Lycopene

    My brother and I were both diagnosed with CaP in the summer of 1993.  I at age 53 and he at age 49.  Our father died of CaP a few  years previous so we were watching carefully our own PSA s and when the dreaded  disease raised it's ugly head we both had Radical Prostatectomies.  Both the nerve sparing type of surgery, so called,  which worked for one of us and not the other. My post-operative Gleason score was 6 and his was 6 with a small area near the outer margins of 9.

    In 2003 my brothers Radical failed and he underwent IMRT Radiation Therapy at the University of Michigan after which his PSA settled in at .03. After  quite a few  months his PSA begin to rise to over 250% increase.  At which time the U of M recommended that he wait 3 months and have another PSA done, during which period he began taking 20 mg. of Lycopene daily (as we had read in "Man to Man", Sarasota, FL  September/October 2003).  Three months later he was retested and his PSA had returned back to .3.

    In March of 2003 I had a cystoscope of the urinary tract because of some infection problems and a large tumor was discovered in my bladder  about the size of a very large grape.  My PSA's have remained constant at .01 for the 10 years since my Radical so this tumor didn't seem to indicate that it was CaP,  however a biopsy was NOT done at the  time of the first cystoscope.  I began taking 10 mg of Lycopene daily along with my daily  dose of 200 mcg of Selenium and 3 months later,  at my insistence, another cystoscopy was done and the tumor was GONE. While my tumor probably was not CaP it very well could have been something else, such as bladder cancer and any tumor is NOT good.  Needless to say that I and my brother are sold on Lycopene which we learned about through "Man to Man" Sarasota, FL (Sept./Oct 2003).

    Our hats  are off to and our many thanks go to "MAN to MAN" Sarasota, FL for their excellent Bimonthly newsletter and to Nelson Boudreaux for his online version.  When we needed accurate information (which was very difficult to obtain from local doctors) it was available from them.  We didn't always like what we read BUT IT WAS ACCURATE AND UP TO DATE and gave us the opportunity to make informed decisions.  Many a time I would sit and read the new "Man to Man" with a very large pit in my stomach and a tear in my eye as I read what was NOT good news that particular month.

Thanks and good luck,

Larry Gordon

PS:   We have both participated in Hereditary Prostate Cancer studies at both the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins.

If you have any questions you may contact me at the following email address:     gordon@usol.com