Prostate Cancer Information
by Edward Friedman, Ph.D.

 

The Cause of Prostate Cancer

 

Estrogen receptor-alpha is essential in causing prostate cancer. Because testosterone does not bind to estrogen receptor-alpha, this means that in order for prostate cance to arise, testosterone must first be converted to estrogen.

High local levels of estradiol result in high local levels of depurinating adducts, which are weak mutagens. However, high enough amounts of weak mutagens become the equivalent of normal amounts of strong mutagens. Higher than normal level of these depurinating adducts are found in both prostate cancer and in breast cancer patients.

My latest paper explains the relationship between testosterone, estradiol, and prostate cancer.

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Using Testosterone to Treat Prostate Cancer

 

Dr. Abraham Morgentaler used testosterone to treat men with untreated prostate cancer. 13 men with prostate cancer and low testosterone (238) were treated with testosterone (664). After a median of 2.5 years, the average PSA drop was over 33%. None of the men experienced a rapid PSA increase. This study demonstrated the falsehood (still being taught to medical students) that giving testosterone to men with prostate cancer was like adding gasoline to a fire.

Even more impressive are the results of a 12 year study in which 412 hypogonadal men received testosterone, with a control group of 380 hypogonadal men did not. Prostate cancer was detected in only 2.7% of the treated men, as opposed to 8.9% of the untreated men. All of the cancers in the treated men were detected within the first 18 months and all but one of those men had a Gleason score of 6 or less. None of the untreated men had a Gleason score under 7. There can be no question that both groups of men should have had appoximately the same percentage of occult tumors at the start of the study. This means that logically, the increased level of testosterone either was killing prostate cancer cells or was slowing down their growth rate to such an extent as to prevent detection.

A recent retrospective study of 189,461 non-diabetic men aged 40-60 showed that testosterone therapy reduced the risk of prostate cancer. They concluded: "increased use of testosterone therapy is inversely associated with prostate cancer".

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have had some success in using high levels of testosterone to treat men with Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer. While this article only presented results from 4 men, 2 of which had a greater than 50% decrease in their PSA. A newer study with more men still shows a 50% positive response.

Researchers have shown that low-risk prostate cancer patients who have undergone robotic radical prostatectomy lower their risk of recurrence if given testosterone.

Researchers have shown that supraphysiological levels of testosterone induce cellular senescence in human prostate cancer cells through the Src-Akt pathway. Also, researchers using human prostate cancer (PCa) xenografts in nude mice concluded that "Higher levels of serum T inhibited PCa cell growth."

Case studies using high dose T on PCa patients can be seen here

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Contact info: ed@math.uchicago.edu

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