On the casodex or flutamides thing, yes in hrpca scenarios it can actually worsen PCa (wonderful right?), you should monitor your psa more often, ideally. You can read about
this and the Primer on Prostate Cancer-Dr. Stephen Strum is useful in knowing such things.
Just so you know the system too, most docs and especially non-oncology types, will only recommend or use: Lupron, Zoladex (other LHRH similar), flutamides (casodex etc.), maybe or maybe not proscar or avodart (added). That is their saftey zone, their comfort zone, perhaps their bias and I wonder if almost agenda. The LHRH drugs are real profittable and easy to do and they assume little to no risk from possible lawsuits on anybody (thus their drug of choice). These drugs are useful but might have their time stamp on usefulness and often do, typical in PCa with drugs.
Specialist onco-docs use and prescribe all kinds of things, I have a list of like 40 drugs that are used in PCa as useful in one way or another, that may not be the whole enchilada either.
You literally have to be proactive and demand to get some of these drugs or you might not get them, depends upon whom your doc is and his expertise and comfort zone on his own patients. Thus you are fighting another uphill battle sometimes in PCa. Some docs like urologist Dr. D (let's say) believes in the theory you kind of literally have a date stamp upon you in PCa, makes no difference what you do at all, if you try all the drugs etc.(you are literally a sucker is his thoughts, he would have you on LHRH likely for life) He is overly objective and cautious to the max. and does not look at what is possible but only is it medical proven whereby you can hang your hat upon it. (he would pooh-pooh the 'proven therapies at
www.hrpca.org Mr. Conservative in treatments, maybe not as conservative at doing surgery).
The problem is the specialists PCa oncologists don't think the same way, have patients coming to them whom also claim more results, maybe better results and compared to patients whom didn't do such (overall comparison) we have examples of longer living patients. (maybe not always) . Some histories like Truman Seamans interesting Dx- psa 4212 and bad scenario...lived 10 yrs., not 2-3 which would have been more typical for lousy scenario like that, of course Dr. Sartor & Dr. Oh (onco-docs) used additional drugs of Keto and DES. You gotta wonder how many years might I be able to get, whom judges the 'you cannot', you have no choices, no chances? Do all cancer patients of all types live with total doom? Some have beaten the odds or broke through, how and why and is the evidence the medical society seldom looks at on these individual cases (maybe they don't wish to know), plus no money in doing so.
Dr. Fred Lee's story is incredible with his PCa of 27 yrs., failed curative treatments 25 yrs. ago, had systemic PCa, still living at age 80 right now, and he took a drug thereafter that Dr. D. would say is useless and not that effective. His friend Dr. Bob B. (urologist) supports Dr. Lee and is his biography author, he must think little differently than Dr. D., I would assume. So who is your role model? What is a patient to do? Dr. D seems like a decent guy, but is contained in a box of objectivity and yet he has not treated patients with alot of the drugs that he says are not all that useful or great. As a patient with this date stamp upon you, you have choices and might even have to fight for them (great system we have). Prepare as much as you can for the fight or surrender to Dr. D's opinions, as his claim it makes no difference . You get to be your own judge as it is your life to mess with, not someone elses. I hope patients learn the system, too. You don't see much or any about
anectdotal patient cures in abstracts, or people whom broke through or defied these premises on therapies...they exist. Maybe someone here will pave some of that road.
Post Edited (zufus) : 8/30/2010 12:50:31 PM (GMT-6)