To Chris and ALL, - Let me try to clear up the question of the cause of Dave's death.
It is true that Dave had been in the TAK 700 trial and had an excellent response to the drug itself, UNFORTUNATELY, he had to quit the clinical trial because of the severe morbidity he experienced, directly attributable to the drug involved. It caused him to suffer a severely limited ability to breath because of depleted lung capacity, that was not present until his participation in the trial, and he had to quit the trial because of the severity of the symptoms he experienced. He told me , "I just couldn't breath!"
Very recently, his wife had the flu and Dave was not feeling well either and assumed he was, probably, getting it also. After a couple of days, he became disoriented while getting out of bed and fell, breaking a rib, that in turn punctured his lung, sending him to the hospital. Because of his severely diminished lung capacity, attributed to his Clinical Trial participation, he rather quickly acquired Pneumonia and his condition continued to deteriorate rapidly, shortly resulting in his demise.
His prolonged struggle with PCa began with his diagnosis of a relatively high-risk PCa (PSA=42, G-7), which was initially treated with 3D-EBRT, supplemented with 24 month HT (ADT2). A continuously rising PSA in July 2001, led to another Biopsy at MD Anderson which then revealed a (4+5)=9 Gleason Score, which was treated with Intermittent ADT from 2001 on, with varying results.
By March 2007, the PSA was once again steadily rising and a third Biopsy (at MDA) detected an even more advanced PCa of (5+4)=9 Gleason Score. To my surprise (and to my chagrin), MDA recommended that he have a Salvage Radical Prostatectomy. Dave decided he would also have a bi-lateral orchiectomy, which together, temporarily dropped his PSA to <0.1 ng/ml.
By one year later, in Sept. 2008, however his PSA was once again on the rise, reaching 0.67 in November and he resumed Casadex. He also had a Bladder Neck stricture that had to be surgically removed in Dec. 2008. This left him nearly 100% incontinent and by Feb. 2010, he had added Avodart to his regimen, to treat a once again elevating PSA. He had to have additional strictures removed by surgery.
In April 2010 he had an artificial Sphincter installed with moderate success, and he stopped the now ineffective, Casadex and Avodart combination. By Aug. 2010 his PSA had risen to 4.0 and to 8.0 by the next month, (September). This prompted his entry into the TAK-700 clinical trial, which by October 2010, had dropped his PSA to 0.3 ng/ml.
The aforementioned complications caused him to have to withdraw from the trial and his PSA, once again, was rising rather rapidly, when he suffered the accident that precipitated his death.
There is little doubt in my mind, that the PCa struggles and complications had weakened his resistance, and that the clinical trial morbidity put him at critical risk of both bacterial and/or viral infection. He was unable to combat an accident, that he would have easily survived under normal circumstances. However that is only MY opinion, and I don't know the official cause of death, at this time.
I had just talked to Dave last week and so I was totally shocked to get the call from his wife, Adrienne on the day that he died, and that he had left us in such a short time frame. I hope this better explains his valiant journey, which ended all too soon. –
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