Radiation Failure

I'm sorry to see that your initial radiation treatment has failed. I'm seeing early signs of rising PSA some years after my SRT, so I understand and share your hope for a next step treatment other than ADT.

A healthy diet is all to the good -- for the sake of your overall health, heart, etc. I personally am skeptical (my opinion) of most diets that claim to be cancer cures, though I'm less skeptical of the role of a healthy diet as an adjunct to medical treatment or in probably reducing the incidence of some cancers, in some people, some of the time. In my own experience, when I was first diagnosed, I had to politely nod and grin when friends presented me with claims that peach pits were a better alternative than medical treatment.

That said, I don't know anything about the Gerson diet in particular so I just gave it a quick look on Wikipedia. The article notes under "Safety Concerns" that "serious illness and death have occurred as a direct result of some portions of the treatment, including severe electrolyte imbalances" and that "Relying on the therapy alone while avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer has serious health consequences."

Again, this isn't to say that diet or nutrition may not play a role in treatment. But I do not trust diet or other alternative treatment claims that haven't been subjected to or supported by scientific scrutiny.
Jim

Michael_T said...
PB...sorry I can't be of much help on the diet question, but I am interested in your radiation failure? Am I to understand that you had some type of radiation as your initial therapy, it didn't work and the biopsy you mention is of your prostate post-treatment?

Sorry if I've missed this elsewhere, but would love to know more about your case.

What Michael said.

As I understand it, you had a local recurrence after radiation (IMRT?) and your biopsy was GS 3+3. If so, there are some good re-treatment alternatives, including brachytherapy, SBRT and cryotherapy. You may be interested in the following pair of articles about this:

Site of cancer recurrence after first-line (primary) radiation therapy

There are a few institutions that have expertise in salvage radiation or ablation therapy after radiation failure. UCSF and MSKCC are especially experienced at salvage brachy. Where are you located?

- Allen