Resources for Men and Women Dealing with rostate Cancer
Sexuality and Intimacy
PCAI is a long established mailing list that offers open and frank discussion about the problems associated with intimacy and prostate cancer.
No archives are kept. To subscribe to PCAI, visit their web page here.
PCAI List of ED (erectile dysfunction) Specialists
Nutrition: Omega 3 fats, Fish and Healthy Meat
Fatty fish, especially salmon, contains between 10 and 100 times higher levels of health protective omega-3 fatty acids than do beef, chicken and lamb. Eating fish high in omega-3 fats can help balance the overload of omega-6 fats in fast foods overloaded with corn oil and soy oil. Unfortunately, though, wild salmon and also herring are disappearing from the rivers and oceans.
Farm-raised salmon have more overall fat than wild fish but are relatively lower in omega-3 fatty acids than wild fish. In the long run, perhaps fish farming can become a clean, "green" industry. At present, fish labeled "Atlantic salmon" is quite likely raised in a shoreline pen. See our article, August 2003, Farmed Salmon Show High Levels of Cancer-Causing PCBs
Certified organic salmon is available in the UK. Wild Alaska salmon is certified at present as "sustainable." BBC story about organic standards for salmon in the UK.
If you eat meat, some food scientists say it is better to pay the cost for meat from grass fed animals, which have a proper balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Reduce intake of meat from corn fed, feed-lot finished meat. See the links below for beef.
Cave men diets offer insights to today's health problems, study shows (Purdue U)
Research on healthier foods: Bruce Watkins, Purdue University, IN
EXPERTS OFFER THE SKINNY ON SEARCH FOR HEALTHY FAT
Purdue, IN, February 4, 2002
EAT Wild: The Clearinghouse for information on Pasture-based farming
http://www.eatwild.com/
Effects of pasture and high-concentrate diets on the performance of beef cattle, carcass composition at equal growth rates, and the fatty acid composition of beef (New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts)
Reduction of omega-3 fatty acids in feedlot finished beef cattle (chart, Vic's farm..)
The "experts'" theory changes can drive you crazy -- Livin' La Vida Low Carb
Lodging for Patients
If you need to stay overnight for tests or treatment at a city hospital call ahead and ask if the hospital can help you find free or discount accommodation at a hotel. Some hotels reserve rooms for patients and families for free, low rate or discounted.
See these example, from budget to somewhat discounted luxury rooms. Don't be shy. Call ahead and ask about quality. Somemy husband and I stayed in were spartan (e,g, University of Chicago student hostel). Others are luxury suites with or without kitchens.
Cleveland Clinic (through their social workers)
University of Miami
Holiday Retreat for Cancer Patients
Annual Weekend of Hope, Stowe, Vermont
To request a free room, complete the online registration form and return it to the Stowe Area Association via fax or email. Interested cancer patients and survivors should request reservations as soon as possible, as rooms are limited. Priority is given to those who have not attended the event in previous years. For more information, call toll free, 800 GO-STOWE.
This info refers to May 2003. The weekend is an annual event, check early for next year. Although the netire weekend is descrived as :free" in some blurbs, close reading shows that not all participants receive free lodging.
Be sure to ask for details about costs, identity of the oncologists and researchers, and whether you can opt out of some (or all events) and just enjoy yourself relaxing in Stowe!
Here's a sample printed Schedule.
Air Travel for Cancer Patients
National Patient
Air Transport Helpline Providing free nationwide air transportation
to and from treatment centers for cancer patients. 
CALL
800-296-1217 (USA) or 757-318-9145 elsewhere.
Corporate
Angel Network Free airplane transportation for cancer patients
going to or from recognized cancer hospitals. This service uses empty
seats aboard corporate aircraft operating on business flights.
Angel
Flight East Free air travel for patients who have financial
need. Eastern US and Canada
AirLifeLine
800-446-1231
A national non-profit charitable organization of over 1,000 private
pilots who fly ambulatory patients who cannot afford the cost of travel
to medical facilities for diagnosis and treatment. The pilots donate
their time, aircraft and fuel to make this air transportation service
totally free of charge for patients who qualify.
Air
Care Alliance (ACA) "Supporting the Nationwide Community
of Charitable Aviators." The website lists dozens of local and
regional US public benefit flying services.
Complementary Medicine
Pulse el Ãcono ES para ver este texto traducido al español
Complementary/Integrative Medicine Education Resources)
Complementary/Integrative Medicine Education Resources (CIMER) Web site contains evidence-based reviews of complementary or alternative cancer therapies as well as links to other authoritative resources. These reviews evaluate the designs and the results of published research on herbal, mind-body, energy, nutrition, and other biological / organic / pharmacological (e.g., cartilage) substances..
Alternative
Therapies in Health and Medicine
Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
T. Rex's Guide to Life: Science & Nature: Skepticism: Pseudoscience
PC SPES
June 24, 2003. The Orange County District Attorney has charged International Medical Research, Inc, of Brea, California (doing business as BotanicLab) and three of its officers with 14 criminal counts relating to the marketing of products that were laced with prescription drug ingredients. The defendants claimed that the products were breakthrough herbal formulas supported by years of research by MD and PhD scientists. PC-SPES was also said to be a centuries-old Chinese remedy that could fight prostate cancer by boosting the immune system. Last year, however, samples of PC-SPES and a similar product (SPES) were found to contain indomethacin (an arthritis drug that can cause internal bleeding), warfarin (an anticoagulant), and diethylstilbestrol (DES), a source of estrogen. The DES content may explain why preliminary studies of PC-SPES found some effectiveness against prostate cancer. State health officials asked BotanicLab to recall these products and, shortly afterward, cancer survivors who had used PC SPES filed a class-action lawsuit.
California Department of Health Services Warning to Consumers (some 6 months after patients warned consumers)
"In January, BotanicLab voluntarily recalled the herbal dietary supplement SPES because it contained alprazolam. In February, the company voluntarily recalled PC SPES because it contained warfarin, a blood-thinner that is available only by prescription. Later testing of PC SPES found that it also contained DES, ethinyl estradiol and indomethacin."
Sophie Chen Ph.D. patented PC SPEs and Botaniclab, Ca. sold it for years as a "pure" mixture of Chinese herbs. PC SPES is no longer on the market. Why? Just when clinical trials found that PC SPES had some efficacy, evidence showed the "herbal" capsules contained artificial estrogen (DES), warfarin (the blood thinner). indomethacin (an anti-athritis pain killer) and alprazolam (Xanax, a prescription anti-anxiety drug, habit forming).
These discoveries came about through patients, who ordered and paid for scientific tests. The patients were alarmed about product unreliability. After repeated tests showed that indeed PC SPES contained these non-labeled ingredients, FDA, CA. ran additional tests and confirmed the problem. The FDA in Washington DC banned sale and the clinical trial run by Dr. Etric Small at UCSF and Dr. William Oh and Dana-Farber shut down.
PC SPES had exceptional reputation and brand loyalty. It worked. But no one knows what role if any its herbalal content played. Artifical estrogen aloneshrinks prostate cancer tumors. Was the effect of PC SPES brought about mainly by the artifical estrogen and common prescription drugs (one of which is addictive)?
The story of patients' investigation of PC SPES emerged on the PC SPES lists, Don Cooley's Help lists and in exclusive articles in PSA Rising (one of these stories was carried by Yahoo Full Coverage News in February 2002). PBS Television ran a Scientific American Frontiers segment, Herbal Hope, in June 2003 but did not contact us. Many regular news sources omit mention of the DES content in PC SPES..
Sept. 4 2002 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (94, 17:1275-80, 2002) (jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org), doctors caught up to patient knowledge and found out that PC SPES contained other pharmaceuticals. Researchers, led by Milos Sovak, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego, reported that in lots manufactured between 1996 and mid-1999, PC SPES contained indomethacin (in amounts ranging from 1.07 mg/g and 13.19 mg/g) and diethylstilbestrol (ranging from 107.3 mcg/g and 159.3 mcg/g). In products produced after that time period, the amount of indomethacin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug marketed for easing pain and fever, and diethylstilbestrol, a nonsteroidal estrogen and a known carcinogen, found in the product decreased. Warfarin (in amounts from 341 mcg/d to 560 mcg/g) first started appearing in lots manufactured after July 1998.
In August 2002, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) announced that it will continue to study the product's effects on prostate health.
NCCAM stated in its release that although PC SPES contained pharmaceuticals, data from PC SPES studies still remain promising. In one recent study, a particular herb in PC SPES--baicalin--was found to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells (Prostate, 49, 4:285-92, 2001). Baicalin is a flavonoid non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) isolated from the traditional Chinese medicinal plant Scutellaria Baicalensis Georgi, or baikal skullcap.
NCCAM decided to resume its study of PC SPES after meeting with researchers who have studied the product, as well as with prostate cancer specialists, herbal medicine experts and representatives of government and industry. The researchers assigned to these studies will be investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of the herbs, as opposed to the drugs, in the product.
As Natural Products Insider reported "PC SPES is considered a proprietary product owned by BotanicLab. How is the center working around this potential obstacle? "We are cognizant that the original PC SPES is a patented formula," according to the NCCAM spokesperson. "There is a patient coalition, Natural Approaches to Prostate Cancer Inc. [based in Portland, Ore.], working to develop an unadulterated PC SPES preparation."
Currently, Dr. Aaron Katz in NYC is testing herbal replacements for PC SPES.
Herbs Used for Prostatitis
Pygeum and Nettle Root
Saw Palmetto
Phytomedicines for BPH
Soy Health Claim (FDA/ Dupont)
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