(Chris Woollams, CANCERactive) This article on prostate cancer and the associated articles listed will give you everything you need to know to help you increase your personal odds of beating prostate cancer. We cover the symptoms, the diagnosis and all the latest prostate cancer treatment; the one fact on prostate surgery which could reduce the risk of side-effects, alternative prostate cancer treatments, and the prostate cancer drugs on offer today. We also look at what is important, and how you can build your own ´Integrative prostate cancer treatment plan´, with our ACTIVE8 Programme.

This article has been compiled by Chris Woollams from worldwide research and expert sources*

Read the whole article below or just select the part(s) that you are interested in from the list below and click onto that page.

• Introduction
• Diagnosis
• Is it all in the genes? 
• What Is the Prostate?
• What are the symptoms?
• So what is the Diagnostic procedure?
• Stage and Grade
• What Causes Prostate cancer?
• The Oestrogen Factor
• Beneficial Bacteria
• How Can I Protect Myself? 
• Exercise  
• What are the possible Treatments? 
• Surgery   
• Radiotherapy 
• Brachytherapy  
• Hormone Treatment   
• Chemotherapy
• Other Treatments 
• Ultrasound - The New Hope 
• Professor Pfeifer´s Protocol
• Apricot Kernals and B-17 
• Building an Integrated Therapy Programme
• The Final Word

Introduction

The lifetime risk may be one in thirteen for men (7-8 per cent), but if you reach 50 years of age your chances of being diagnosed with prostate cancer are 40 per cent. 95 per cent of the cancers are in men over 60.
Prostate cancer, or adenocarcinoma as it is called in most cases, is now the most common male cancer in the UK. At its current rate of growth it will overtake all lung cancer cases, and breast cancer cases within 15 years. Despite this, its causes are still rarely acknowledged, its treatment currently imperfect and research into it massively under-funded.

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The UK ‘official’ charities seem equally confused – one prostate helpline, when we called them, said the reason for the rapid growth in the number of cases is ´better diagnosis´!!! Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Prostate cancer Diagnosis

The whole area is fraught with mis-diagnosis. The PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test is notoriously unreliable - indeed at the 2003 Cancer Support Groups’ UK Conference, Professor Julian Peto of Oxford and Cancer Research said 90 per cent of younger doctors wouldn´t have one themselves as it wasn´t worth it. Professor Thomas Stanley of Stanford University Medical School has gone so far as to dub the test ‘Useless’ adding, ‘The PSA era is over; it indicates nothing more than the size of the prostate.’
Critics add that even after a high PSA reading and a biopsy which indicates cancer, there is still no real indication whether the cancer is fast or slow growing.

The fact is that few prostate cancers are fast growing

The fact is that few prostate cancers are fast growing (possibly around 5 per cent of total) but these can appear in quite young men. ‘The great majority are slow growing and may be left for ten years or more’. So says the US National Cancer Institute. The Royal Marsden has now plumped for ‘Active Surveillance’ saying that at least 50 per cent of cases did not need any other form of action. In an analysis of 20 years of data from the Connecticut Cancer Registry, USA, researchers found that men with a low-grade prostate cancer (Gleason grade 2-4) had a small risk of cancer progression, even after 20 years. 20 years on, the risk of death was only 6 per 1000 deaths.
Finally there was a research study in Los Angeles amongst about a thousand men over 50 who had died in car accidents – over 40 per cent of them would have ‘officially’ been deemed to have had prostate cancer – but none of them even knew!!
The conclusion is that too many men rush, or are rushed, into operations.

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Is it all in the genes?

Until recently several genes had been identified (including BRCA 1 and BRCA 2) which were linked to increased risk, and sometimes prostate cancer was ´seen to run in families´. The incidence occurs, however, in less than 8 per cent of men and anyway there is much you can do to protect yourself. Then icon covered research that showed some genes seemed more at risk from chemical exposure, and this linked to increased prostate risk. Now, according to Nature Genetics 10 Feb 2008, scientists have turned up seven new genome sites linked to risk - one they say is a potential  target for new treatments, another for screening.  We shall see.

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What Is the Prostate?

The prostate is a gland situated between the pubic bone and the rectum and around the urethra, the tube passing from the bladder to the penis. Its function is connected with the whole urine and reproductive system. The tubes of the reproductive system through which the sperm pass, meet the urethra in the prostate. The prostate gland contracts at orgasm to fire out the sperm. In a boy, the gland is the size of a pea, growing at puberty to the size of a small to medium plum. However, in the Western world it seems to grow again in men in their late forties and here lies the problem.

 Many, many men in the Western World have an enlarged prostate

Many, many men in the Western World have an enlarged prostate. Mostly usually it is benign, but in some cases it does become malignant. Even then there may be no further distress for ten or more years.
The symptoms of either form are very much the same and are principally the symptoms of the enlargement.

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What Are the Symptoms?

The UK charity "The Prostate Cancer Charity" defines them as:

• Difficulty or pain when passing urine.
• The need to pass urine more often.
• Broken sleep due to the need to pass urine.
• Waiting for long periods before the urine flows.
• The feeling that the bladder has not completely emptied.

Almost all of these symptoms are shared with the non-malignant prostate growth form (termed Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia).
With prostate cancer you may also suffer from blood in the urine, and/or lower back pain and/or dribbling. Be aware that many of the above symptoms can be caused by other factors e.g. bacterial infection.

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So what is the Diagnostic procedure?

1 Digital Rectal Examination: Firstly, your doctor can simply feel if you have an enlarged prostate (a Digital Rectal Examination).

2 PSA test: If he finds such an enlargement he will probably send you for a PSA test. This measures a specific protein in a man´s blood, the level of which was originally thought to correlate with prostate cancer. This test has been found to be flawed. In one research study factors found in the blood due to high dairy consumption increased PSA levels. Vigorous exercise, or even riding a bicycle to the doctor´s surgery, can also increase PSA levels.

 the PSA test has been found to be flawed

Indeed, the test does not seem able to fully distinguish between enlarged malignant prostates and non-malignant ones. One USA report concluded that as many as two thirds of those testing positive, probably are not!
Sloan-Kettering in the USA recently conducted research on men, (average age 62), whose PSA levels were high enough to warrant an immediate operation, and concluded that 50 per cent had PSA readings a month later that would negate this conclusion. Do not rush into surgery and, if relying on PSA readings, take one every fortnight for three months before planning action.

But there´s another problem. Even if the tumour is cancerous, to date there is no way of telling how aggressive the growth will be. The problem is that some men with small, yet rapidly growing cancers have not been spotted in time. Others with enlarged and malignant prostates may have had them operated on unnecessarily. New tests, reported in September 2003 icon, attempt to measure the levels in the blood of an enzyme only produced in cancer cells. But we seem to be quite a way off their use amongst the general male population.

3 Biopsy: If the PSA test proves positive, the specialist may recommend a biopsy to confirm the cancer. This may be done at the same time as an Ultrasound scan where a tube is passed up your rectum in an attempt to ‘see’ (via an ultrasound image of your prostate) what exactly is going on.  This doesn’t always ‘work’ either!

In a normal biopsy, tissue is taken from ten or more places in the prostate using a fine needle. Beware; and ask for evidence of the risks. It leaves many patients in pain for quite a long period, can result in infection (since the needle passes through the rectum which is full of nasty bacteria) and can even result in incontinence and impotency.  And that´s just from the biopsy! Worse, there was an article in the Lancet (the famed British Doctors´ Journal) suggesting that prostate biopsies might even spread the disease!

Finally in about a fifth of cases even the biopsy may prove unclear, prompting your doctor to want to do more PSA tests and even another biopsy.

4 A scan: If the specialist feels that the cancer may have spread, he may also suggest:

• A Bone Scan – if your doctor is worried about ‘spread’, he may suggest a ‘bone scan’ – which will either be a normal X-ray, or involve using a radioactive isotope injection and an X-ray of your whole body. Orthodox medical professionals insist there are no side-effects from this radioactivity
• A CT scan – where a number of X-rays are taken to build up a 3D computer picture of whole areas of the body. You will be given an injection and your doctor should discuss allergies, asthma and iodine concerns with you before hand. (NB: Too many CT scans should be avoided where possible. Research from Columbia University (icon Vol 3 Issue 4) calculated that the radiation produced from an annual CT scan increases risks of developing cancer! ‘The risks of a full body scan are reasonably well quantified’ says Dr David Brenner)
• An MRI scan - similar to a CT scan, this uses magnetism rather than X-rays. You may be given an injection of a dye. No metal objects (necklaces, pacemakers, metal plates from former operations) are allowed.

5 Cystoscopy: This involves (don’t wince) a flexible tube with a light and camera on the end being pushed up your penis, and right up into the bladder.

After all this, there is a reasonable chance that your doctor may be able to tell you whether you have cancer or not. If you do have cancer he will try to assign a grade and a stage.

You can, of course, ask for second opinions – and you can even go outside ‘the system’. A good homeopath with a VEGA machine should be able to tell you whether or not you have a cancer; a Kirlian photograph should do the same (some Homeopaths and Naturopaths can do one of these), and Iridology  ought to be able to spot a problem if the therapist is good. There is a new blood test being developed right now which detects cancers at their earliest stages. It is already in use for lung cancer and is very accurate. Prostate blood tests may be ready in 2012.

NB. In some cases where (malignant or not) an enlarged prostate is causing constriction on your tubing and thus discomfort, a rigid cystoscope can be pushed up the penis and a scraping form of surgery on the innermost cells of the prostate can be performed to widen the urethra.

It´s a Mess!

Well, yes – it’s certainly not perfect. Many people may only have non-malignant but enlarged prostates, whilst others may have very slow growing cancers, which could continue for ten or fifteen years before any treatment is really needed. And a very few people have a fast growing cancer that doctors will find hard to check. There is a serious need to fund prostate cancer properly and sort this out, because the treatment (and even the diagnosis) of prostate cancer is something no man wants to go through unless it is essential. But more of that later.

Please be very careful. All the expert advice is clear that you should not rush into prostate surgery. But, I have 4 friends who were all rushed in on the grounds that ´it may have spread´. This is non-sense. If it has spread, surgery will not help. If it hasn´t, don´t panic, take your time!

Before embarking on surgery you should read the article by top surgeon Christopher Eden where he spells out that the risks of side-effects reduce dramatically the more RP operations the surgeon has conducted!  Click here to read the article.

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Stage and Grade

The Stage tells you how far the cancer has progressed

The Stage tells you how far the cancer has progressed to date. Hence:

Stage 1 is where the tumour is confined, and probably cannot be felt using a Digital Rectal Examination
Stage 2 – it is still confined, but is large enough to be felt and shows up on ultrasound
Stages 3 and 4 – it has spread, probably to local lymph nodes first, then the nearby bones, then on to other organs.

The Grade tells you how fast this is growing

The Grade tells you how fast this is growing – how aggressive is the cancer. This is done using a 10-point scale called the Gleason System. 6-7 is roughly the ‘norm’; scores below it are slow growing, scores above it are aggressive. But the ‘scoring’ is done after looking at the cells under a microscope – which is rather like asking how fast a race horse will be when it is still in the womb.
Metastasis is ‘Doctorspeak’ for the word ‘spread’. You can go to our article (yes, it’s a bit tongue in cheek) called Doctorspeak, which we produced after research reports said that most patients frequently did not understand their doctor.  It gives you the simple English translations!

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What Causes Prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer does run in families, and men who have a father or brother with the disease have a five to twenty fold increased risk, depending upon which study you read. However, certain genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 have weaknesses that run in families and are linked to both prostate and breast cancers. Only 7 per cent of people carry these genes.

Men in the Far East (Japan, South East Asia) have the lowest incidence, but this changes if they move to the West. Black people living in Western capital cities have a higher incidence than whites or Asians.

There was a research study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden linking the volume of dairy consumption to the level of risk of prostate. The study showed a straight line correlation. High dairy consumption increased risk by 50 per cent.
Another report suggested the herpes virus (the version that causes cold sores) might play a part. There is also a general view that too much red meat consumption doesn´t help either.

Men with lowered levels of lycopene in their blood, or lowered levels of omega 3, or lowered levels of vitamin D are all at higher risk of prostate cancer. (Lycopene is in tomatoes, omega-3 in flaxseed and fish oil; vitamin D is produced by the action of sun on the skin). 

Prostate cancer does run in families

The major charities will tell you that there is no definite evidence that anything causes prostate cancer, although Western diet seems the most likely culprit. However, often you wiill find a finger pointed at ´testosterone´, the male sex hormone as the cause.

This is just not true.

In early 2003, a number of major research studies from Singapore Cancer Centre, and both Concord and Monash Cancer Centres in Australia produced the conclusions that:
a) Localised oestrogen (the ´female´ sex hormone) caused a swelling of the prostate in men.
b) Anti-oestrogens like Finasteride and IC1 could reduce this swelling.*
c) That to develop prostate cancer, a man needed both testosterone and localised oestrogen present.

* N.B. In one study (Cancer, Feb 28th 2005) Finasteride reduced the occurrence of prostate cancer by 24.8 per cent – it can cut localised oestrogen levels and reduce the size of the prostate as well. In a very few cases, these anti-oestrogens actually provoke a very rapidly growing prostate cancer. The research concluded that the benefits outweighed the risks.

High testosterone does not ‘cause’ prostate cancer. The fact is that, sadly, men over the age of 50 make less and less testosterone and if high testosterone were to blame, then every red blooded, 18-year old male in the world would be running around with prostate cancer! It’s a daft theory, but one that prevails.
In August 2003 Dr Thomson of Houston, Texas produced his research results and explained to the world what was really happening. He concluded that localised oestrogen turned nice, safe testosterone into something quite nasty called DHT, which was actually the driving force for prostate cancer.

Is this such a surprise? Not at all. Several centres in the world, for example the Althone Institute of Technology in Ireland, have long told us that chemicals from plastics, toiletries and pesticides could mimic the action of oestrogen and greatly affect the male reproductive system. Research carried in icon showed that any of 13 genes could be involved in prostate cancer risk, and all were influenced by chemical toxins that could act like oestrogen when in the body.

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The Oestrogen Factor

Oestrogen is known to fuel the fire of a number of cancers – in both females and males, directly and indirectly. For example, Professor Wang and his team at Columbia University showed in November 2004 that stomach cancer could result from stem cells which, instead of converting to new stomach lining cells, stayed as stem cells under the influence of localised oestrogen, growing rapidly and un-controllably to become a cancer.

Oestrogen is not a single hormone, but a family of hormones. Oestradiol is the most aggressive form, oestrone is its much weaker sister (about 40 times weaker). Plant oestrogens (phyto-oestrogens) are about 40 times weaker still. All have the ability to bind to receptor sites on prostate cells, but oestradiol can then cause havoc inside the cell, reducing oxygen levels, reducing potassium and magnesium levels and reducing energy production, whilst increasing unwanted sodium salts and the internal pH.

Given a choice, I´d rather have the weaker phyto-oestrogens blocking my receptor sites, and thus the action of oestradiol. Phyto-oestrogens are found in plants - in particular pulses like beans, peas, lentils, soy, and red kidney beans, chickpeas etc. Eastern diets are full of these foods our Western diets have forgotten. Indeed, Eastern women can have 1000 times the protective phyto-oestrogen levels of their Western equivalents.

Men also increase their oestrogen in a number of ways. As we age so our testosterone levels decline and our oestrogen levels grow. Animal fat is a wonderful solvent and will dissolve and hold the animal’s own hormones plus a number of toxins (for example, chemicals from pesticides and herbicides). Some chemicals upon entering our blood streams will act like oestrogen – these chemicals are called Xeno-oestrogens or oestrogen mimics. They are formed from chemicals in some pesticides (DDT and Lindane, being two) or from certain plasticisers in plastic bottles, from certain chemicals (BPA) in the white lining of cans and even from some perfume and perfumed products (soaps, after shave, deodorants etc). We really do recommend all men read ´Oestrogen - the killer in our midst´, as it looks at the causes of certain cancers in more detail and clearly tells you what you can do about removing unwanted oestrogen from your lives. It´s only a 2 hour read and well worth it.

Being overweight doesn´t help, since fat stores these chemicals and excess hormones we should be excreting, and also fat metabolism produces steroids and thus oestrogen. Fat males can actually have higher oestrogen pools in their bodies than their thin post-menopausal wives. Weight gain has been linked to increased cancer risk in a number of major studies.

However, men with high lignan (fibre) and phytoestrogen blood levels have lower rates of prostate cancer. One natural compound, Indole 3 Carbinol, found in broccoli, has shown great promise in preventing prostate cancer as it helps denature aggressive oestradiol to its less harmful sister oestrone. (Go to the Natural Selection shop for the natural supplement).

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Beneficial Bacteria

Recently there has been an enormous flurry of research on the role of beneficial bacteria in our bodies. You really should read our article on the subject, and the links to cancer. Over 4000 research studies and 100 clinical trials have shown that Beneficial Bacteria  in the gut: 

•  stimulate and strengthen the immune system
•  help produce certain cancer fighting vitamins like B-12, folic acid and vitamin K; plus sodium butyrate which kills cancer cells!
•  help produce short chain fatty acids which reduce harmful fat production (like cholesterol)
•  can actually chelate to (bind to) heavy metals and help excrete them
•  can actually neutralise and eliminate harmful chemicals like oestrogen and nitrosamines

There are over 800 strains of bacteria in the gut – about 400 have been identified and a dozen or so seem, according to the research so far, to have the greatest impact on our health. 60 or more years ago we would consume daily supplies of a number of strains – but we no longer live on farms nor drink raw milk and, instead, we chlorinate our water, fill our chickens with antibiotics, irradiate our food and pasteurise everything. Worse we take drugs, antibiotics and anaesthetics which deplete our stores further.

There is another school of thought that explains that these Beneficial Bacteria at night feed off the yeasts, microbes and non-beneficial bacteria we accidentally consumed during the day. Yeast infection is now endemic. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the population has excess yeasts – signs in men include bloating after meals, yellow toe nails and athletes foot. Try reading Can Candida cause cancer? on this web site. Consider this quote: “Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy did not ultimately succumb to cancer, but to an infestation of Candida albicans”. That comes from the 1993 Spring edition of the prestigious US medical journal Contemporary Oncology. 

Beneficial Bacteria  feed off the yeasts, microbes and non-beneficial bacteria consumed during the day

Topping up daily with multi-strain probiotics (strains of beneficial bacteria shown in clinical trials to deliver a benefit) and following a prebiotic based diet – lots of whole foods and whole grains – with no sugar, dairy or alcohol and certain yeast killers will help defeat the Candida albicans. It’s all in the article.

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How Can I Protect Myself?

Professor Howell, of Christie Manchester and a former patron of CANCERactive, told the audience at our Cancer Prevention Conference all about the new drugs designed to prevent the return of a cancer. Well, good diet, exercise, mental therapies and much more are able to prevent a cancer too.

At CANCERactive we do not differentiate between preventing the cancer in the first place – and preventing recurrence after your doctor has given you the ‘all clear’.
You can learn far, far more about cancer in my book, ´Everything you need to know to help you beat cancer´.

There is clear evidence that certain foods will help fight the disease. For example, Harvard Medical School state that tomatoes, tomatoes and especially cooked tomatoes help prevent and fight the symptoms of prostate cancer. 

From tomatoes, lycopene  is the much talked about antioxidant ingredient where prostates are concerned. It actually binds to fats and lipids in the blood stream helping overcome our Western diets. The Harvard Medical School study stated that seven to ten helpings of tomatoes per week reduced risks by 40 per cent; another suggested that 40 per cent of prostate cancer sufferers eating those quantities showed relief of symptoms. Whatever the study, lycopene is a strong antioxidant particularly pertinent to a healthy prostate and can be obtained from all tomato products e.g. sauces, soups and especially cooked tomatoes which release the lycopene more easily..
Polyphenols appear to be extremely helpful. We have carried research on olive oil and several studies from Perth University that show Green Tea  having important prevention properties.

Indole 3 carbinol,  (broccoli, ‘greens’) have been shown in research to turn nasty oestradiol into its safer sister oestrone. One study recorded in icon showed that broccoli and tomatoes were more effective against prostate cancer than one of the leading drugs! This was confirmed by a second paper from Dr John Erdman at the International Research Conference on Food.

The British Journal of Cancer (2006) reports on the benefits of one phyto-oestrogen, genistein. Apparently it can increase the repair proteins in a cell – even those in short supply due to the presence of BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. Some women prefer to go this high phyto-oestrogen route than take Tamoxifen.

Other foods can make a difference. The same study above on Genistein, showed that Indole 3 Carbinol could also increase repair protein levels in cells. Sulforaphane, also in broccoli and brussel sprouts, can inhibit the development of oestrogen-driven cancer cells. US Dr Keith Singletary and his team claim it works as well as the chemotherapy drugs, by causing the release of certain cancer killing enzymes. My book, The Rainbow Diet - and how it can help you beat cancer´ will tell you about the very latest research on a variety of natural compounds that are effective in fighting cancer.

Several research studies indicate that ´antioxidants´ beta-carotene (do not take if you are a smoker), Vitamin A, Curcumin, Coenzyme Q10 and especially selenium and Vitamin E each seem to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. As regular readers will know, we worry about synthetic ´imperfect´ vitamins, so make sure you are taking natural vitamin E in all its tocopherol and tocotrienol forms; and take natural chlorella  rather than synthetic beta-carotene. Two forms of Tocotrienol vitamin E (alpha and beta) have been shown in Japanese research to directly inhibit DNA polymerase (the enzyme that causes rapid division) and also to slow down blood vessel formation to the tumour.
 
In a USA tests amongst people deficient in Vitamin E, a 50mgs daily supplement reduced prostate cancer by 20 per cent. As we report elsewhere, our vegetables are becoming poorer sources of Vitamin E all the time, so it is wise to supplement as well as eating large quantities of fresh and steamed vegetables.

The UK diet is often poor in selenium, so supplementation again is useful. In US research, levels of 200 micrograms per day for five years cut prostate cancer by 50 per cent. There are a good number of German studies showing the benefits of selenium in reducing risk, and also for people with prostate cancer already. However, one recent US study claims that selenium offers no benefit at all. One action of selenium is to displace heavy metals from the body.

Zinc   is very important. The prostate seems to store zinc and zinc is an active participant in maximising the effect of several antioxidants. 15-20 mgs as a daily supplement should be ample. Levels above 50 mgs are not to be recommended and could be counter-productive.
 
Vitamin D  is a very important vitamin in the fight against cancer. It has been proven to significantly reduce the incidence of prostate cancer and a large number of receptor sites are found on the cell walls. One study from Harvard concluded that vitamin D reduced prostate cancer risk by 40 per cent. Vitamin D can even ‘normalise’ cancer cells. Be very clear, it is only present in very small quantities in our foods – you can obtain very small amounts through eating oily fish (and fish oils) or much greater amounts from the action of sunlight biosynthesising vitamin D from the layers of cholesterol under your skin. Black people in Western cities have three times the prostate cancer rates of white people. Their pigmentation may well prevent what little sunshine there is in urban, grey Britain having any beneficial effect.
 
Vitamin D is however very susceptible to the effects of protein and calcium both of which reduce its action. Perhaps here lies one possible connection to the Western diet and its high levels of protein and blood calcium levels from dairy.
 
Another possibility with dairy, whether consuming the milk products or the meat itself, is the consumption of the animal´s own oestrogenic hormones. A further concern with dairy is the presence of the hormone Insulin-like Growth Factor-1, which causes a new born calf to grow to full size in just ten months or so. IGF-1 is known to cause this rapid cell proliferation - not exactly something you want in your prostate.

Vegetarians do get far less prostate cancer, and one report stated that consuming two glasses of soya milk per day also cut the risk by 40 per cent. This is possibly something to do with the genistein content.

Fish oils are known to cut prostate cancer risk by 40 per cent (Harvard, again).Not just because they contain some vitamin D but because they reduce the levels of localised inflammatory hormones. Many ‘solid’ tumour cancers start with inflammation and US research published by the American Medical Association has shown that women who take more than 7 aspirin tablets per week have 29 per cent less risk of breast cancer. Long-chain omega 3 has been shown time and time again since the early 1980´s to reduce inflammation at the cellular level. Nobel Prizes have even been won for work in this area. Ginger and garlic can also achieve this (Aloe Vera  might be preferable to synthetic aspirin)

Other compounds that have research studies supporting their use in the reduction of prostate problems and even cancer include Medicinal mushrooms (we have an excellent article, click here), Biobran (click here) and Resveratrol (click here). 
 
Finally, a combination of rather odd ingredients has been reported to have an effect. Several prostate cancer books recommend that sufferers of enlarged prostates take:

* saw palmetto oil (150-400 mgs)
* panax ginseng (3-5 mgs)
* pygeum bark (1.5-2 mgs daily)
Saw palmetto is known to interfere with hormone levels (for example, testosterone) and may reduce prostate swelling.

A few years ago, an importer in California brought in a Chinese Herb mix, which he named PC-SPES. Word of mouth grew and grew. PC-SPES relieved pain and symptoms of those with prostate cancer, especially advanced cancer.

Researchers from California to the Czech Republic however, found that apart from the eight natural herbal ingredients, the mix also contained DES (a synthetic oestrogen), indomethacin (an anti-inflammatory drug) and warfarin (an anticoagulant). Apparently, pre 1999, along with the saw palmetto, ginseng, chrysanthemum, liquorice, etc., the Chinese had been adding the three compounds before shipment, and latterly just the warfarin.

Doctors had been using PS-SPES with great success but noticed side effects like breast enlargement (typical of taking oestrogen). When some people had blood clots and bleeding problems, investigations started. The Doctor behind these tests, Dr Nagourney of Long Beach, California, believes PC-SPES is now dead and he is turning to DES. One wonders why people can´t ask the Chinese to provide pure PC-SPES and test that; would it have worked without the DES? In Europe, there is a herbal product called Prostasol with many of the same ingredients but no results to date.

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Exercise

Why? Well, you will reduce certain dangerous hormone levels (like Cortisone), you will lose weight and fat mass, you will move your lymph to clear toxins away from your cells and you will oxygenate your blood and hopefully your cells. And that’s just for starters.

Exercise does not have to be ‘hard’. Indeed all the recent research shows it is better to do 30 minutes every day, rather than something more strenuous three times per week as the Government currently recommends. Some therapies are actually very calming. Others boost energy levels.  You can then access a world of Complementary Therapies on this web site – start with a ‘kiddies guide’  to them all and chose the best ones for you.

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What are the possible Treatments?

If you need treatment the specialists will recommend a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. If the cancer has spread they may recommend chemotherapy.
Current 5-year survival rates in England are approximately 60 per cent. Although we have been improving, we are below the European average, and well below the best country Austria (83 per cent) according to the Eurocare 3 and 4 studies.

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Surgery

When the tumour is malignant, specialists prefer to operate through an area between the scrotum and the rectum, or  through the abdomen often removing the prostate, the seminal vesicles and the pelvic lymph nodes at the same time to see how far the disease has spread and cut accordingly. This is termed Radical Prostectomy and is major surgery; and as patients tend to be older it is risky, with the chances of complications growing as you age. Nerve damage is possible and after surgery there is a 70 per cent risk of impotence plus a 40 per cent risk of some incontinence one year later. You will be allowed home after about 10 days but there will be a tube to pass urine while the urethra heals for about 3 weeks.

In 1998 The Lancet reported that it was possible the operation itself spread the cancer.

All operations involving anaesthetic deplete the immune system, kill beneficial bacteria, weakening the body in its fight to neutralise possible secondaries as they move through the blood and lymph.

Keyhole surgery is also used. You should read the article on RP by Christopher Eden (Click Here) in which he concludes that the crucial factor in reducing nasty side-effects is the experience of the doctor and how many operations he has performed.

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Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is usually used if the surgeon doesn’t think he removed all the cancer cells.

Remember to keep taking your supplements

External radiotherapy requires six weeks of treatment, doesn´t directly hurt but kills all rapidly-reproducing cells in its line of fire. It is commonly used for men over 70. The side effects may hurt. Diarrhoea and cystitis are common side effects, there is possible damage to the bladder and rectum, incontinence, and 20-30 per cent of men report impotence.

For information on how to get the best out of your radiotherapy, click here.

Remember to keep taking your supplements. UCLA and MD Anderson have shown they improve the success of radiotherapy. Claims that somehow antioxidants ‘interfere with’ radiotherapy are without any scientific foundation, as far as we can tell. Medicinal mushroom extract, astragalus and fish oils can all improve the success of radiotherapy.

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Brachytherapy

Click here and read our article "What is Cancer"

Also called Implant Therapy, this involves implanting "radiation" seeds into the prostate; this 2-day treatment is more localised, and can cause a burning sensation on urination. It is growing in support in the USA, but the UK has few centres. Long-term issues have not yet been noted.

In a study from St Luke’s Cancer Centre in Guildford, 300 patients were treated with low dose brachytherapy. This showed 93 per cent with early stage prostate cancer had survived 5 years. (Ed: this is where we get awfully confused. According to Royal Marsden 50 per cent of patients don’t need any treatment anyway, and US reports say that 90 per cent of people will survive 10 years from first diagnosis?! NICE has passed the treatment for general use, but many PCT’s refuse to fund it. Are we surprised?)

Brachytherapy typically involves a 24 hour stay in hospital and a general anaesthetic. A needle inserts roughly 100 tiny radioactive seeds into the prostate gland.

We feel you might enjoy the following non sequitur from the web site of CancerBACKUP: ‘All the radioactivity is absorbed within the prostate and so it is completely safe for you to be with other people. However, women who are (or could be) pregnant and children should not stay very close to you for long periods of time. You should not let children sit on your lap, but can hold or cuddle them for a few minutes each day and it is safe for them to be in the same room ’.

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Hormone Treatment

This method is frequently used as prostate cancer is hormonally driven.
There are several options all designed to reduce that nasty testosterone!

1.  Cutting the production of a pituitary hormone that causes the synthesis of testosterone in the testes. (Goserelin, triptorelin, leuprorelin are drugs given at monthly or three monthly intervals)
2.  Blocking testosterone receptor sites on the prostate cells with anti-androgens (e.g.. Flutamide, bicalutamide, cyproterone)
3. A combination of 1 and 3.
4. The use of a synthetic oestrogen, DES, to flatten production of testosterone

The biggest problem is that hormone control cannot be a long-term strategy. It would work providing the body didn’t fight back and work harder to make even more of the depleted hormone. Unfortunately it does – a basic law of animal hormones is ‘homeostasis’ – put in simple English, if you throw one of them out, the body will try everything it can to restore the norm!
Of course, oestrogen in large doses it deplete the production of all testosterone and therefore DHT production. The question is, ´for how long?´
It is only a short term fix.

Also, all forms of hormone treatment have side effects. Impotence, loss of sex drive, hot flushes, even breast swelling and osteoporosis.
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Chemotherapy

You can read a complete review of prostate cancer drugs Prostate Cancer Drugs: The Truth. Our Drug search in the top right hand corner of this page will also be useful.

Other forms of chemotherapy may be used where there has been spread to other tissues – For information on your Cancer Drugs and chemotherapy click here.
Note: Sometimes Steroids are given (For example prior to surgery) to reduce inflammation and swelling.

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Other Treatments

In some cases the surgeons will recommend removing the part of the testes that produces Testosterone. This is called oriechtomy.
New treatments like cryosurgery (involving tissue being frozen to destroy abnormal cells. This is usually done with a special instrument that contains liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide) or building viruses into carriers that attach to the cancer cells and leave the healthy ones alone, are also being developed.

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Ultrasound and HIFU - The New Hope

We have covered this several times in icon. There is a new line of alternative prostate cancer treatment developing using ultrasound and hyperthermia - heating cancer cells so that they die. In icon 2005, Issue 2, we covered the work of John Holt one of Australia´s top cancer experts in. Fighting cancer with waves. Holt was ridiculed and ostracised for 20 years. Now, as he retires, his work is finding supporters.

Then you should read the CANCER WATCH feature ´Ultrasound - a real breakthrough in prostate cancer treatment´. The treatment involves High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound and is called Ablatherm; it originated in China, passing via Japan (where it went through clinical trials) to Europe. The treatment lasts for only about 90 minutes requiring a two to three day stay in hospital, it is virtually totally non-invasive and has an 87 per cent 5-year survival rate where used so far. There are 60 plus centres across Europe, and increasingly this treatment is being used by doctors in the UK. There has been an ´official´ trial on it which concluded that it did not offer better survival rates than surgery, but there were less side-effects. Ablatherm has been used for a number of years with kidney cancers, for example. However, the problem is catch 22. Until doctors have more data on patients using it - they don´t want to use it.

Having talked to several patients who have used it - one who paid 5000 euros to go privately in Europe, and two who were treated in London. Everyone was extremely happy. A quick ´operation´ and no side-effects. You should look into HIFU, probably in one of the German Clinics - where the tumour is confined to the prostate, the therapy literally ‘melts’ the cancer away. If, for some reason, the cancer returns, you can have it done again.

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Professor Pfeifer´s Protocol

Since the start of 2006 we have also been bringing readers news of the Pfeifer Protocol, where clinical trials in Switzerland are showing this protocol successful in 65 per cent of the patients that Dr. Pfeifer has used it on, even though it has largely been used with patients that have either failed conventional treatments or have been unable to tolerate them.
 
It is important to note that Ben Pfeifer´s protocol at the moment is only for hormone refractory prostate cancer and the results vary depending upon the case. The protocol has been less successful when not tailored to the PSA level and/or when patients stop taking their normal conventional medication.
 
Pfeifer´s protocol for hormone-refractory prostate cancer is a regime of natural health supplements — herbs, glyco-nutrients, vitamins and minerals. These nutrients come in the form of four commercially available food supplements — Prostasol, Biobran, Imupros and Curcumin Complex.
 
Despite this all-natural-compound protocol being the sort of treatment usually ridiculed by the more conservative corners of the UK’s medical orthodoxy, Bart´s Hospital in London is giving it a trial, on patients for whom they have run out of treatment options! Professor Pfeifer was the Director for Clinical Research at the Aeskulap Clinic in Switzerland — a cutting edge healthcare centre, which combines conventional orthodox medicine with complementary therapies in the form of clinical holistic medicine. Pfeifer carried out his medical training in Germany and went on to specialise in Cancer Immunology, receiving an Immunological Research Prize in Florida, USA. He has had 59 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and has presented numerous papers at medical conferences. Pfeifer has since left the Aeskulap Clinic and it is all a little mysterious. You can read more about the limited test being conducted at St Bart´s Hospital by clicking the hospital name.
 
Al Smith, whose website is prostatecancernow.org was the first patient on the protocol in the UK and offers support and information to other sufferers. We have also covered the story of Ken Jones in icon Living Proof. You can also find details of the Pfeifer Protocol  on this website.

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Apricot Kernels and B-17

I apologise here and now to all the extremely conservative Doctors in Britain but I just have to mention this. I have interviewed Dr Contreras from the Oasis of Hope. He is Mexican and trained in Chicago. He is the World’s expert on B-17 and will honestly tell you that it has no effect on brain tumours, sarcomas and liver cancer. But he uses it for other cancers and as I travel the world speaking at various venues I have been struck by how many men have come up to me and told me that eating apricot kernels has greatly reduced their PSA readings. Far, far more times than I have been accosted by all other cancer patients taking apricot kernels added together!
many men have come up to me and told me that eating apricot kernels has greatly reduced their PSA readings

Now, given that scientists in the USA - notably Dr Philip Arlen who presented a paper in Boston (spring 2004) on using docetaxel combined with a vaccine containing a recombinant vaccinia virus that expresses the PSA gene together with a recombinant virus that expresses the B7-1 gene and was happy that two of the twenty six patients vaccinated had PSA declines of over 50 per cent - I pass this on as it might be an awful lot easier and cheaper: Taking 35 - 50 apricot kernels evenly spaced out across the day, never more than 5 in a 90 minute period seems to do a better job of reducing PSA levels if my straw poll is to be believed. But please before you try it – read our article  on B-17 and take the precautions we recommend. 

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Building an Integrated Therapy Programme; The ACTIVE8 Programme

On this site you will find so much more.
 
You can plan your own, all-embracing, treatment programme, with ‘Cancer - Your first 15 Steps’; there’s even a book by the same name; or you can look for what might have caused your cancer, and what might be maintaining it – and so try to cut it out of your life. Start with the 4 Pillars of Cancer.

You can read about people who have beaten their prostate cancer in Living Proof.
 
Then there are diet changes you can make,  a specific diet if you are on chemotherapy; or even particular diet therapies like the famous  Gerson Therapy.
 
You can even find out about Alternative options (and all the research) like Photo Dynamic Therapy, Dr Gonzales Nutrition Clinic in New York, the Oasis of Hope and even John of God.
 
Or click here and build your own integrated plan with our unique ACTIVE8 Programme.

On this web site you will find more information about more treatment options (Complementary and Alternative, not just Orthodox), and on more ´possible contributory factors´ to the development and maintenance of your cancer, than on any other UK cancer web site. Some experts believe that approaching your cancer in this ´total´ way can increase an individual´s chances of survival by as much as 60 per cent.
 
This is all supported by the very latest research evidence from all over the world in our news section Cancer Watch.
 
We can do this because we are not hide-bound by vested interests, and so we can always put people first. We are not influenced by companies who seek to make financial gains from patients, we have no trustees working for, or sponsored directly or indirectly by such companies, our directors take no remuneration at all. This is our true independence, from which you benefit directly.
 
But this independence comes at a price: We can only rely on you, and people like you, to support our work. 47,703 people visited our site in March 2007, viewing 11 pages on average. Every month we add 20 new pages to this site. The letters and e-mails of gratitude and praise tell us we really do make a difference.

If you feel an independent voice is essential in cancer, please, please help by making a donation. Every little helps.

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The Final Word

If you´ve read this far, you will have realised that the world of prostate cancer is changing fast – but driven by external forces not necessarily ‘officialdom’.

Late diagnosis and the lack of a credible screening test is a major factor. Shyness is a big problem. If women find a lump in their beast they don´t hesitate to go to the doctor. But men feel talking about the prostate is embarrassing, and so tend to avoid a visit to the doctor until it may be too late. Under funding is another result of this shyness. Men should be shouting about prostate cancer more than women do about breast cancer. Although the UK Government has increased funding to ?4 million plus, it is woefully short of the near ?40 million put into breast cancer research from the Government and via breast cancer charities. The biggest UK prostate charity was only founded in 1996.

But the fact is we have one of the worst survival rates in Europe. Unless new and accurate diagnostic tests are developed, doctors open their minds to the knowledge that already exists on causes, and on the developing ´alternative treatments´, we will continue to lament the horrendous nature of the current treatments with their dreadful side effects and poor survival rates.
The Final word?
With the state of official Prostate Cancer Treatment available it has to be……………....PREVENT.

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