Rationale for Using High Dose Testosterone to Treat Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

[Will Brink]

So, we come full circle to T potentially being used to treat some forms of prostate cancers:

"Rationale for Using Supraphysiologic Testosterone to Treat Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.”

We have known for decades that androgen deprivation offers remarkable efficacy and palliation for men with advanced prostate cancer. Yet, soon after Charles Huggins Nobel Prize-winning discovery, many case series started emerging, describing paradoxical benefits of testosterone supplementation for patients with prostate cancer.1,2 These clinical observations seem so counterintuitive given that androgen deprivation therapy is the hallmark of treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Yet, there may be supportive biological rationale to this surprising observation.

Cont:

From the Desk of Evan Yu: “Is Testosterone Such a Bad Thing for Prostate Cancer? Rationale for Using Supraphysiologic Testosterone to Treat Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.”

 

[JimBob]

Will, I asked this question a couple of weeks ago, but got no responses to my actual questions. So, I'll ask you. If you were diagnosed with prostate cancer, what mode of treatment would you pursue? Is there a particular clinic or doctor that you feel is on the cutting edge? Who do you trust? I run these questions through my mind even though I do not have prostate cancer. But, being 61 years old, I want these questions resolved in advance. I don't want to make tough decisions while under unusual stress.

 

[Will Brink]

Will, I asked this question a couple of weeks ago, but got no responses to my actual questions. So, I'll ask you. If you were diagnosed with prostate cancer, what mode of treatment would you pursue? Is there a particular clinic or doctor that you feel is on the cutting edge? Who do you trust? I run these questions through my mind even though I do not have prostate cancer. But, being 61 years old, I want these questions resolved in advance. I don't want to make tough decisions while under unusual stress.

I have not really gotten down to granular levels as what treatments vs others, but LEF tends to keep on top of the topic, looking at both traditional and non approaches, and a good place to start researching the topic:

Prostate Cancer Treatment | Life Extension

 

[CoastWatcher]

Will, I asked this question a couple of weeks ago, but got no responses to my actual questions. So, I'll ask you. If you were diagnosed with prostate cancer, what mode of treatment would you pursue? Is there a particular clinic or doctor that you feel is on the cutting edge? Who do you trust? I run these questions through my mind even though I do not have prostate cancer. But, being 61 years old, I want these questions resolved in advance. I don't want to make tough decisions while under unusual stress.

Determining mode of treatment in advance is a singularly difficult, if not impossible, question to answer. Gleason score, grade, comorbidities, age at time of diagnosis, lifestyle considerations - all go into the equation. On top of that, there is no gland in the male body which, when it turns cancerous, presents with the ambiguities that the prostate does.

Those ambiguities begin with the fundamental question of diagnosis. Wrapped in the statistically dizzying world of the PSA test, diagnosis, and all associated with it - such as the pivotal decision to biopsy - are fraught with either/or choices (and whipped by a lot of rhetoric).

Nelson and I were discussing the question of treatment and second opinions recently. If either of us were in need of a surgeon for treatment or a second opinion, we'd turn to Dr. Mohit Khera at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine. The guy is impressive in skill, knowledge, and humanity. In fact, I'm planning to see him in April for a perplexing PSA issue. I will fly from Toronto - and don't resent the price of travel or his fee.

A classmate from my undergraduate days practices urology in Atlanta. He told me Dr. Khera would be his choice if he needed treatment.

 

[OMI100]

This DR has been using high dose TRT in a select subset of PCa patients and apparently with positive results"
Dr. Robert Leibowitz a.k.a. Dr. Bob | Oncologist in Los Angeles

 

[CoastWatcher]

This DR has been using high dose TRT in a select subset of PCa patients and apparently with positive results"
Dr. Robert Leibowitz a.k.a. Dr. Bob | Oncologist in Los Angeles

It's hard to find a medical oncologist who is involved in the day to day delivery of patient care to men dealing with prostate cancer - at least so I have read. Urologists corner the market.

 

[JimBob]

I didn't intend to hijack Will's thread, but thanks for all the replies.

 

[Deleted member 16042]

This DR has been using high dose TRT in a select subset of PCa patients and apparently with positive results"
Dr. Robert Leibowitz a.k.a. Dr. Bob | Oncologist in Los Angeles

It's hard to find a medical oncologist who is involved in the day to day delivery of patient care to men dealing with prostate cancer - at least so I have read. Urologists corner the market.

One of Lebowitz's talking points is that prostate cancer remains about the only form of cancer not typically treated by oncologists. (Except maybe for localized skin cancers)

I really like his info, just don't know how much he is selling his own method because of ego. He definitely has kind of a shtick that seems based on one set of information some of which is not very up to date, compared with his own method. I'd like to see more research volume backing up what he has to say. I am happy to see him bucking the norm, which I personally view as profitably barbaric