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Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#81

Post by chiefalchemist »

mrWiz wrote: post #48
chiefalchemist wrote: post #45

I heard an interview on one of NPR shows last week and the guest talked about using electricity for healing. For example, if I remember correctly, a wound treated in someway with electricity healed faster. It had something to do with stimulating the cells in a particular way. Side note: Does this give any credibility to the idea that magnets can heal?

The mechanism used here is that high voltage causes cells to open channels through the cell wall, letting good cell stuff out and bad stuff in. Do it enough and the cell will die. I'm no biologist but I don't know of a similar magnetic mechanism.

I was thinking that if high voltage power lines produce a magnetic field, perhaps a magnetic field can influence energy in cells? Again, it's an idea inspired by the interview I heard.

https://www.epa.gov/radtown/electric-and-magnetic-fields-pow...

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#83

Post by hlehmann »

glenstein wrote: post #67
Antipodes456 wrote: post #6

Sample size n=1, but my dad was on the research or clinical trial of this exact treatment in Sydney, it worked for his prostate cancer, he's still clear from PSA tests (and possibly had biopsy also. No side effects. Previously he'd had the radioactive beads treatment which failed, the only other option was removal. Both these options have potentially unpleasant side effects. Happy to ask him questions if anyone wants…

May I ask how this was discovered in your dad's case? I feel like prostate cancer is the single most dangerous cancer for men in the late 30s, 40s, and 50s. So it's a subject I'm trying to pay attention to.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer when I was about 57. I had had somewhat regular "finger up the butt" exams prior to that, since I was about 45, which were all negative. Then a PSA blood test test came back positive and I then had a biopsy done (no fun, trust me). Because I was still in my 50's I needed to do something beyond just continuing to monitor it. Between radiation treatment and a prostatectomy I chose the latter. Eight years or so later my PSA tests are still negative, knock on wood. Lesson learned, I think, is to get a simple PSA blood test done regularly once you've reached a certain age.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#84

Post by markdown »

Antipodes456 wrote: post #32
markdown wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you share the hospital or research facility where this was done?

I believe it was Prof Stricker: https://www.phillipstricker.com.au/prostate-cancer-treatment... .

Thank you

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#85

Post by hawk_ »

zwieback wrote: post #65

I had PC in my early 40s, over 15 years ago now. If that treatment had been available then I might still opt for surgical removal. The peace of mind of getting the thing out is huge and the side effects for me were negligible, as I had a great surgeon and recovery for younger patients is pretty good. In my 60s I would definitely go for something like this although I'm always a little leery of treatments that have coo…

Early 40s sounds kind of young to have it. How did you/they find out that you had it? Anyway good that it worked out well for you.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#86

Post by hawk_ »

pfdietz wrote: post #40
zkirill wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my understanding as well and my favorite protein, p53 [1], is responsible for hunting down cancerous cells. From what I remember reading in Robins Basic Pathology, it takes many steps for a cell to evolve into cancer and our body has ways to reduce the probability at each step. The most fascinating topic to me is how someone's lifestyle and environment affect their body's natural cancer defence mechanisms. We…

Elephants have 100x as many cells as a human does, live about as long, but have about 1/2 the chance of dying of cancer. Why? A big part is that each elephant cell has ~40 copies of the p53 gene.

Before anyone thinks of increasing p53 in human bodies to prevent cancer keep in mind that it can cause premature aging.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#87

Post by Antipodes456 »

glenstein wrote: post #67
Antipodes456 wrote: post #6

Sample size n=1, but my dad was on the research or clinical trial of this exact treatment in Sydney, it worked for his prostate cancer, he's still clear from PSA tests (and possibly had biopsy also. No side effects. Previously he'd had the radioactive beads treatment which failed, the only other option was removal. Both these options have potentially unpleasant side effects. Happy to ask him questions if anyone wants…

May I ask how this was discovered in your dad's case? I feel like prostate cancer is the single most dangerous cancer for men in the late 30s, 40s, and 50s. So it's a subject I'm trying to pay attention to.

He had a change in PSA levels in his blood - it's a good idea to get your bloods checked annually so you can pick up any changes, as PSA levels vary a lot person to person.

Also gan get "the finger" to see if you have an enlarged prostate.

I think as far as cancers go, prostate is one of the better ones to get, not normally aggressive, you'll probably die before it kills you.

Test often if you have family history.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#88

Post by Panzer04 »

laminarflow wrote: post #69

In a past life, I worked in prostate cancer ("PCa") clinical research. To drive home the point about how large of an unmet need this is: A) In addition to 1/6 men being diagnosed with PCa, an ~equally large percentage of men have undiagnosed cancer at the time of death, it just wasn't severe enough yet to be the thing that killed them. (1) B) Because treatment carries a 50% risk of sexual and/or urinary dysfunction s…

Most current cancer treatment methods we have are basically sledgehammers with loads of collateral damage - it’s not surprising the preference is to leave it if it’s benign.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#89

Post by pfdietz »

hawk_ wrote: post #86
pfdietz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elephants have 100x as many cells as a human does, live about as long, but have about 1/2 the chance of dying of cancer. Why? A big part is that each elephant cell has ~40 copies of the p53 gene.

Before anyone thinks of increasing p53 in human bodies to prevent cancer keep in mind that it can cause premature aging.

I'm sure elephants have all sorts of compensatory mutations so they can live with so many copies of the gene.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#90

Post by thaumasiotes »

copperx wrote: post #77
thaumasiotes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that?

I don't believe every person of every age has observable cancer that can be seen on a slide.

You're probably correct as to babies. But the prostate gland is extremely cancerous and my assumption would be that that tendency begins at either birth or puberty. The exponential function spends the entire infinite length of the negative x-axis rising from 0 to 1; think about the growth of cancer in your prostate gland that way.

I would not expect a man in his late 20s to fall into the category "men of an advanced age". But I would be unsurprised to learn that there was visible protocancer in a sample of his prostate.

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