Hi all,
Went for my first appointment to my new medical oncologist (SJ -
thanks for the push). He was away on holiday. I was so surprised, that
I said, 'Oh, dear me', this being the regular lot of any NHS patient
seeing 'their' consultant. My new doc went about seeing what trials
might be available to fit me into, which is exactly what I wanted.
I appear to qualify for only one trial - "Stampede". Briefly, I would
have to take standard androgen suppression, plus a) any one of
Zometa,
Taxotere or
Celecoxib, or b) plus a combination of Zometa with either
Taxotere or Celecoxib. The aim is to assess which of the five combos
could make AS benefits last longer. The computer allots at random.
The control arm is standard AS (though we can agree what exactly with
doc.). (It all sounds very kh'ish.)
At 80 years of age but still suspiciously alive, my info sheet (me,
not the info sheet, is old) reads: "It is expected it will take six to
ten years to complete the study". H'mm.
And as my readers will be aware I have heartily supported Scardino,
who suggests with total conviction (podcast) that toxic HT/chemo which
becomes refractory and then opens up new Pca pathways, is on its last
legs. (See my notes on his podast in my post June 25th. Or listen for
yourself at:
http://www.researchtopractice.net/podcast/feed/PCU.xml )
The logic which now screams at me, which is totally mashing me, peeing
me off big time, makes me want to tear out the rest of my hair,
foiling my attempt to grow it into a fashionable pony tail at the
back, is as follows:
If there are therapies in late stages of development which might be
the replacement for HT toxics (e.g. abariderone, white cell
immunotherapies, and
Lipitor + Celecoxib all discussed recently, to
name a few), then…
.....WHY THE **** ARE THERE NO TRIALS WHERE THE CONTROL IS THE
STANDARD HT AND THE TRIAL IS THE REPLACEMENT FOR THE HT and all its
side effects????/????? here's a few more???????? ?? SOMEBODY PLEASE
EXPLAIN.
Current abariderone trials for example will tell us if the drug will
renew therapy after chemo has failed. That's fine. And a correct
priority. But why are there no parallel trials to establish if it
could help those with advanced cancer and poor prognostics *instead*
of the toxic stuff? And my reading of the research report on AA
(discussed here also very recently) confirmed its efficacy against
cancer tumors whether or not they'd already been subjected to
HT/chemo.
THAT is what should be available, surely, somewhere, NOW. I would
prefer not to have years of toxic side effects, some of them permanent
while being quite certain in my heart that these are the last days of
current HT treatment. Of course I also realise, and it is what is
pointed out to me, that currently only AS is available as a known way,
for all its faults, of hampering metastastic disease, which I have,
from taking off and becoming rampant.
If I don't accept the trials I'll get HT anyway, it seems. Ain't
nothing else in the kit. So, to save my coiff, at this moment in
writing I will probably accept to go on the trial. These are five
trials all at once - and so they should well prove something useful if
one of them turns today's temporary HT improvements into something
more permanent. I guinea-pigged G9 HIFUs twice, and in three years of
an aggressive condition still haven't any of the very difficult
side-effects reported by guys who've had RP and radiation to attack
their primary source. So it will give me a certain amount of
enjoyment to continue dancing round the miserable microns of the Pca
army, sticking it to them as an ongoing labrat. And in the time given,
wait with confidence for their final slaughter by the new stuff.
I go back in a week, to sign up. In that same time the docs will have
another look and confirm I'm accepted. I've got all details and I
seem to fit the parameters.
I'll start reading through kh all over again and get some of his food
stocked. (Wonder if they'll accept a suggestion to have kh's menus as
a trial arm?).
My very best wishes to everybody.
MikeHi
"Exponential lightspeed". Def: The discovery of the cure for Pca at a
speed which defies Einstein.
My next step, Trials options. 
Linear Mode
