October 06 Newsletter Articles

When it Comes to Cancer: YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP

By Ric Masten

When the urologist said,"There is nothing more I can do for you, I'm sending you along to an oncologist," l went deaf, dumb and blind with fear. I knew that I had advanced prostate cancer and that it had invaded the bone, but now, in less than a year, the hormone blockade had failed, the pain was back and my PSA was rapidly rising again. Worst of all, I had wasted eleven months being an ostrich with my butt in the sky and my brains under ground.

sailing ship After the original diagnosis, the urologist, whom I had found in the yellow pages, told me that Medicare would not cover the expense of chemical castration. So, being a penniless poet, I let him perform a bilateral orchiectomy. In other words, I allowed him to pit my apricots.

Now, I take the blame for this unfortunate circumstance as I hadn't yet become a "proac- tive patient." Did I get a second opinion - No. Did I go to a prostate cancer support group - No. If I had, I would have discovered that Medicare would indeed cover the cost of chemical castration. But no use crying over lost gonads and at least I learned first hand that doctors are not infallible.

I couldn't get an appointment with the oncologist for three weeks. It was during this time that I turned the "poor me" attitude around. I went on line and found the Prostate Cancer Research Institute, but the medical jargon baffled me. I saw that the site had a " Helpline" so I dialed the number and sur- prise; I got a real live human being.

He was a fellow PC patient who talked to me for more than an hour. I have since dubbed him "Helpline Harry" Before Harry let me go he said: "If you remember anything from our conversation remember this - You are the Captain of the Ship!"

I liked Harry's metaphor and realized that we too often put doctors above ourselves in the chain of command. Now, with my trusty computer, I am more a Captain in search of good Navigators.

When the appointment with my new nav- igator finally arrived, I found him to be to an empathetic young oncologist fresh from the Stanford medical enterprise.

He gave me more than an hour of his time and, in fact, when my questions and treat- ment had been discussed, it was I who stood up to go. Dr. John was not a clock watching doctor squeezing patients out in fifteen minute intervals. Now, when Dr. John keeps me waiting (and he often does) I just figure he is doing for someone else what he did for me on that first visit.

I once brought some material to him about taking more blood tests than just the PSA. This advice had come from a prostate cancer specialist at PCRI. When I gave this information to Dr. John he said, "Ric you have a disease that there is no right way to treat. This doctor has his style and I have mine."

Well, I brooded about this till my next appointment. Then I said to Dr. John, "You are a general oncologist, right? You treat all kinds of cancers, right? Well, how could you know enough about prostate cancer to stay on the cutting edge of all the cancers and still have time to practice medicine. My testing suggestions come from a PC Specialist, so please do the tests!"

He did, and we discovered that my prostate cancer had become the very aggressive neuroendocrine disease. If I hadn't been the "Captain of the Ship," this turn of events would have been discovered during my autopsy. Chemo and radiation treatment

MINIMALLY-INVASIVE PROSTATE CANCER THERAPY RESEARCH STUDY IN U.S.

A clinical trial to determine the ef- fectiveness of focused ultrasound energy (HIFU) in treating patients who have locally recurrent prostate cancer. The device being studied to deliver HIFU is called the Sonab- late® 500. This clinical trial is cur- rently open to enrollment with the goal of generating clinical data to support approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Eligible participants must meet the following criteria:

Have organ confined recurrent prostate cancer stage TI or T2
Be between ages 40 and 80
Have a Gleason score of less than or equal to 7
Have a PSA level between 0.05 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml
Have previously failed radiation or brachytherapy as primary prostate cancer treatment
Have a recent prostate biopsy that is positive for cancer cells

If you are interested in knowing more about the recurrent prostate cancer study, please visit www.ushifu.com, or call (888) 874-4384 and you will be directed to the study center nearest you.

Trial sponsored by FOCUS Surgery

Vitamin D Deficiency Can Increase Cancer Risk

Investigators recommend correcting vitamin D deficiency with a daily dose of vitamin D3 (800 to 1000 IU) to signifi- cantly lower the risk of several types of cancer.

Vitamin D can reduce the risk of many types of cancer by blocking the growth of new blood vessels that allow cancer to thrive, a process known as angiogenesis. It can also stimulate cell adherence and "enhance intercellular communication through gap junctions, thereby strengthening the inhibition of cancer cell growth that results from tight physical contact with adjacent cells within a tissue," Dr. Cedric F. Garland and colleagues note in their article, published in the February 2006 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Garland, from the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, and his colleagues performed a search of published studies, identifying 63 observational studies on vitamin D and its association with cancers of the colon, breast, prostate and ovary. Good results were observed for 13 of 16 with prostate cancer risk

Reuters Health, 9 January, 2006

followed immediately and I'm still here more than seven years out.

Interestingly, if a miracle cure came along I would gladly take it, but I will always cherish my experiences struggling with advanced prostate cancer. Because of this disease I have met wonderful people and learned valuable lessons. Since themoment when Dr. John put his hand on mine saying: "When the time comes Ric, and it will come, I promise you a graceful end: 'I have had more close moments with my loved ones, been more alive, more cre- ative, seen more sunsets, then in the entire 69 years that proceeded that "terminal diagnosis." I feel blessed!

I only hope that you go away from reading this knowing that you are the CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP!