I chose to have a radical prostatectomy due to the size of my enlarged prostate and was 56 years old at the time. I elected to have the surgery done at New York Presbyterian hospital where the surgeon had performed over 3000 surgeries. The morning after surgery I discovered that my surgeon had performed five surgeries the day of my surgery and I was the fifth one. The pathology report confirmed that the cancer was organ confined and the surgical margins were negative. The seminal vesicles, lymph nodes and vas deferens were uninvolved. The initial clinical stage was T1C prior to surgery. Following surgery the staging was upgraded to T2c. The surgeon explained to my wife that the prostate was enlarged and in one area was stuck to the bladder.
Urinary control was achieved within a couple of months by doing Kegel exercises. For the first six years my PSA was taken every three months and was undetectable using the "PSA-Total" method. In August 2016 the method used was switched to the "PSA Post-Prostatectomy" method and this revealed my PSA to be 0.08. Later I learned that the "PSA-Total" method is more accurate around 4.0 whereas the PSA "Post-Prostatectomy" method is more sensitive around 0.2. A subsequent PSA in December of 2016 showed it to be 0.11 and May 2017 it went up to 0.13 and as of October of 2017 it is now up to 0.17.
I visited my surgeon in February 2017 after the initial rise and he recommended to wait and see if the PSA ever gets to 0.2. I am scheduled to meet with him again in October 2017 and plan to discuss with him possible medications such as Avodart and Metformin to bring my PSA down. I have been advised from a medical oncologist's office not to take the multi-vitamins I recently started taking and to not eat corn meal, corn bread, or popcorn and to follow a Mediterranean diet. I need to research to find out what my next course of action will be. I want to discuss with my surgeon the use of the PSMA test to show if the rising PSA is due to cancer recurrence and discuss the results of any genomic testing that may have done since my last visit.
Six months ago I began eating cruciferous vegetables for breakfast in addition to taking POMI-T and Zyflamendon a daily basis hoping to keep my PSA from rising. I was also taking AHCC. However it still went up from 0. 17 to 0.21 over a three or four month period. My PSA was taken again at my urologist's office and measured to be 0.25 (using a different assay method than the previous two readings). Consequently the physician's assistant called me to recommend that I make an appointment with the "multi disciplinary panel". This panel consists of a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist and a nutrition urologist. When my wife Sally and I arrived at the urologist's office for the appointment we were surprised to see that only the medical oncologist was there. (I hope and pray that this was no coincidence and instead part of God's plan and that I won't ever have to meet with a radiation oncologist for salvage radiation therapy). My wife was not keen on this form of treatment and either am I do to possible side effects.
This recommendation bothered me enough that began researching on the internet again for an alternative. I found an article on foods I (we) should not be eating. It was on the Life Extension website and is part of their prostate cancer protocol https://www.lifeextension.com/Protocols/Cancer/Prostate-Cancer-Prevention/Page-04. After reading this I stopped eating nuts, poultry, meats, eggs, dairy and high glycemic foods. Nuts and chicken had been a big part of my diet. All these foods are high in Omega-6. Our bodies need foods high in Omega-3. I called the Life Extension support number and talked to one of their health and wellness specialists. I also scheduled a phone call with their naturopathic doctor. I am now taking Omega-3 fish oil (700 mg EPA and 500mg DHA) four times per day, vitamin D, a multivitamin,vitamin B complex, 5-LOX inhibitor, bio-curcumin, PectaSol-C and boron http://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.2017.35.15_suppl.e16588. The naturopathic doctor did recommend radiation. I bargained with him that I will wait and see if my PSA gets to 0.3. I hope it never does. This doctor also sent me a link to an article concerning the timeliness of starting salvage radiation therapy https://ro-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13014-016-0671-1. Every morning I drink aloe vera juice that I make by peeling the skin off of an aloe vera leaf and putting the gel into a blender with some water. I also drink Chinese green tea. I don't drink any alcohol as this turns to sugar and cancer thrives on sugar.
Since switching to a vegetarian diet three months ago I've lost eight pounds and am now at my metropolitan health weight of 168 lb. I could never get down to this weight before. I feel great and exercise every day. I hope and pray that my next PSA test shows improvement in PSA velocity and consequently no sign of PCa recurrence.
I pursued BRCA gene testing to see if there's any chance that I may have passed mutated a BRCA gene to my daughters. I had this testing done by Mount Sinai Genetics in NYC. They sent my blood sample to an outside lab and gave me genetic counseling. The genetic testing was performed on a subset of genes (45) that are known to have mutations in men with metastatic prostate cancer. The test results came back negative with no signs of any mutations. Thank God. This leads me to believe that the cause of my cancer could be from my diet.
Eight years after radical prostatectomy my PSA eventually climbed to 0.29 which signified recurrence. My urologist/surgeon referred me to a radiation oncologist and to a medical oncologist all within the same hospital network.
At the suggestion of the medical oncologist I started taking Casodex for a total of 30 tablets, one per day. I also received a Lupron shot on January 25, 2019. Next I commenced with radiation treatments beginning on February 11, 2019. I received a total of 39 radiation treatments over the course of eight weeks with the last radiation treatment on April 5, 2019. I received a second Lupron shot on April 25, 2019. The radiation treatments were IMRT/IGRT CBCT. The machine is a Truebeam 2.
On October 24, 2019 my PSA was undetectable and testosterone is up to 300.
PSA is still undetectable. Thankful to God.
Still watching my diet; no added sugars, keep carb intake low. Keep stress low. Retired. Keep active; exercise daily. Monitor PSA (post-prostatectomy/ultrasensitive) every 6 mos. Doctor (radiation oncologist) visit every 6 mos.
PSA is still undetectable (< 0.02). Testosterone is 358. Thankful to God.
Still watching my diet; no added sugars, watch carb intake. Keep stress low. No alcohoic beverages. Retired. Keeping active; exercising daily. Monitor PSA (post-prostatectomy/ultrasensitive) every 6 mos. Doctor (radiation oncologist) visit every 6 mos. Appointment coming up in couple of weeks. Hope PSA is still undetectable.
Robert's e-mail address is: rjmcgovern AT snet.net (replace "AT" with "@")
