantra ... or they just don't care.

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