An Interview with Aaron E. Katz, M.D., Director-Center of Holistic Urology, Columbia University Medical Center

Press here to read interview

Finally well respected researchers have provided critical evidence for putting greater emphases on prevention. Press here for the press release.

 

I have just attended the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine’s conference on Prostate Cancer. The conference was well attended by both patients and well respected medical practitioners. My emotions went from exhilaration to disillusionment while touching many points in between.

Many of the speakers spoke about the state of the art techniques that they were using to neutralize potentially life threatening cancerous tumors. No one spoke about the need to deal with cancer cells throughout one’s body that exist prior to the time that they reach critical mass such that they can be detected by diagnostic equipment. They gave the impression that once you remove or radiate the cancerous tumor your problem is solved.

No one gave any credence to the notion that if you ate primarily plant-based foods and actively exercised that you would have a much less likelihood of ever being diagnosed with cancer. The one physician who spoke specifically on the risk factors for urological cancers put a strong emphasis on genetics with little regard for high fat, animal-based diet of the American public. When I challenged her by citing the 500% greater likelihood for an American to get prostate cancer compared to an Asian man, she dismissed it on the flimsy basis that it is hard to compare based on the differences in each country’s level of diagnostics. Choosing to totally ignore significant differences in dietary customs.

When I challenged Dr. David Lee, one of the most respected robotic surgeons in the country, on how could one justify performing a procedure on someone with low-grade prostate cancer in light of the fact that Memorial Sloan Kettering recently questioned the wisdom of actively treating low grade prostate cancer. They concluded that 80% of the prostate cancers are slow growing, non-lethal. Dr. Lee’s answer was that this is the problem we do not know which is slow growing and which is aggressive. I consider this to be poor excuse for putting men through such an ordeal given that there are many tests that clearly indicate the predicted aggressiveness of the tumor.

Let me see if I can explain my frustration. I felt like I was attending a medical conference on bloodletting hundreds of years ago and questioned the merits only to be marginalized or dismissed for daring to attack the current protocol. I will not let my frustration stop me from continuing to spread the word about the need to deal with the root cause of cancer and not just accept the notion of only needing to treat the symptom.

My exhilaration came from the reaction I received after publicly asking questions at the end of each session. At the end of the conference I had many people come over to meet me and ask questions. I gave each one some materials that I brought with. Their enthusiasm and their desire to learn more uplifted me. I believe G_d has allowed me to find these answers not just for myself but so that I might be able to help others.

Dr Scolz has written Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers. His website is www.PCRI.org. Press here for link to site. 
                                                                

In this excerpt from an in-depth report on Vitamin D and Prostate Cancer from our Prostate Bulletin, Dr. Tomasz M. Beer answers the question, "How does vitamin D affect the prostate? Vitamin D is the only vitamin that's also a hormone, the only vitamin that under ideal circumstances you wouldn't have to get from food or supplements. Your body manufactures vitamin D when your skin is exposed to the sun. A growing body of evidence suggests that vitamin D isn't beneficial only for bone health. It also may reduce the risk of certain cancers -- including cancers of the prostate, colon, breast, and ovaries -- and help prevent or even treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Vitamin D has both of the key mechanisms we look for in anti-cancer compounds. In our laboratory research, vitamin D has been shown to induce significant growth arrest of prostate cancer cells and to promote their death, which is called apoptosis. While no animal studies I am aware of show complete cure of prostate cancer with vitamin D therapy, demonstrations of significant delay in cancer cell growth, delay in the progression of tumors, and prolonged survival in animals undergoing vitamin D treatment have all been completed and confirmed. This work has described the potential of vitamin D in prostate cancer therapy.   This report was published be Johns Hopkins 06/10.

Survival rates of the world's most common cancer might soon be increased with a new vitamin E treatment which could significantly reduce tumour regrowth. HealthCanal.com | 10.19.2010 Queensland University of Technology (QUT) prostate cancer researchers are leading the fight against a disease which kills 3,000 Australian men a year.
Dr. Patrick Ling, whose research will be a centrepiece of the new $354 million Translational Research Institute (TRI) when it opens in Brisbane, is leading a team of researchers who have identified a particular constituent of vitamin E, known as tocotrienol (T3), which can inhibit the growth of prostate tumours.
Construction of TRI officially began today (October 19) at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The world-class facility brings together some of Queensland's best medical researchers from four leading Australian research facilities to turn their work into accessible and potentially life-saving health treatments.
"Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in developed countries," Dr. Ling said. "It is responsible for more male deaths than any other cancer, except lung cancer."
Dr. Ling said existing chemotherapy and hormonal therapy treatment of prostate cancer was insufficient because it failed to kill off the prostate cancer stem cells (CSCs) which were believed to be responsible for the regrowth of tumours.
However, the research team has discovered a particular form of T3, called gamma-tocotrienol (γ-T3), can successfully kill off the prostate cancer CSCs.
"Currently, there is no effective treatment for metastatic prostate cancer, because it grows back after conventional therapies in more than 70 percent of cases," he said.
"But with γ-T3, QUT researchers have found a better way to treat prostate cancer, which has the potential to inhibit recurrence of the disease."
Dr. Ling said in animal trials, γ-T3 completely inhibited tumour formation in more than 70 percent of the mice implanted with prostate cancer cells and fed the vitamin E constituent in water. In the remaining cases, tumour regrowth was considerably reduced, while tumours reformed in 100 percent of the control group.
The findings were published recently in the International Journal of Cancer.
The next stage of Dr. Ling's study has begun and will determine the long-term effectiveness of the γ-T3 treatment, with plans to progress to clinical trials in the future.
"Previous clinical trials using another vitamin E constituent to inhibit prostate cancer development were unsuccessful, but these trials did not use the vitamin E constituent γ-T3," he said.
"Other research has found γ-T3 is also effective in suppressing other types of cancer, including breast, colon, liver and gastric."  .