Plan

My prostate cancer is Gleason 4+5, one local lymph node positive, seminal vessel and bladder neck invasion. I had radical prostatectomy surgery in 12/2018. At the time the doctors at the Mayo clinic told me that the cancer would return in 3 weeks to 3 months. My PSA would rise “guaranteed”. And I needed to start Lupron immediately to deal with the cancer. Then when I recovered from surgery I would need to go through radiation.

The conventional treatment options did not appeal to me. I elected to forego Lupron and radiation. My PSA is zero (as of last measurement in 4/2020 it is <0.01). I have no symptoms of active cancer. But I have to assume that I have cancerous cells in my body. Actually, every adult has cancer cells in their bodies. But I likely have more of them than average although this is not evident on CEA tests (Carcinoembryonic antigen). My CEA measurements are in the low end of the normal range.

The only therapy that I followed in Jan through March 2019 was intravenous vitamin C 2-3 times a week (IV-C). I also exercised regularly but not as often as I do today. I also took some miscellaneous supplements but I have since dropped most of those particular ones other than curcumin, MCP and IP6. I feel that curcumin has a decent amount of evidence backing it but most of the other ones didn’t have solid evidence behind them. In April I added molecular hydrogen. In late April I started estrogen therapy to lower my testosterone. It didn’t take affect until late May. In May I decided to go to a plant based diet.

On balance I feel that I was either “lucky” or the IV-C, IP6, MCP, curcumin, or a combination of these was responsible for the cancer not performing as predicted. I don’t want to preach but it might have also been divine intervention.

This is how I am dealing with my prostate cancer today:

1. IV-C once a week. 100 gram dose. I have to make sure it is high osmolarity (high concentration).This gets me into a therapeutic zone as measured by a glucometer. The glucometer is a simple measurement yet is surprisingly accurate for serum C levels.
2. A hot bath a few times a week after a weight lifting session. Typical water temperature is 104-108 degrees F and my core temp in an hour or so gets to 101 to 103 degrees F. I usually take most of my drugs and supplements prior to the hot bath. There is a fair amount of research about hyperthermia. It is used in a conventional setting to potentiate the effects of chemo but in the conventional setting a higher body temperature is typically achieved. My drugs and supplements aren’t chemo but they might be potentiated by hyperthermia.
3. IR sauna a few times a week for about 25 minutes. I get in my sauna when it reaches 125 F or so and when I end the session it is usually 135 to 140 degrees F. I try to do a sauna within an hour or so of an IV-C treatment. When I do my weekly IV-C session I take my drugs/sups prior to IV-C and I also try to take a hot bath after the sauna (mild hyperthermia).
4. 3-6 mg of molecular hydrogen from water each day. I do this one or two weeks and then take a week or so off.
5. I exercise moderately/vigorously (think fast walk) 4-6 hours a week.
6. Exercise with weights a few hours or so a week.
7. Strict diet. Plant based. Lots of grains, vegetables, and fruit. Mostly cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts). I do not feel that diet kills PrC cells, however, I do think that it helps provide good nutrients to your body in order to create a strong immune system, etc.
8. High testosterone. This followed a 4 month “lead-in” of low testosterone using estrogen patches and 2 months of Casodex and Dutasteride. In retrospect I would have continued the estrogen for a few more months and skipped the Casodex/Dutasteride therapy. I also took Zytiga during the estrogen therapy. Zytiga prevents adrenal and cancer production of testosterone. I take Zytiga continuously. I feel that the combination of estrogen and Zytiga was responsible for my measured testosterone being undetectable. The main reason that I stopped the estrogen therapy after 4 months is that I had a hard time dealing with the muscle wasting and libido loss from zero testosterone. I did not suffer from depression and my bone density was probably not going to decrease (both of these are side effects from a more conventional androgen deprivation therapy). And I had no increase in fat and didn’t lack the drive to exercise. But the muscle loss was devastating to me.
9. Supplements/drugs.

Many of these therapies are detailed in individual blog posts.

On balance, my metabolic, blood, and physical parameters are by far the best that they have ever been in my life. Even if I did not have cancer I would continue with almost every therapy that I do. I’d reduce the IV-C from once a week to once a month or so. I would reduce the testosterone injections (my testosterone currently is 2000-3000 ng/dl and I would target 900-1500 ng/dl – my natural testosterone in 2018 was about 1000). I’d take an aromatase inhibitor to block the conversion of testosterone to estrogen but dial back the dose. I enjoy my diet and would probably keep it about the same but add some favorite foods in like beef hamburgers (although there are some pretty tasty hamburger meat alternatives and I like turkey burgers also). And I’d drop some of the supplements. Some of them are primarily for the prostate cancer. Others, such as red yeast rice, beta sisterol, metformin, statins etc, I would continue since they lower all cause mortality substantially (not only cancer but heart attacks, strokes, etc).

My PSA is 0. In late 2019 it went up to 0.06 and stayed there for a few months. Then I added IP6 and MCP (I was initially taking both but stopped after a few months), and did a few weeks of a keto diet (PrC is lipid driven so keto doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but there is some research that indicates it might be beneficial). Almost immediately my PSA dropped to zero. I am still taking the IP6 but went back to a plant based diet. If my PSA starts going up again this is what I plan to do:

1. Do keto for a month. Remeasure.
2. Do IVC 3x a week for a month. Remeasure.
3. Drop the DHT blockers (finasteride and dutasteride). Remeasure.
4. Switch testosterone forms from cypionate to one with a short half life and then go off entirely. A short half life means that my serum T should go down quickly. Since I am injecting a large amount of testosterone my own production should be almost nonexistent. Stay off the T for a month and remeasure. Go back to high T for a month, drop again, repeat, measure PSA.
5. BAT (bipolar androgen therapy – similar to #3 but just one injection of T and then a fairly rapid decrease to zero). Remeasure for a few months.
6. No T injections, no estrogen patches. No hormone therapy. Remeasure for a few months.
7. Intermittent ADT (I will use the estrogen patch with zytiga). On the off phases I won’t inject T. Remeasure for a few months.
8. If my PSA is still going up at this point I will look into other options. Possibly chemo. I’ll discuss with my doctors and figure out what to do. I will almost certainly have already involved them.