In 2020 at age 46 I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer with high volume bone metastases. Beyond SoC (6 rounds of docetaxel chemo and chemical castration (almost all prostate cancers require testosterone to grow)), I was offered participation in an immunotherapy clinical trial (Keynote 991). After considering it, I refused the trial. Previous immunotherapy trials had been unsuccessful and I didn’t want to spend the next two years going to the hospital every three weeks.
Instead I read every study and article I could get my hands on that might be relevant. Thank you SciHub! I also radically changed my lifestyle. Healthy eating, daily walking and exercising. From my reading I learned the importance of cholesterol in testosterone production and I modified my diet to an extremely low saturated fat intake and convinced my family doctor to proscribe atorvastatin. According to a phase 2 trial atorvastatin increased PFS by 3 months, the same as the incredibly expensive second line SoC treatment of enzalutamide.
After 4 years my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen, used to track prostate cancer activity) has gone down from 318 at diagnosis to 0.02 μg/l. This is considered an extremely good response. I obviously don’t know how much of this is due to my interventions vs SoC.
Last year I stopped my extreme diet and went back to focussing on enjoying my life. So far my PSA remains stable.
I haven’t seen an oncologist/urologist in three years. The added value simply isn’t there and I did get frustrated by the total lack of interest in what I was doing.
In 2020 at age 46 I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer with high volume bone metastases. Beyond SoC (6 rounds of docetaxel chemo and chemical castration (almost all prostate cancers require testosterone to grow)), I was offered participation in an immunotherapy clinical trial (Keynote 991). After considering it, I refused the trial. Previous immunotherapy trials had been unsuccessful and I didn’t want to spend the next two years going to the hospital every three weeks.
Instead I read every study and article I could get my hands on that might be relevant. Thank you SciHub! I also radically changed my lifestyle. Healthy eating, daily walking and exercising. From my reading I learned the importance of cholesterol in testosterone production and I modified my diet to an extremely low saturated fat intake and convinced my family doctor to proscribe atorvastatin. According to a phase 2 trial atorvastatin increased PFS by 3 months, the same as the incredibly expensive second line SoC treatment of enzalutamide.
After 4 years my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen, used to track prostate cancer activity) has gone down from 318 at diagnosis to 0.02 μg/l. This is considered an extremely good response. I obviously don’t know how much of this is due to my interventions vs SoC.
Last year I stopped my extreme diet and went back to focussing on enjoying my life. So far my PSA remains stable.
I haven’t seen an oncologist/urologist in three years. The added value simply isn’t there and I did get frustrated by the total lack of interest in what I was doing.