By 2013, I had lived with prostate cancer for almost 25 years without submitting to any form of radical treatment. I was fortunate that my cancer was the non-aggressive, slow moving variety. And over the years I became a strong advocate of a “Die with it not from it” policy.
I learned early on that a “Whatever you say, doc,” attitude can be dangerous, and I knew that the longer I could simply monitor the cancer and use the time to educate myself about the disease, the better off I would be. However, the main reason I resisted radical treatment was the book Mark Scholz and I wrote with the sub-title: “No More Unnecessary Biopsies, Radical Treatment or Loss ofSexual Potency.” I reckoned I’d better practice what I preached.
Then, a little over a year ago, when my PSA suddenly spiked to 26 for no reason I could determine (like BPH or an infection), I figured the cancer was finally on the move. And maybe, after all these years, my immune system was no longer the staunch ally it had been. Mark was reassuring. My cancer hadn’t changed—it was still the non-aggressive type. Which meant the odds of surviving were pretty much in my favor if I decided not to submit to treatment. Still, “To treat or not to treat” remained the question.
After determining that the cancer hadn’t spread to my lymph system or to my bones (big relief there!), I couldn’t help wondering if perhaps I was pushing my luck by sticking to my credo. And to tell the truth, I was getting tired of living with cancer. So as I am no fan of surgery, and anyway at my age (81) it was not an option, I decided to go for a cure with IMRT, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy.
It is now almost five months since I completed 45 sessions of IMRT, and I could not be more pleased with the results. At first, I was dismayed to see a rather snail-slow descent of my PSA. Then I learned—and this is the really big news—that cell death, or apoptosis, continues after treatment for another year to a year and a half. According to Lisa Chaiken, MD, an admirable and patient teacher, who is in charge of St. Johns Hospital’s IMRT program, “The cancer cells turn over slowly. More and more die off with the passage of time. There is an immediate impact of the radiation—the damage, is done—but the process takes time."
And get this: the cells only die when the time comes for them to divide! In trying to participate in the creative process of replication, cell death, apoptosis, is the result. The cancerous cells are actually committing suicide: How’s that for irony?
To confirm with visual evidence what is taking place, I’ve been to see radiologist Duke Bahn, MD and compared his various ultrasound images of my prostate: the multiple red tributaries indicating angiogenesis (the flow of new blood to the tumor), once as thick as a busy river delta, are now reduced to a scattered few!
An unexpected bonus for me from undergoing IMRT is a new understanding of PSA function, about which I was always uncertain in the past. Now that I understand the process, the behavior of my PSA—post-treatment—makes total sense: As the cancerous cells die off, the PSA falls. I am now almost five months post treatment, and my PSA has dropped from 26 to 17 to 7.8 and a week ago, in the most recent PSA, to a gratifying 2.8! A level I haven’t seen in a quarter of a century!
Technically speaking, I still have prostate cancer. But my cancer is terminally feeble, itself waiting for the final cut by the Grim Reaper of cancers.
IMRT is truly the gift that keeps on giving!
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