My Uncle has bone cancer. Is there any treatment that could save his
life?
He has begun Chemotherapy. Are there any specific drugs that have
proven effective? Would a bone graft work? It all began with prostate
or testicular cancer. His testicles were removed. He's 65 years old.
What is his life expectancy at this point?
cancer. He still has his prostate and his PSA is 150. Is there
anything proven to lower PSA?

Hi there,

Firstly let me say that I wish all the best to your uncle and hope
that he is able to make a full recovery :)

I think this Q&A about bone cancer is a great starting point. It is
important to understand the HOW, WHERE, and WHEN of any
disease...cancers in particular:
http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/600626.html

The following information from this site is perhaps most pertinent:

"What are the treatment options for bone cancer? 

Treatment options depend on the type, size, location, and stage of the
cancer, as well as the person's age and general health. Surgery is
often the primary treatment. Although amputation of a limb is
sometimes necessary, pre- or post-operative chemotherapy has made
limb-sparing surgery possible in many cases. When appropriate,
surgeons avoid amputation by removing only the cancerous section of
the bone and replacing it with an artificial device called a
prosthesis.

Chemotherapy and radiation may also be used alone or in combination.
Because of the tendency for Ewing's sarcoma to metastasize rapidly,
multidrug chemotherapy is often used, in addition to radiation therapy
or surgery on the primary tumor.

8. Are new treatments being studied? 

To develop new, more effective treatments, the National Cancer
Institute is sponsoring clinical trials (treatment studies with cancer
patients) in many hospitals and cancer centers around the country.
Clinical trials are a critical step in the development of new methods
of treatment. Before any new treatment can be recommended for general
use, doctors conduct clinical trials to find out whether the treatment
is safe for patients and effective against the disease. Various forms
of cancer treatments using surgery, radiation therapy, and
chemotherapy for bone cancer are being tested in clinical trials. "

This next site is run by the National Cancer Institute and offers a
great amount of information about treatment, clinical trials, and so
forth for bone cancer. It focuses on the two main types of bone
cancer, which are Osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancer_information/xml_tab.aspx?viewid=7d080f7f-585d-40e8-bd59-13fb31481b2b&expand=Bone
Some of the treatments documented here are:
surgery
chemotherapy
radiation therapy
immunotherapy
vaccine therapy
(note that other treatments are still being tested)

This next site contains information about drugs being tested that have
potential for aiding those with bone cancer (Indiana University):
http://www.medlib.iupui.edu/bcr/

The National Library of Medicine also has a wealth of information
about the various types of bone cancer. I think the section that would
interest you the most would be "Research" and "Treatment" sections:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bonecancer.html

PubMED provides references and abstracts from 4300 biomedical journals
and a minority percentage contain full text. This index is hosted by
the US
National Library of Medicine:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez

This is one of the most dynamic sources of information as most of the
new information regarding new treatments are first published in such
journal prior to being release to public media sources. A reference
librarian could certainly assist you in focusing your search across
this vast amount of information.

I hope this was helpful...if you need help understanding any of the
information provided here feel free to post a clarification :)

Good luck!
answerguru-ga

I'm sorry to read about your uncle. Medical research is widely
reported in journals that may or may not be accessible via the
internet. An oncologist at a nationally recognized institution such as
Sloan Kettering may be your best source for information. Your uncle's
condition is such that only those who are treating him and have access
to test results truly understand his situation.

After writing that, I have one suggestion that may be difficult to
implement. He should consider a macrobiotic diet. I have read of cases
where individuals with widespread bone cancer adhered strictly to the
diet constraints and had their cancer go into remission. Your uncle is
in the unfortunate situation where weight loss may be a concern. Going
to a completely different diet that many do not find particularly
palatable may not work for him

Best wishes to you, your uncle and your family.

As a medical librarian, I believe the treatment would depend on the
type of bone cancer as well as the stage of the cancer. I cannot
diagnose or recommend treatments, but here are some sites that may
provide some discussion starters with a physician.

Here are some good places to start:

(1) The National Cancer Institute (a branch of the US government) has
a Web site which includes information about bone cancer.
The Web site is: http://www.nci.nih.gov/
When you get to this web site,
----click on "Cancer Information" (near top of page),
-----then "Types of Cancer", 
-----then "bone" (under cancers by body location/system).
Included is a toll free number:
  Cancer Information Service 
Toll-free: 1–800–4–CANCER (1–800–422–6237) 

(2) Another Web site that may prove useful is published by the
American Cancer Society: How is bone metastasis treated?
http://www.cancer.org/eprise/main/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_4X_How_Is_Bone_Metastasis_Treated_66?
[www.cancer.org ------>Click on "Choose a cancer type"--->Select
"bone"

(3) PubMED (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez)
This provides references and abstracts from 4300 biomedical journals;
a very small number are full text. This index is provided by the US
[government]National Library of Medicine

If you need any assistance with these web sites, or searching PubMed,
I would highly recommend going to a public, academic or medical
library and ask for a reference librarian. He or she may not be able
to do the entire search, but a reference librarian could get you
started.  Many academic and medical libraries provide some help to the
general public. Just call ahead and ask what their policies are! and
how much help they are able to provide to the general public.

I am hoping this helps some.
Janice

PS I started my search using "Consumer and Patient Health Information
Section"
A listing of the top 100 medical web sites, as chosen by medical
librarians

I forgot to add the URL for:
"Consumer and Patient Health Information Section:

       A listing of the top 100 medical web sites, as chosen by medical
        librarians 

Here it is:
    http://caphis.mlanet.org/

It includes 25 general health  sites and other health sites in the areas of:
men's health, women's health, children's health, parenting and kids, seniors,
specific health info, drug info, and health professionals.

Janice
    
    

Janice

Hello.  Sincere sympathy to you and your uncle and all who love him. 
I've recently heard mention (in the health and nutrition message
boards I read and participate in) of possible natural cures for all
sorts of cancers.  Basically here's what I'm hearing:

1. Human beings are evolved to be outside in the sunlight for at least
2 hours each day, with as much skin exposed as possible, and without
sunblock and without eyewear.  (To avoid risk of heat stroke / heat
exhaustion, it is recommended that the time spent in the sunlight be
in the morning hours, before 11 A.M. and in the later afternoon hours,
after 3 P.M.)

2. Human beings are evolved to thrive on a diet composed mainly of
natural, healthy saturated fats from organic sources such as wild
marine fish and organically-raised grass-fed/free-range animals, and
from the proteins from these sources.  The diet is supplemented by
fresh leafy green vegetables, a smaller amount of fresh raw fruits
(especially the berries), raw nuts, and sprouted or fermented seeds. 
Beverages should be only pure water and real kefir (either dairy-based
real kefir or water/juice-based real kefir).

3. Human beings are evolved to experience the world as
hunter-gatherers, and this involves daily oxygenating physical
activity especially in the form of walking, but also in the form of
dancing, climbing, running, and other enjoyable outdoor activities.

A couple of online sites with articles and links to related
information include:
http://www.westonaprice.org
http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet

These and related sites indicate that paleoanthropological research
suggests that cancer may be caused by a complex reaction to modern
eating habits, combined with lack of sunlight and outdoor physical
activity.

Sincere best wishes for a full recovery,
foodie212-ga

In the last few years or so there has been many claims made by people
about plants and herbs, which they say are beneficial in the fight
against aids and cancer. Some of these claims have proven to be false
and at best have proven to be exaggerations. But in South Africa there
is a plant, which is on the brink of extinction. This plant is called
by white people in English 'Suderlandia Fructosate'. This plant is
also called by the Afrikaans people 'kankerbos', which means cancer
bush or 'kalkoenbos', which means turkey bush. It has been known in
South Africa and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa for thousands of
years. It was an anti-depressant, it was appetite booster, it was also
and still is a dramatic booster of the human immune system - it is
also non-toxic. For many years African people and Xhoi-xhoi people and
Xhoi-san people as well as Bantu people used this plant in the fight
against cancer, and it was very effective there, and it still is.
Doctors are continually reporting incredible success stories with this
new medicine.

I would very much like to believe this evidence, and I hope this piece
of research news is of interest to you and other readers. At present
this promising treatment seems to be available only in South Africa,
but assuming these reports are true, and the more cancer sufferers and
doctors become aware of the potential impact of this medicine, then
perhaps many more people can start to live better lives.

For more details visit...
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles3/credoaids.html