Doctors are still giving men completely wrong information about prostate cancer and testosterone.
They’re also still misinforming them about the likelihood of testosterone making prostate cancer worse.
So in this study, they looked at many men who had diagnosed prostate cancer.
These particular men were undergoing watchful waiting.
This is a process that is often also called active surveillance.
In other words, these men are coming in for routine testing for their prostate cancer.
But they’re not getting their prostate removed or treated.
And they’re doing this despite knowing there is cancer there.
For most prostate cancers, active surveillance is the right thing to do in my opinion.
Most men are vastly overtreated for prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is extremely common in men, but death from prostate cancer is extremely rare.
Most prostate cancers never metastasize.
About 27% disappear entirely on their own.
Eventually, we all die, but we rarely die from prostate cancer.
In this study, they monitored testosterone levels, specifically free testosterone.
Then the researchers correlated their findings with how the prostate cancer progressed.
They were testing the likelihood of reclassifying the prostate cancer as much worse over time.
Most prostate cancers are biopsied via a needle.
The result of a biopsy is known as a core.
There are often several cores per man.
This is because they perform several needle biopsies to evaluate the size and extent of the cancer.
They then classify the prostate cancer by Gleason score.
Gleason scores are assigned from 1 to 10.
There are two numbers assigned as part of each Gleason score.
The first is a value of “most of the prostate is X.”
The second number is a value of “the worst of the tumor we can see is Y.”
And then the two values are added together.
For example, if part of the prostate shows some abnormal cells, that may be a 3 for the first value.
The second number might be based on some of the tumor shows very abnormal and probably cancerous cells of 5.
And then the Gleason would be 3+5=8.
Anything over seven is generally regarded as something that requires treatment.
Although that really depends on the course of treatment.
Nowadays many men are treated, or I should say overtreated, in this area.
Take a look at this table.
The results are from men who stayed on active surveillance.
The researchers wanted to see how often prostate cancer would worsen if monitored, but otherwise left alone.
The table shows the correlation between watchful waiting and a substantial increase in the prostate cancer.
The measurement was determined via an increase in the Gleason score of seven or more:
As the researchers said in the study:
Using a free testosterone threshold of 0.45 ng/dL men with free testosterone levels lower than this value had a fourfold higher risk of disease reclassification compared with men with higher free testosterone values.
Low free testosterone is a good predictor of the likelihood of prostate cancer progressing.
However, that does not mean that you should get supplemental testosterone if you have both low testosterone and prostate cancer.
The idea that if your testosterone is low, raising it up will lower the chances of prostate cancer progressing is unproven.
And it may be untrue.
However, there is a reason why it may not be a good idea to supplement testosterone for prostate cancer.
There could be underlying metabolic problems that account for prostate cancer progressing.
It has NOTHING to do with low free testosterone causing prostate cancer progression.
Poor metabolism causes prostate cancer to progress.
And poor metabolism causes low testosterone.
If you improve your metabolism, your testosterone level will rise.
At the same time, your estrogen level will fall.
This is what is conducive to curing prostate cancer.
The best outcome is through increasing your testosterone levels and lowering your estrogen levels.
But you have to do it through diet, nutrition and appropriate levels of activity to get best results.
And you maybe want to get even more sex, which all cause testosterone to rise naturally.
That will improve all the hormone levels.
Citations
Low free testosterone levels predict disease reclassification in men with prostate cancer undergoing active surveillance
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bju.12682/abstract
Understanding Your Pathology Report: Prostate Cancer
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/understandingyourdiagnosis/understandingyourpathologyreport/prostatepathology/prostate-cancer-pathology
See this for more on Prostate cancer, and see more on Men’s Health, and for more information see effects of Testosterone levels.