Noscapine follow-up

Hi all,

I am new on this forum and I had noticed the post awhile ago by
Ben45 about the effectiveness
of noscapine in treatment of prostate cancer.
I am in the US, and I am very interested in finding out what the
dosage is of noscapine that was used to bring down the PSA, and what
the source is for folks in Europe. Do you usually get it prescribed by
your physician?

I have gotten ordering information from the Tel Aviv compounding
pharmacy and they charge $450 for 150 capsules of 200 mg each. The
Noscapine pdf file on MedInsight (www.noscapine.org) lists 1000 to
2250 mg/day to be effective in cancer treatment. Although this is a
high dosage, I am encouraged by several reports listing the low
toxicity and the
absence of side effects of this compound. I have emailed Dr. Barken
on his noscapine google group to request more information, but I would
also appreciate any insight anybody in this group could give me as a
user of this medicine. I am 14 yrs post RP but my PSA is rising again,
currently at 0.57 and I would like to try noscapine before considering
ADT.

Thank you in advance for any good pointers, I am anxious to find out
more about this treatment.

Sincerely,

SF in the US

On Jul 11, 11:51 pm, SF <fkbp...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> ... I am 14 yrs post RP but my PSA is rising again, currently
> at 0.57 and I would like to try noscapine before considering
> ADT.

SF,

A recurrence after 14 years is a shame. You'd think you'd be out
of the woods by now, but I guess we never are. I suppose the bad
news about your treatment is that you still got a recurrence, but
the good news is that your treatment certainly bought you a lot
of years.

I don't know anything about noscapine but I'm wondering if
you have considered salvage radiation. I don't know if you're
a good candidate for it or not, but if you haven't spoken to
a radiation oncologist about it, you probably should. After
hearing what he has to say, you might still decide against it,
but I don't think you do anything but benefit from a
consultation.

Salvage radiation is said to be most effective when done as
early as possible after recurrence. So don't wait too long.

Alan

On Jul 11, 11:51 pm, SF <fkbp...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am new on this forum and I had noticed the post awhile ago by
> Ben45 about the effectiveness of noscapine in treatment of
> prostate cancer.
....

I just did a little reading. As near as I can tell, Noscapine
has only been used by one researcher, and only to treat mice.
There are zero articles in Pubmed about the use of Noscapine with
prostate cancer. Even the one guy who claims it works has
apparently not yet tried it on humans, and has not yet published
his work in any journals.

If I were you, I'd be very leery of this. See the thread about
tomatoes in this newsgroup. There are a great many early studies
that show benefits of this or that food, drug, or supplement but
then later studies show little or no benefit. The record of
success is pretty low even for studies in humans. It's much
worse for studies that have only been tested in mice.

It is an exception when an early study pans out and leads to a
real treatment. I don't know the numbers, but I wouldn't be
surprised if there are ten or more announcements of this kind for
every one that turns out to be real.

That doesn't mean that Dr. Barken is a fraud, though I must say
that the fact that he is offering the drug for sale and has setup
a "Research and Education Foundation" is highly suspicious to me.
He may well be telling the truth about the success of his
treatment in mice, but even he says he doesn't know if it will
work in humans and he's trying to put together a clinical trial
to find out.

I understand your reluctance to begin hormone therapy. It may
well be that, with a cancer that has lain dormant for 14 years,
you can get away without it. But if I were you I'd go see a good
medical oncologist specializing in prostate cancer and discuss
these issues with him. He might recommend just diet and
supplements to start with, or he might recommend some sort of
intermittent hormone therapy that isn't as tough as getting on it
for the rest of your life.

Also, as I said in a previous post, I suggest consulting a
radiation oncologist. It may be you can get a series of painless
radiation treatments that solve the problem with no drugs at all.

I wouldn't take a drug that someone you never met and don't know,
and who has never seen you as a patient, recommends on the
Internet - especially a drug that no other soul in the world is
recommending or has tested except him.

Best of luck.

Alan

On Jul 12, 6:40 pm, Alan Meyer <amey...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Salvage radiation is said to be most effective when done as
> early as possible after recurrence. So don't wait too long.
>
> Alan

Hi Alan,

Sorry I didn't post my history in detail, but I did have salvage
radiation about 6 months after my surgery. It was EBRT, I would have
to go calculate how many Gy I had in total (70something?), but it
brought my numbers down from 0.17 to <0.1 in 93, after a short post-
surgery PSA surge. After that my numbers stayed around <0.1 until
2001.
Thanks for suggesting this. I don't think I can get any more radiation
therapy, unless IMRT might be an option, I'd have to look into that.
Right now I'd like to find out if this noscapine will help me delay
ADT, and I am looking forward to trying it.

All the best,

SF

On Jul 12, 8:07 pm, SF <fkbp...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> ...Thanks for suggesting this. I don't think I can get any more
> radiation therapy, unless IMRT might be an option, I'd have to
> look into that.

Ah well, I see you've been through the mill already.

Still, I think you would do well to consult with a medical
oncologist specializing in prostate cancer. Picking medicines
for yourself without expert advice is always a questionable
practice. You can always choose not to follow the doctor's
advice if you really don't agree with it. All of us have done
that from time to time.

I also just found a Wikipedia article about Noscapine. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noscapine

Here is a list of possible side effects mentioned in the article:

* Loss of coordination
* Hallucinations (auditory and visual)
* Loss of sexual drive
* Swelling of prostate
* Loss of appetite
* Dilated pupils
* Increased heart rate
* Shaking and muscle spasms
* Increased alertness
* Loss of any sleepiness
* Loss of stereoscopic vision

It goes on to say that the side effects are not permanent. But
do you really want to be fooling around with a drug like this
without the benefit of working with a doctor who has experience
with it?

Well, whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck.

Alan

"SF" <fkbp126@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1184212280.934180.319880@o61g2000hsh.googlegr oups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I am new on this forum and I had noticed the post awhile ago by
> Ben45 about the effectiveness
> of noscapine in treatment of prostate cancer.
....

I finally went back and looked up the thread on Noscapine that
you referenced here.

It does indeed look promising, and my skepticism may have
been too strong. I'm thinking now that if you decide to try it
it might be a good idea to do something like the following:

1. Find a doctor if possible who will work with you on it, someone
who will take regular PSAs and perhaps know what other blood
tests to perform to look for positive or negative effects.

2. Start with lower doses and increase rather than starting with
a high dose all at once?

3. Keep us informed of how you are doing with it.

Best of luck.

Alan