I'm not sure how I got on the list, but this article appeared in my Inbox this morning. I'm posting for the benefit of anybody interested in a deeper dive into off label drugs.
Posted with the usual caveats and excuses... I am not a doctor, this is way above my pay grade, the dog ate my homework,..etc...
.....but maybe someone will find it useful.
Stay healthy. Stay safe. 🙏
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jdm3
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His mention of glucose as the preferred fuel, does not apply to PCa - otherwise, we would have all had a FDG PET scan at some point. Some late-stage cancer might switch from fatty acids to glucose, but palmitic acid is otherwise preferred.
Agreed. Thank you for pointing that out. The article is not specific to PCa. Potential supplements, off-label drugs, and treatments vary by type of cancer, staging, metabolic pathways, individual, etc.
Hi Patrick, I am not clear about when this switch between fuels occurs. What would be late-stage? Would metastatic be late stage? Would PCa prefer palmitic acid even when there is easy glucose around? Do cancer cells not go for both if both fuels are found in the body? In Canada, scans appear to be rationed and there are only 3 machines in Ontario to give PET scans. They give them to people very sparingly I have been told and it is usually to confirm no evidence of cancer.
"Localized prostate cancer rarely undergoes a shift in metabolism towards aerobic glycolysis, a process known as the Warburg Effect. Because of this, positron emission tomography (PET)/CT imaging using 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose (18F-FDG) is uncommonly used to evaluate patients with early-stage prostate cancer. However, men undergoing an 18F-FDG PET/CT for unrelated reasons will on occasion be found to have radiotracer uptake within the prostate gland. The appropriate work-up of these patients is poorly defined." About half of such cases will be due to PCa. [1]
In metastatic PCa, one would not rely of FDG-PET alone for imaging.
The search for an alternative to FDG goes back more than 30 years. Whatever happened to "PET and N-(3-[18F]fluoropropyl)putrescine" (1990) [2]
I just found an answer to my question on Omega 3 supplement to take or not. I think reading the following article that it is okay for me to give Omega 3 to my husband despite the PCa preference for fatty acids.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
It is untrue for prostate cancer. Be suspicious of anything that groups cancers together as if they were all the same. For most prostate cancers, the preferred energy is fats, not glucose. The whole premise is wrong.
Yes. Agreed. See above from (and response to) pjoshea13. Not meant to be prostate cancer specific, but just a general reference on off-label drugs. Just passing along information I received for others to consider (or not) as they want. Thanks.
Just to expand briefly on the comments by by pjoshea13 and Tall_Allen, the fact that PC feeds on fatty acids does not necessarily mean PC feeds only on DIETARY fat. PC builds its own fatty acids, as needed.
So the metabolic signaling pathways involved in de novo lipogenesis may be as important, or more, as whether or not we are eating "too much" fat. We might ask, what KINDS of fats should we eat, in what proportion to different kinds of carbs and different kinds of proteins?
If systemic metabolic or inflammatory disorders including progressive insulin resistance might increase the risk of lethal PC, then we might consider either excessive carb or excessive protein consumption to be just as potentially problematic as excessive fat consumption!
This is exactly where my mind went and has been. Accordingly, I've had high lipids in my blood along with borderline and high sugars. I've treated the lipids with meds, but not the high sugars which I may start soon if the Lupron and other treatments keep making it hard to control. Anyways thank you.
A point that has been made by some is that we tend to treat a "disease of high blood sugar" by focusing on ways to lower blood sugar, rather than looking at that as a symptom of a "disease of insulin resistance and/or excessive insulin."
To regain an increased sensitivity to insulin and decrease the needed levels probably means dietary changes, that might include 1) not eating as often, and 2) not eating foods that spike insulin.
Another symptom of increased insulin resistance is adverse changes in lipid profiles. So sometimes, treating one's insulin problem with diet can also effectively help treat a lipid problem... without meds!
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: they are all in there it appears. I love the diagrams and cellular pathways maps (Except for the McClellan Metro Map which to me is unsound).One needs to do specific and careful consideration (research) for each agent one may consider adding to their own regimen. It is a jungle and there be dragons. But amongst them some likely gems.
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