Practical proposition for those interested in men's health issues.

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

As some of you who have followed my posts will know I am involved in an

education and research project for prostate cancer on a closed list

consisting of mainly prostate cancer sufferers and a few providers. The

providers offer mainly alternative - but not treatment options. I

thought it may be a good idea to introduce TCM practitioners who were

interested in addressing this disease and perhaps encouraging some of the

sufferers who live in London / South / Midlands to visit the Asante Academy.

What do you think Attilio ?

 

Background: in the western world at least: prostate cancer is next to lung

cancer as a leading cause of cancer death in men. In the eastern world: as

far as I can make out there is NOT a strong tradition of managing this

disease in TCM. Indeed, some of the texts I have read seem to confuse 'Water

gate' with 'Life Gate' as the principal focus for attention, since this is a

reproductive disorder strongly associated with the Kidney system. In a

couple of Chinese books on anatomy that I have seen the prostate gland is

poorly identified, if at all. This is something you can check out for

yourself : 'spot the prostate' in your TCM anatomy book - and let me know

the result ;-)

 

What is the reason for this obscurity? Perhaps prostate cancer is actually a

'non-cancer' in different cultural and lifestyle contexts - I do not know.

From the information I have gathered the principle treatment routes for

prostate cancer seem to have been adopted lock stock and barrel from the

west, as China gears up to full industrialised nationhood - so don't expect

to find any answers there !

 

The 'cut burn and poison' treatment route for prostate cancer has been

applied with diligent aggression for at least the past 50 years with no real

advance in treatment success. More men are being diagnosed with prostate

cancer today than ever before and some estimates put the chances of any man

being diagnosed with this disease in his lifetime at roughly 1:6 by the year

2020. It could be argued that it is in your interest to find out more about

this disease now. But in addition to this anyone who finds a way of treating

this disease without surgery (including castration) radiation and

chemotherapy will help to put TCM on the map in a big way.

 

So you can see where I am coming from here is a little something of my own

project to date. Having read the abstract and if there are any questions

please fire away. I do not know prior to the questions whether they will be

suitable for the EPCEL group where other patients can chime in with answers,

or the TCM group where other practitioners may want to contribute. We'll

just have to 'suck it and see'.

 

If anyone wishes to to EPCEL [Education for Prostate Cancer Email

List] please go to the site http://groups/epcel/ or

online using: epcel- and please be

patient whilst I 'OK' your subscription as we have a policy of vetting

members to prevent spammers & pervs.

 

 

Abstract: Androgen Challenge in the Context of Prostate Cancer: A Case

Study - Part I

 

Background: In the UK about 1000 men of working age die every year from

prostate cancer. Another 10,000 or so elderly men die of the disease.

Following diagnosis the decline to advanced disease status and ultimate

death is rarely a happy one: Failing prostatic surgery and / or

radiotherapy, long term hormone ablative palliative treatment of advanced

prostate cancer in men of working age impacts on overall health status and

well being; not to mention the social consequences of disability:

compromised productivity and reduced earning power. Intermittent hormone

ablative treatment holds out some respite for these men but elevated disease

markers invariably reappear after a few months to years and a return to

debilitating treatment is clinically indicated.

 

This case study documents a variation of the intermittent hormone ablative

protocol where an androgen challenge is presented in order to prolong the

time off treatment and delay the return to chemically induced castrate

status in the patient - the latter being a highly undesirable end-point for

any man.

 

Methods: Since the success of Huggins and Hodges in the 1940's using

castration to effect a temporary remission in patients with advanced

prostatic carcinoma, conventional medical thinking perceives this disease as

one of androgen excess. However, the mechanism linking androgen excess to

prostatic disease is not well understood. Indeed, there are examples in the

literature going back 50 years showing how an increase in androgens can

offer respite from even terminal disease. This area therefore, is one

example where the conventional medical paradigm can be directly challenged.

 

The methodology employed in this case study was to treat the condition as

one of deficiency rather than excess. Following a period of androgen

ablation, androgen levels in the patient were allowed to rise as high as

naturally possible. Blood draws measuring prostate specific androgen (PSA -

the main prostatic cancer disease marker) and hormone levels (i.e.

testosterone) were taken at approximately monthly intervals over a period

of time to obtain an understanding of the patient's response to androgen

block, and androgen recovery. The intelligence thus obtained allowed a

degree of 'fine tuning' to obtain maximal increments of androgen level.

 

Results: After withdrawal of androgen block and return to normal male

androgen levels, an increase in PSA trend (straight line log plot) was

observed for several months. Thereafter PSA failed to reach predicted values

in the Gompertzian model of tumour growth and instead stabilised as androgen

levels were maintained at normal male age adjusted values. The existence of

a biphasic response to androgens is postulated, as described by Soto, where

encoding for the anti-proliferative effect of androgen is to be found in the

AS3 protein.

 

Conclusion: After seven years of largely ineffectual conventional treatment

for prostate cancer including surgery, radiation and chemical castration

therapy, the patient - following androgen challenge - has averted the

increase in tumour markers predicted by conventional modelling. This action

has staved off further debilitating treatment for advanced disease.

 

Challenging prostate cancer with androgen may offer some surprises! Among

those surprises are enormous gains in simple, human terms; and similarly

impressive savings of NHS resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Silly me! The corrrect URL is as follows for anyone who would like to

participate in this red-hot issue:

 

epcel/

 

Where you can online.

 

Cheers,

 

Sammy.

 

 

 

ga.bates [ga.bates]

24 September 2003 09:33

Chinese Medicine

Cc: EPCEL

Practical proposition for those interested in men's health

issues.

 

 

 

Dear All,

 

As some of you who have followed my posts will know I am involved in an

education and research project for prostate cancer on a closed list

consisting of mainly prostate cancer sufferers and a few providers. The

providers offer mainly alternative - but not treatment options. I

thought it may be a good idea to introduce TCM practitioners who were

interested in addressing this disease and perhaps encouraging some of the

sufferers who live in London / South / Midlands to visit the Asante Academy.

What do you think Attilio ?

 

Background: in the western world at least: prostate cancer is next to lung

cancer as a leading cause of cancer death in men. In the eastern world: as

far as I can make out there is NOT a strong tradition of managing this

disease in TCM. Indeed, some of the texts I have read seem to confuse 'Water

gate' with 'Life Gate' as the principal focus for attention, since this is a

reproductive disorder strongly associated with the Kidney system. In a

couple of Chinese books on anatomy that I have seen the prostate gland is

poorly identified, if at all. This is something you can check out for

yourself : 'spot the prostate' in your TCM anatomy book - and let me know

the result ;-)

 

What is the reason for this obscurity? Perhaps prostate cancer is actually a

'non-cancer' in different cultural and lifestyle contexts - I do not know.

From the information I have gathered the principle treatment routes for

prostate cancer seem to have been adopted lock stock and barrel from the

west, as China gears up to full industrialised nationhood - so don't expect

to find any answers there !

 

The 'cut burn and poison' treatment route for prostate cancer has been

applied with diligent aggression for at least the past 50 years with no real

advance in treatment success. More men are being diagnosed with prostate

cancer today than ever before and some estimates put the chances of any man

being diagnosed with this disease in his lifetime at roughly 1:6 by the year

2020. It could be argued that it is in your interest to find out more about

this disease now. But in addition to this anyone who finds a way of treating

this disease without surgery (including castration) radiation and

chemotherapy will help to put TCM on the map in a big way.

 

So you can see where I am coming from here is a little something of my own

project to date. Having read the abstract and if there are any questions

please fire away. I do not know prior to the questions whether they will be

suitable for the EPCEL group where other patients can chime in with answers,

or the TCM group where other practitioners may want to contribute. We'll

just have to 'suck it and see'.

 

If anyone wishes to to EPCEL [Education for Prostate Cancer Email

List] please go to the site http://groups/epcel/ or

online using: epcel- and please be

patient whilst I 'OK' your subscription as we have a policy of vetting

members to prevent spammers & pervs.

 

 

Abstract: Androgen Challenge in the Context of Prostate Cancer: A Case

Study - Part I

 

Background: In the UK about 1000 men of working age die every year from

prostate cancer. Another 10,000 or so elderly men die of the disease.

Following diagnosis the decline to advanced disease status and ultimate

death is rarely a happy one: Failing prostatic surgery and / or

radiotherapy, long term hormone ablative palliative treatment of advanced

prostate cancer in men of working age impacts on overall health status and

well being; not to mention the social consequences of disability:

compromised productivity and reduced earning power. Intermittent hormone

ablative treatment holds out some respite for these men but elevated disease

markers invariably reappear after a few months to years and a return to

debilitating treatment is clinically indicated.

 

This case study documents a variation of the intermittent hormone ablative

protocol where an androgen challenge is presented in order to prolong the

time off treatment and delay the return to chemically induced castrate

status in the patient - the latter being a highly undesirable end-point for

any man.

 

Methods: Since the success of Huggins and Hodges in the 1940's using

castration to effect a temporary remission in patients with advanced

prostatic carcinoma, conventional medical thinking perceives this disease as

one of androgen excess. However, the mechanism linking androgen excess to

prostatic disease is not well understood. Indeed, there are examples in the

literature going back 50 years showing how an increase in androgens can

offer respite from even terminal disease. This area therefore, is one

example where the conventional medical paradigm can be directly challenged.

 

The methodology employed in this case study was to treat the condition as

one of deficiency rather than excess. Following a period of androgen

ablation, androgen levels in the patient were allowed to rise as high as

naturally possible. Blood draws measuring prostate specific androgen (PSA -

the main prostatic cancer disease marker) and hormone levels (i.e.

testosterone) were taken at approximately monthly intervals over a period

of time to obtain an understanding of the patient's response to androgen

block, and androgen recovery. The intelligence thus obtained allowed a

degree of 'fine tuning' to obtain maximal increments of androgen level.

 

Results: After withdrawal of androgen block and return to normal male

androgen levels, an increase in PSA trend (straight line log plot) was

observed for several months. Thereafter PSA failed to reach predicted values

in the Gompertzian model of tumour growth and instead stabilised as androgen

levels were maintained at normal male age adjusted values. The existence of

a biphasic response to androgens is postulated, as described by Soto, where

encoding for the anti-proliferative effect of androgen is to be found in the

AS3 protein.

 

Conclusion: After seven years of largely ineffectual conventional treatment

for prostate cancer including surgery, radiation and chemical castration

therapy, the patient - following androgen challenge - has averted the

increase in tumour markers predicted by conventional modelling. This action

has staved off further debilitating treatment for advanced disease.

 

Challenging prostate cancer with androgen may offer some surprises! Among

those surprises are enormous gains in simple, human terms; and similarly

impressive savings of NHS resources.