Update and Is Cancer just Bad Luck?

VascodaGama said:

Gasoline on the fire

Rakendra (or should I call you Mr Davao)

This is another interesting thread of yours, particularly when reading that researchers found that some guys are just defected “abortions” by luck. I took notice on the comment that “…random mutations were more prone to tumours…” which by means are formed from “…tissues that undergo more divisions…”.

In fact these have some sort of relation to what is described as “cancer dormancy”. The difference though seems to be that the dividing cells at some time cease dividing (stopping the tumor growth) but survive in a quiescent state (for long periods) until something whips them to begin proliferation again. In such a patient the tumor logically should also stop growing and such state could be used as an “alarm”, a precautions situation when reviewing a second image study.

Regarding your update; I admire your positiveness for quality living. It may not be proper for me to comment on your wishes but from your past threads and PCa history, I think you are judging well by giving preferences to a testosterone refilling, if that makes you feel better. You know the consequences and risks for the action so you know what you may expect to occur. All you need is to find a way to “balance” the situation.

You could try discussing the matter with an oncologist. In Singapore you can find a renowned PCa specialist named Dr. Steven Tucker. I think that he does consultations by phone and follows with emails. His contact;
http://www.tuckermedical.com/about-dr-steven-tucker/

http://www.digitalhealthassembly.com/speakers/dr-steven-tucker-md-facp-fams

 

My lay opinion is that there is a probable way in using the “on/off cycles” in anabolic steroids, and try finding the best length of each period. One may use the PSA as a marker to judge the best timing for the Off period, just as it is done in the Intermittent modality in IADT (my treatment case), that is recommended by famous PCa oncologists.

I wonder if you have the result of the PSA done just before restarting the second cycle on steroids. This could serve to evaluate the effect of the steroids in the cancer progression.

In any case, I think you better check first the effects of the Bicalutamide. The “rule” in antiandrogens treatment is that these should be withdrawn when refractory is observed. It is known that cancerous cells at sometime get AR mutations and start feeding on the antiandrogens. This phenomenon can be observed by the so called Anti-Androgen Withdrawal Response (AAWR). Stopping bicalutamide and without its effect, the PSA should decrease. This should occur after 14 days (the lifetime of the bicalutamide). However, the patient must be “cleaned” of any other effect that may be interacting with the PSA status.

One may imagine that in your case could be the anabolic steroids, but I am not sure if the substance you taking triggers prostate cancer activity. We know of the risk of having PCa in a cohort of people taking steroids, just as much one is at risk for cancer with diets based on meat and dairy products (your other thread).
There are many kinds of steroids and some are more prone to be a carcinogen. You can check if yours is listed in this link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_2A_carcinogens

I believe that certain substances are armless but some may be “dangerous”. Here is an example of a PCa case treated by Dr. Myers that went very wrong with an “explosive spread of prostate cancer“, in a short period of time;

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/anabolic-steroids-hiv/chondroitin-prostate-cancer-174422.html

Here is a link regarding AAWR;
http://prostate-cancer.org/aawr-the-anti-androgen-withdrawal-response/

My answers to your above questions;

Did the steroid make the PSA go up?                                      (probably)

 What difference does it make if the PSA goes up?              (indication of cancer activity)

Maybe it is the Bicalutamide that makes the PSA go up?    (most probable)

Best wishes for the March BB contest.

VGama 

Wow!  What a reply.  Vasco, you answered all of my questions and your research and knowledge is amazing, as is the time you devote to helping others.  I am grateful and thankful.  So, I got my Psa checked and it was 1.21, so it is lower than last time even with the use of the steroid.  I have a new view given to me by a friend in the gym.  He is 81 now and was diagnosed five years ago.  After some treatments, he was put on the no testosterone program by the doctor.  Like me, he felt terrible.  He decided to hell with it, and told his doctor that he was quitting all treatment and letting nature take its course.  That was five years ago.  He does not get Psa tests and does not worry about Pca.  He has lived a full life, is grateful for all of it, and has no concern about his future.  I love that  attitude and will adopt it as mine. 

    One thing for sure about Pca is what fits one does not fit all.  And, if you look at percentages of success of treatment, often it is 50 -50, or less.  In the more severe forms of cancer treatment many of the highly toxic and expensive treatments will only extend life for a few months and, indeed, may kill you before the treatment is finished.  On another tack, here is something from Dr. Ron Laura:

   For many centuries, scientists believed (and many still believe) that the immune system, the nervous system and the mind are

separate systems quite independent of one another. The idea that these systems are distinct and autonomous is partly a result of the reductionist orientation in western medicine which treats every physiological process in the body as if each were a discrete system unto itself. Therefore, treatment of an illness depends predominately on addressing only the system in which the symptoms manifest rather than observing the body as a wholly integrated dynamical process in respect of which the symptoms are signs of its lack of wholeness or balance. In this context, the whole is not greater than the sum of all its parts.

 At the beginning of this century, however, the well-known

Viennese physician named Sigmund Freud, challenged at least some of these conservative conventional beliefs by suggesting that the mind could make the body sick. Freud's revolutionary views did much to inspire the philosophical framework within which the new science of psychosomatic medicine began formulating novel hypothesis on the diverse ways in which the mind is capable of influencing bodily processes. It has only been within the last three decades, however, that psychosomatic medicine has broken through the conventional scientific barriers that preserved the mind as a dynamical process distinct from the body. The scientific revolution which is currently taking place is elaborated and affirmed by

numerous scientific discoveries that demonstrate unequivocally that the mind and body are simply different facets of the same indivisible and seamless unity which defines the human organism. In what follows in this chapter, consideration will be given to the quite remarkable discoveries of PNI which profoundly challenge the reductionist model of psychosomatic compartmentalization.

 The revolutionary ways of thinking about the human organism

which are continually being reinforced by PNI have momentous

implications for developing strategies for unleashing the unlimited power of mind as a counterpart to the unlimited power of body.”---------

       This is much more to my way of thinking.  I do not see that I am fighting cancer in any way.  My life works best when I avoid confrontation and conflict.  I hardly want to be in conflict with my body, and cancer is a part of my body just as my lungs or heart.  So, I accept and embrace the cancer and continually look to discover what lessons I am being offered thru my cancer.  And I have many so far.  On major one is overcoming my sex addiction.  Now I have a gorgeous, sexy wife, and, I cannot have sex, and she is around every day, loving and caring for me.  I have a new dimension of love and Oneness now, totally without the sex compulsion.  What a wonderful gift before I pass.

   You see, I totally accept my cancer as part of my body, and I treat it with my mind and consciousness as well.  I meditate daily and talk with my cancer: What is it trying to tell me?  How can we live together in harmony and Oneness?  I will support the cancer and not try to kill it and ask that it supports me as well.  If we can live in mutual respect and care, we both can live for a long time.  If we battle, fight, and try to destroy each other, the wages of war is death.-----

    As many geniuses now believe, the mind has a tremendous effect on what goes on in our bodies.  I believe that thru meditation, positive thought, and Oneness with all of man and the Universe that this therapy may be much more powerful than any  medical treatment.  And what better way to live?  The cancer is here as part of my experience of life and spiritual growth.  I rejoice in it and constantly look for my lessons and how I can use this experience to enrich my life.

     Of course, the end result may be death, but in any case that is surely coming.  I have prepared for the passing in many ways.  Edgar Casey is my authority about death.  http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce05.html  http://www.neardeathsite.com/cayce.php.

 The most important event in your life is being born.  The second most important point is dying.  Perhaps it is a good idea to prepare yourself responsibly for your passing and not leave it up to the ideas of the Religionists. 

    Your wonderful old pet dog is sick with cancer and arthritis and it is in pain and cannot move.  I think everyone would agree that the highest spiritual choice would be to put the old friend down.  Your wonderful, beloved father is sick with cancer and arthritis and is in pain and cannot move.  He is suffering every moment and only wants to be able to pass in peace and asks for the same mercy that even a dog would be given.  But the Religionists have passed laws and decided that he must suffer as long as possible.  As for me, I am preparing for that possible moment and securing a secret stash of goodies that will make it MY choice as to whether I want to go on or finish.

    I have a different view of death than most.  A beautiful, loving, perfect, 10 YO girl gets Meningitis and is dead in 48 hours.  What may be the meaning of this?  I see this event as that she has completed her mission in this life, and it was time to go.  Death is merely a transition in any case.  And the loved ones who are left  behind usually go thru all kinds of hysterics and questions about the fairness of life and why does this kind of thing happen.  They never understand that perhaps the little girls death was not about her dying, but about the lessons the living need to learn for their spiritual growth.

There are many different ways for spiritual growth.  That is the reason we are here.  Let us rejoice in all of our lessons and not judge which lessons we would like to have and which we would not like to have.  It is all perfect.

Love, Swami Rakendra