THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2014 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

In 1997 I discovered that M. D. Anderson Hospital advised that green tea had an anti-tumor and anti-malignancy effect. Started taking green tea capsules equivalent to 21 cups /day. PSA dropped 20% in 30 days.

In 2001 PSA rose to 17.5. Started Finasteride/cardura regimen.

Currently taking 14 cups of green tea equivalent. PSA has reached 49.6 on May 5, 2009 increasing from 47.9 on June 16, 2008.

Prostate has become very large and is pressing on urethra and bladder.

I was also diagnosed for bladder cancer in 1996 and have been concentrating on fighting it while putting minimum effort into the prostate cancer treatment.

When I was first diagnosed in 1996 Dr. Babaian at M.D.Anderson gave me some very sound advice: "Listen to all the doctors, do your own research and then decide what you want to do." I understood what he was saying. Any treatment option I select was as good as any the doctors recommend. It meant to me that there was no cure only hope to find a solution with an eye on QOL.

My PSA continued to double every four years and reached 60.0 ng/ml earlier this year with a Testosterone level of 300+. Considering that I am on Proscar, the 60 was really 120. My doctor wanted to see how I would react to Casodex and I took it for 30 days, 50 mg/day. My PSA dropped to 13.5 and my T level rose to 600+. We stopped the Casodex. In my opinion PSA as a marker is not a reliable indicator of your condition.

The main reason my prostate cancer was not treated during all these years was that I had bladder cancer requiring far more attention and treatment. I may have come to some wrong conclusions, but my advice is not to panic and use a cannon to shoot a bird. Only about 30% of prostate cancer is aggressive and should be treated in some manner. About 10% of the treated 30% is fatal. So the odds are 97:3 that you won't die from it but die with it. [TW is correct here - less than 3% of male deaths are from prostate cancer: 97% from some other cause] Statistics are misleading. The majority of annual prostate cancer deaths reported include untreated cancers discovered at their final stages. You may change the numbers around a bit depending on your beliefs, but it seems that you are more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident than of prostate cancer. [See The Elephant In The Room for more on this subject.]

[TW mailed me with the following request]

I would like to ask for information about Laser or bipolar TURP. My prostate has gotten so big that it blocks urine passage. I am cathing every four hours but the passage has gotten very tight. My uro proposes a TURP, but at my age (92) I do not want to risk several of the complications and I am trying the find a solution that creates less bleeding and potential spreading of the cancer, and other well know complications following some TURP procedures. [I suggested he might investigate the options listed in the DIAGNOSIS page.]

My PSA has risen above 180 by last Fall and I suspect it may be over 200 by now. I had a doubling rate of 18 months according to last calculations. In the meantime my prostate has gotten so large that I cannot urinate. I am self cathing every 4 hours and that has been a great relief. Cathing, however, has gotten very difficult due to the enlargement of the prostate and I was planning a TURP to enable me to cath. I decided in the meantime that it was time to try another round of 50 mg. Casodex/day to see if it would sufficiently reduce the prostate so I could cath easily again and perhaps alleviate the necessity to having a TURP.

I started the Casodex on 2/8/2013 and the prostate has already shrunk so much that cathing is a breeze. I plan to check my PSA levels in a month and see how far they have dropped. I have not discussed my plan with the doctors at MD Anderson, but subject to their approval I plan to maintain just sufficient Casodex intake to keep the prostate small enough for easy cathing. I am hoping someone reading this may have an idea if this plan is feasible.

I do have some mets:Left internal iliac adenopathy; right ischium and pulmonary metastases. No associated pain.

Since I react so well to hormone treatment, one of my doctors suggests that I should finally start Lupron treatment to prevent further bone invasion. I am not sure if it does and I have resisted such treatment for more than 14 years I don't see why I should start now. Any advice from people whose bone pain or invasion was remedied by Lupron treatment would be appreciated.

"I may not know the way out, but I know lots of ways not to go."

T's e-mail address is: weston5468 AT mac.com (replace "AT" with "@")

NOTE: T has not updated his story for more than 15 months, so you may not receive any response from him.