PCBs and prostate cancer
Albert
ask a question and because of my ignorance I have never been able to
post any information that's usable here.
I do monitor this newsgroup and have gleaned a lot of useful
information. Bringing you up to date; my Dr. suggested a year or so
ago that we do a watch and wait wait and watch using my PSA is a guide
for further intervention.
As of 03/03/11 my PSA is "3.750".
As opposed to;
10/21/10 "4.68"
06/23/10 "4.77"
I have not talked to my urologist (Dr. Shah UNUM medical Center
Albuquerque) about the results of the last PSA. My annual visit will
be in October.
I guess my primary reason for posting was to ask if anyone here knows
anything about PCBs induced prostate cancer? My research shows that
there is a link between PCBs exposure and prostate cancer, type II
diabetes, breast cancer and other problems. As it turns out I was
diagnosed with both with the cancer and type II diabetes within two
months of each other back in the middle 80s.
My cancer has been described as a carcinoma and I was wondering if the
chemically induced type of cancer has a different name? My research
has shown very little on the subject and that could be the result of
not knowing how to search on my part.
The company that I work for used an air compressor lubricant with PCBs
as a combustion retardant. The EPA made them stop there use and clean
up the ground around the compressor buildings sometimes to the depths
of 15 to 16 feet. The lubricant was added to the compressors manually
using a bucket so we had to handle it. That lubricant was replaced
with a vegetable oil based lubricants which was also noncombustible.
PCBs are also used in the in transformers.
From what I can see on this newsgroup my PC is acting quite
differently than what I've seen here.
Anyway, thank you
Albert
Steve Kramer
correct that you had a 7.7 PSA in October 2008 and it's steadily declined
without medical treatment?
Do you exercise? Take Vitamin D? any other supplements.
"Albert" <aml...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4huin690uia4mbkio...@4ax.com...
Albert
<skr...@cinci.rr.com> wrote:
>Your body is seemingly doing a very good job of fighting the bastard. I am
>correct that you had a 7.7 PSA in October 2008 and it's steadily declined
>without medical treatment?
>
>Do you exercise? Take Vitamin D? any other supplements.
I went back and checked, the urologist in Durango made out of hand
written document that listed a 7.7. This is what she wrote;
PSA 7.7
3+3 = 6 Gleason score
(807.cac)
prostate volume 100 mL
I don't know if this is factoring in the Finasteride that I'm taking?
Exercise, well I try to walk at least 1 mile a day but it's been
getting progressively harder because I've had a total knee replacement
(left knee) as a means to remove a Baker cyst which unfortunately did
not remove the cyst so therefore there's quite a bit of swelling in
that left me when I overtax it.
I finally figured out a few years ago that I have lactose intolerance
for consequently I haven't been drinking milk with vitamin D. Lately
I've been drinking Silk (soybean milk) fortified with vitamin D and
DHA omega-3. I don't take any vitamin supplements but every other day
I ate a bowl of oatmeal with a handful of walnuts and 2 tablespoons of
blueberries and two strips of bacon (crisped in the microwave)
So far the only doctor I've talked to about this as my primary care
doctor and he doesn't try to explain it, he's just happy as I am. At
76 as of December I'll take anything I can get :-).
Steve Kramer
wonderful.
"Albert" <aml...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:5dekn65hekfhmi341...@4ax.com...
kaypeeoh
outflow of testes and prostate. Because these organs share venous
outflow, this leads to chronic congestion of the prostate. Serum
testosterone levels decline with age while prostate tissue levels of
testosterone will skyrocket due to this back-flow. If taking
testosterone injections, the feedback loop leads to smaller testes and
less testosterone output. In that sense it could prevent prostate
cancer because of less hormone being back-flushed into the prostate.
I'm guessing.
kevin
Alan Meyer
> ...
> My cancer has been described as a carcinoma and I was wondering
> if the chemically induced type of cancer has a different name?
I'm not an expert and what follows is my unauthoritative opinion,
not to be taken as gospel.
My sense is that the term "carcinoma" only describes the kind of
tissue ("epithelial" tissue) in which the cancer originates, not
the cause of the cancer. So cancer that grows as a result of
exposure to radiation, carcinogens, infections, injuries,
inherited genetic tendencies, or just old age could all be called
carcinoma. More specifically, if it's prostate cancer, it would
be called "adenocarcinoma", which is carcinoma that originates in
glandular epithelial tissue as in the prostate gland.
As to whether your cancer is caused by the PCB exposure, my
understanding is that something like that could be true, but it's
extremely difficult to prove, for example in a lawsuit. Prostate
cancer is so common that it could be due to many different causes
and your exposure to PCB may not have anything to do with it. Or
maybe it had something to do with it but only because you also
have other risk factors. If an exceptionally high percentage of
the men working at the same company as you developed prostate
cancer then there's more chance that a lawyer could convince a
judge or jury that there was a link.
As far as I know, the treatment for prostate cancer is the same
whatever caused it. It's not like an infection where the
treatment differs depending on what bacteria or virus infected
you. It's more like a broken arm, where the treatment is the
same whether you fell off a bicycle, got hit by a car, or slipped
on a banana peel.
The differences that are important for treatment have to do with
whether the cancer is organ confined or metastatic, whether it is
aggressive (e.g., high Gleason score) or relatively dormant,
whether it is hormone sensitive or hormone refractory, and so on.
Any of those distinctions could apply to cancers caused by
different agents. Again, using the broken arm analogy, the
treatment for broken arm depends on where the break is, whether
it's simple or compound, and so on, not on whether it was caused
by one kind of accident or another.
> The company that I work for used an air compressor lubricant with PCBs
> as a combustion retardant. The EPA made them stop there use and clean
> up the ground around the compressor buildings sometimes to the depths
> of 15 to 16 feet. The lubricant was added to the compressors manually
> using a bucket so we had to handle it. That lubricant was replaced
> with a vegetable oil based lubricants which was also noncombustible.
> PCBs are also used in the in transformers.
If you want to pursue the company, perhaps the thing to do is to
contact as many people or their families as you can who once
worked for the company to find out how many of them have cancer
or, if they already died, did they die of cancer. If PCB
exposure can cause more than one kind of cancer then don't just
inquire about prostate cancer. If you're coming up with big
numbers, then you might want to take the information to a lawyer
and get an opinion.
I searched Google to find out what percentage of Americans die of
cancer. One website said it was about 25%. If your inquiries
show that 50% of workers at the plant have or had cancer, that
sounds like the plant was indeed carcinogenic. The statistics
are tricky to figure out however since not all people who will
get cancer because of exposure to carcinogens have been diagnosed
yet. Depending on how long ago the exposure was, even 10 or 20%
could be a higher than normal number.
> From what I can see on this newsgroup my PC is acting quite
> differently than what I've seen here.
Yours is different from many however there are many who do have
non-aggressive cancers like yours. I'm guessing that reading the
postings in the newsgroup won't give you a true sense of the
numbers because it may be that many of the ones without
aggressive cancer, like you, don't post very often.
Best of luck.
Alan