words of explanation

[Guest guest]

An e-group friend of mine (and many other folk on e-groups) Maynard

Berkovitch from San Francisco wrote these words which I thought worth

putting on as an item of knowledge for some and a recap for others - again I

have an understanding that I can use his info. I'll leave you to do the

translation from $ to £. Some of you may wish to add to this. It does

underline the differences between the UK's NHS and the USA's private health

systems as well as starting to explain what Casodex does differently to

Zoledex or Lupron.

" A very good food for prostate cancer is testosterone. Mainly this is from

the testicles. So the first treatment for a failed primary treatment or

advanced treatment is the use of hormone therapy. This is intended to knock

the testosterone down to very low numbers. There are two drugs that do this

very well. The first Lupron, and the second Zoladex. There is a difference

in their administration, and a small difference in their cost, but both do

essentially the same thing. They are LHRH Agonists. They both send signals

to the pituitary gland to produce more testosterone. This causes a flare

reaction, and one's testosterone rises very quickly to very high levels,

thus feeding the cancer. To eliminate the flare, take Casodex or Flutamide

for a couple of weeks before getting the LHRH agonist.

But eventually, after say a week or 10 days, this signal is ignored by the

prostate, and it stops producing testosterone. Usually testosterone will

drop to castrate level within a month or less. Casodex or Flutamide is used

to prevent this flare reaction.

The other drug used is an anti-androgen, usually Casodex or Flutamide. They

both block the cancers ability to take up the testosterone. I like to

explain this as like putting one hundred black marbles into the hat. Your

chances of pulling a black marble out of the hat would be 100%. Now if we

were to also place 900 white marbles in addition to the 100 black marbles

and fished for a marble, it would only be a 10% chance of getting a black

marble. And if we were to put 9,900 white marbles along with 100 black

marbles, the chance of getting a black marble would only 1%. Casodex and

Flutamide work like the white marbles, and testosterone works like the black

marbles.

The cancer takes up the Casodex or Flutamide just as well as testosterone,

but it cannot be used for food. Now, after one month or so, the testicular

testosterone should be at a very low level, and probably would not serve as

much food for the cancer. However, your wife, and virtually every woman in

the world has testosterone in their bodies. This is not from their

testicles, but is derived from their adrenal glands. The adrenal glands

don't actually produce testosterone, but another even more powerful food for

prostate cancer called Dihydrotestosterone (DHT for short). So, going back

to the marbles, one way to block the cancers ability to grab this DHT is to

continue on Casodex or Flutamide.

The physical castration has no advantage over chemical castration, except

cost. And a big disadvantage is that physical castration is non-reversible.

If they ever find a cure for this bastardly disease, you will still have

your testicles, whereas if they are chopped off, you will not have them.

Cost of drugs for chemical castration is about $500 to 600 per month, month

in and month out, probably for the rest of your life. The physical

castration has only a one time cost of about $10,000. However if you have a

drug plan or Medicare that picks up the cost of Lupron of Zoladex, cost

should not be a factor.

This is a complicated process, on the affect of anti-androgen and an LHRH

agonist, and I hope that my explanation did it justice. "