One Website Claims 90% Cure Rate For Cancer

I continue to search the medical literature for interesting or important articles.

One website says, "...90% of prostate cancers can be cured...." - http://drcatalona.com/quest/quest_spring2002_2.htm

I think such statements are very misleading. They are misleading because approximately 80% of prostate cancer is slow growing and doesn't need to be cured (please check the latest statistics). Statistics generally show that the majority of men will die of something else before their slow growing prostate cancer gets big enough to kill them.

In a now famous quote, urologist Willet Whitmore described the situation perfectly, "Is cure possible for men in whom it is necessary? And is cure necessary for men in whom it is possible?"

Think about what Dr. Whitmore has said. His observation is the key to understanding all of the prostate cancer literature.

And understanding that will help you when it comes to researching whether you might have slow-growing prostate cancer or fast-growing, lethal, prostate cancer.

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Two randomized controlled studies have shown that the radical prostatectomy does not extend life for men with prostate cancer:

1) Iversen P, Madsen PO, and Corle DK: Radical prostatectomy versus expectant treatment for early carcinoma of the prostate. Twenty-three year follow-up of a prospective randomized trial. Scandinavian Journal of Urology and Nephrology, supplement 1995, Jan 1;172:65-72.

2) Holmberg L, Bill-Axelson A, Helgesen F, Salo JO, Folmerz P, Haggman M, Andersson SO, Spangberg A, Busch C, Nordling S, Palmgren J, Adami HO, Johansson JE, Norlen BJ; Scandinavian Prostatic Cancer Group Study Number 4. A randomized trial comparing radical prostatectomy with watchful waiting in early prostate cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2002:Sep 12;347(11):781-789.

3) A third randomized controlled study, or a longer follow-up of the second study, only showed a 5.3% increase in survival for men who underwent the radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. We have to do better than this!

Here is the abstract of the last paper describing some mortality benefits as well.

Radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting in early prostate cancer.
Bill-Axelson A, Holmberg L, Ruutu M, Häggman M, Andersson SO, Bratell S, Spångberg A, Busch C, Nordling S, Garmo H, Palmgren J, Adami HO, Norlén BJ, Johansson JE; Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group Study No. 4. N Engl J Med. 2005 May 12;352(19):1977-84.

Department of Urology, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. anna.bill.axelson@akademiska.se

BACKGROUND: In 2002, we reported the initial results of a trial comparing radical prostatectomy with watchful waiting in the management of early prostate cancer. After three more years of follow-up, we report estimated 10-year results. METHODS: From October 1989 through February 1999, 695 men with early prostate cancer (mean age, 64.7 years) were randomly assigned to radical prostatectomy (347 men) or watchful waiting (348 men). The follow-up was complete through 2003, with blinded evaluation of the causes of death. The primary end point was death due to prostate cancer; the secondary end points were death from any cause, metastasis, and local progression. RESULTS: During a median of 8.2 years of follow-up, 83 men in the surgery group and 106 men in the watchful-waiting group died (P=0.04). In 30 of the 347 men assigned to surgery (8.6 percent) and 50 of the 348 men assigned to watchful waiting (14.4 percent), death was due to prostate cancer. The difference in the cumulative incidence of death due to prostate cancer increased from 2.0 percentage points after 5 years to 5.3 percentage points after 10 years, for a relative risk of 0.56 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.36 to 0.88; P=0.01 by Gray's test). For distant metastasis, the corresponding increase was from 1.7 to 10.2 percentage points, for a relative risk in the surgery group of 0.60 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.42 to 0.86; P=0.004 by Gray's test), and for local progression, the increase was from 19.1 to 25.1 percentage points, for a relative risk of 0.33 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.25 to 0.44; P<0.001 by Gray's test). CONCLUSIONS: Radical prostatectomy reduces disease-specific mortality, overall mortality, and the risks of metastasis and local progression. The absolute reduction in the risk of death after 10 years is small, but the reductions in the risks of metastasis and local tumor progression are substantial. Copyright 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society.

The last statement in this study is somewhat controversial, as are others, and this study generated many letters-to-the-editor.

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery

Here is the information about my book, Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery, from Amazon.com, which is properly formatted into paragraphs here. I hope to keep updating this book for the next twenty years or more. The current version at Amazon.com has been updated, although I did not feel that I made enough changes to warrant calling it a new edition.

Product Description
The niche bestseller "Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery" begins with the shooting of a urologist and includes a World War II Battle. The book exposes the big lie about radical prostate surgery, is filled with cartoons and simple diagrams, and is written for the average layperson in easy-to-understand style.

"Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery" quotes Dr. Gary Onik, M.D., Cryosurgeon and Director of Surgical Imaging at Celebration Health Hospital, Celebration, Florida, who says: "I expect that within five years we will see the death of the radical prostatectomy as a treatment for prostate cancer."

The author, Bradley Hennenfent, M.D., has seen five uncles suffer from prostate cancer and his book includes many uplifting stories about less harmful treatments than surgery.

Dr. Hennenfent also explains the problem of lies, damn lies, and prostate cancer statistics.

The adverse effects of surgery: impotence, sexual dysfunction, incontinence, and urethral strictures are explained in realistic fashion.

"Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery" quotes oncologist Dr. Robert Leibowitz of Compassionate Oncology Medical Group, who says: "If radical prostatectomies worked, the data would be there. The reason the data is not there is because radical prostatectomies don't work."

Dr. Leibowitz adds: "No prospective randomized trial has ever found radical prostatectomy to be both necessary and effective."

Urologist W. Reid Pitts, Jr., M.D., FACS, wrote an outstanding letter-to-the-editor of the "Journal of Urology" lambasting the radical prostatectomy. When interviewed for "Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery," Dr. Pitts said: "Although I did the first ever nerve sparing radical prostatectomy at New York-Cornell Hospital, I've abandoned the radical prostatectomy for my prostate cancer patients. There is always a better treatment option."

Dr. Hennenfent co-founded the Prostatitis Foundation (www.prostatitis.org). He also founded the Epididymitis Foundation (www.epididymitisfoundation.org), and the Acoustic Neuroma Foundation (www.acousticneuromafoundation.org).

He previously published "The Prostatitis Syndromes."

"Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery" quotes urologist Ronald Wheeler, M.D. of the Prostatitis and Prostate Cancer Center, who says: "In my opinion, prostatitis resolution holds the key to the future of prostate cancer resolution."

“Two randomized, controlled studies suggest that 95% or more of all prostate cancer surgery done to date, has failed to extend the life of the patient,” says Dr. Bradley Hennenfent M.D., the book’s author.

“Surgery should no longer be presented or advertised as a cure-all for prostate cancer,” says Dr. Hennenfent. “My book is all about the options to harmful surgery."

“Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery,” details the harm done by surgery, while explaining the pros and cons of watchful waiting, active noninvasive therapy, radiation seed implants, three-dimensional radiation therapy, herbal medications, cryosurgery, and hormone blockade. The website for the book is: www.SurvivingProstateCancerWithoutSurgery.org.