"the best course of action with prostate cancer is usually doing nothing at all."
I am subscribed to "The Douglass Report", from William H. Douglass, MD. He's just the kind of Dr. I like, in that he is appalled at the current state of "medicine"and he's a straight talking shoot from the hip kind of guy. He's sent some stuff out on prostate cancer recently and I thought I'd post some of it here.
Prostate cancer is one of those cancers that is over-treated, just like thyroid cancer(removal of thyroid as "treatment" for nodules, or very slow growing, localized cancer) or mastectomy, for DCIS(also slow growing). Those are just a couple of examples, there is a ton of info out there on the fact that improved "screening" methods lead to increased diagnoses, leading of course to more chemo, radiation, and removal of various body parts.
Well, prostate cancer is a very common cancer in older men, and once again it is one of those cancers that MAY never cause problems. It is very likely that the man will definitely outlive the cancer.
A positive diagnosis may lead to overtreatment such as hormonal or actual castration(leading, of course, to impotence), radical prostatectomy(leading to impotence and/or incontinence).
Then again, one may choose to do.... nothing. It's a fact that most oncologists would not subject themselves or their own family members to the treatments they use on patients. The deal is, though, that insurance providers pay for these treatments, and pay quite well. So, Joe B. tests positive for prostate cancer. Oncologist's thought train..."vacation home? Joe B.'s testicles? vacation home? Joe B has to wear depends for the rest of his emasculated life?". hmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm sure that you, dear reader, can understand the dilemma in which the oncologist finds him/herself.
There is some good news though, that medicare is not covering ADT(androgen deprivation therapy) any longer.
I'll just post a link to Dr. Douglass' site, rather than posting individually for each snippet:
http://douglassreport.com/
Prostate payola system
Docs cash in on castration procedures
Your medical care isn’t dictated by scientific evidence or even your own doctor’s best judgment — just billing codes from insurance companies.
If a procedure is covered and reimburses well, docs will offer it all day and night… and if it’s not, they won’t even mention it.
It’s a terrible way to practice medicine, but it’s actually responsible for a big victory in prostate cancer. A new study found that castration procedures known as androgen deprivation therapy — all the rage in the 1990s — plummeted when Medicare slashed its reimbursement rates.
You could almost hear the docs weeping, because many of them counted on these ritual emasculations for up to 40 percent of their incomes. In 2003 alone, Medicare shelled out a cool $1 billion for the procedures — despite the fact that they don’t cure the cancer, improve the quality of life, or even boost survival rates.
But it was quite a swindle while it lasted: Men lost their testicles, insurance companies lost their shirts… and urologists made out like Bernie Madoff.
Medicare finally wised up in 2004-2005, slashed reimbursements and watched the procedures fall by 30 percent practically overnight, according to the new study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
No money, no honey — or at least no hormone-robbing ADT.
The researchers say they believe their study shows how the “extreme profitability” of ADT, as they put it, contributed to its overuse.
Gee, you think?
Of course, the use of reimbursements to dictate medical care is a double-edged sword and the sharper side is pointed at us: Few alternative treatments, and no life-saving vitamins or supplements — are covered.
What’s more, any doc who offers them can actually be accused of insurance fraud — so most naturopathic physicians don’t even bother accepting health plans.
New dangers linked to prostate treatments
More proof that prostate treatments are worse than the cancer: They can increase your risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
One new study even finds that they can rot your bones right out of your body.
Australian researchers tracked 26 prostate cancer patients who were treated for a year with hormone-robbing androgen-deprivation therapy, or ADT.
ADT is just a fancy way of saying “castration,” but the men in this study lost more than their manhood — the researchers found evidence of structural decay in both the hard outer shell and spongy insides of the bone, according to the study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
It’s not surprising — an earlier study found a 45 percent increased risk in fractures in men undergoing ADT. One wrong move, and CRACK — you’ve been hobbled AND emasculated.
Roughly 600,000 U.S. prostate cancer patients are undergoing some form of ADT right now — some through surgery, while others take hormone-blocking drugs.
A common side effect is a dramatically smaller penis — but don’t worry: Without those hormones, you won’t be using it much anyway.
And that’s not all that can go badly wrong here. In fact, as I write this, drug labels are quickly being updated to reflect the latest disturbing evidence against hormone-blocking ADT meds.
The FDA now says GnRH agonists — drugs such as Eligard, Lupron, Synarel, Trelstar, Vantas, Viadur, and Zoladex — have been linked to a “small” increase in the risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke and sudden death.
Of course, the feds won’t tell anyone to stop taking these meds — but then again, these are the same people who allow diabetics to keep taking the dangerous drug Avandia.
You might say they have different priorities from the rest of us.
But I don’t care how “small” the risk is — the best course of action with prostate cancer is usually doing nothing at all.
If you’re a new reader, that might sound out-and-out insane, but facts are facts: Most men don’t die of the disease… and yet lives are ruined every day by the surgeries, drugs, radiation and other treatments used to “cure” them.
And that’s just bad medicine.
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More on overdiagnosis and overtreatment:
http://jeffreydach.com/2009/10/01/psa-testing-the-failed-medical-experiment-b...
"We have known since 1935 with the publication of Arnold Rich's autopsy study that there is a large pool of latent, clinically insignificant prostate cancer in the male population which increases with age. By the age of fifty, 30-40 per cent of males will harbor a clinically insignificant focus of prostate cancer. The vast majority succumb to old age before the prostate cancer bothers them. These prostate cancers are the incidental findings at post mortem exam...
...Prostate cancer is a slow growing indolent disease with a 99 per cent 5 year survival after diagnosis. The incidence of latent prostate cancer is estimated to be one half of the male population 65 and over (7 million of the 14 million males), yet there are only 30,000 deaths per year. This means the average male has a 0.5% chance of dying from prostate cancer, (or a 99.5 chance of dying from other causes, not prostate cancer).
PSA screening programs send the screened patients to trans-rectal ultrasound guided biopsy which finds these latent prostate cancers, many of which should not be treated. Mainstream conventional treatment involves radical prostatectomy, radiation therapy, or hormonal castration. The first two are associated with adverse effects of incontinence, and Erectile Dysfunction . Treatment with androgen blockade, (a form of chemical castration) is associated with increased mortality and osteoporosis."
We've taked about the prostate quite a bit on this forum, follow the link for info on iodine, selenium, etc.
http://www.curezone.com/forums/search.asp?q=prostate&action=Find&f=815
