Alternative Prostate Cancer Treatment Options
With Curative Intent and Low Sexual Side Effects

CDC:                I have the previous interview patients who are living like you, but I always meet them where they are living. It’s a pity, because I like to talk to people like you. Could you please tell us, how did you find us?  How did you find Valley Cancer Institute?   

Patient:            Well, basically, through a friend. We had a friend that was looking for a treatment for his wife and he talked to Dr. Wolfstein, and happened to mention that he had a friend that had my prostate cancer, and Dr. Wolfstein said, “He should call me, because I think we can help him”. So, that’s basically how we found the institute.

 CDC:                And, when you were diagnosed, what did you do?  Did you go to your primary doctor for?  

Patient:            Yes, when we first found out that my PSA had risen, it was through my, through a regular physical. I had a PSA and it was quite high. It was in October and it was a 7.8, October of 08. So at that time, he suggested that we contact an urologist and have it checked out.  

CDC:                I see. We have the pleasure to have your wife here, too. I know that this is a little personal, but what was your reaction when you knew that your husband had prostate cancer?  

Mrs. S:             Well, he had always been so healthy. We had no idea that he had cancer. We were both shocked. So I started, we talked to the doctors and got their opinions as to what they thought was should do, and then I went on the internet and I started examining and all of that. Then after we talked to Dr. Wolfstein, then he told me where to look on the internet and I looked up the website and I got the information from that. I started examining hyperthermia on the website, and we never had considered alternative medicine before, because we were very traditional people in our medicines. We didn’t go into health foods. We didn’t look into any of those things. We knew people who did and we weren’t against it, but it just wasn’t what we had done. But we heard about all the side effects that come from the traditional medicines and neither one of us liked any of those side effects. So we thought this sounded very interesting.  

CDC:                And then that’s what primarily decided you to come here?  Did they say the effect of hyperthermia was what made you decide to come here?  

Patient:            Yes. We thought this would be a very interesting, the use of radiation as well as hyperthermia. It would be a low dose, so it would take a longer period of time, but it would not be, like my wife said, as many side effects. So that’s really primarily why we decided on the institute here.  

CDC:                And it was the very first time that you heard about hyperthermia when you came to our website?  

Mrs. S:             Yeah. I had never heard it. I had heard of it, but just kind of off for other people. I never considered it for ourselves, but like a Patient said, the combining of both the hyperthermia with the low dose radiation sounded very intriguing. It sounded like maybe this, and it’s being used in Germany and in Europe.  

CDC:                 And you knew that?  

Mrs. S:             Well, not until I started looking into it, not until Dr. Wolfstein told me about it. I researched it in Europe to see what they were doing there and I know that the FDA keeps people from getting things as readily here as in Europe. So I figured, hey, if it’s there and it’s valuable. I need to look into it.  

CDC:                So you said that it was very intriguing, but were you, did you also do some research on the treatment results of hyperthermia?  

Mrs. S:             Yes. That was what was convincing, because we didn’t want (the sexual) side effects, but we wanted a cure.  

CDC:                Of course!  

Mrs. S:             You know, it wasn’t just the side effects that made us choose this.  

CDC:                So you, from the very beginning, you found our place. Did you go through the alternatives that your primary doctor gave you?  What did they offer you?  

Patient:            We actually visited probably four to five different things that we could do that would be available to us. One was surgery and one was, of course, the radiation, and then there was a chemotherapy, which we decided against. So, there were a number of things that was open to us, but after investigating them all, we decided that they all had very strong side effects that we would like, not like to have. So anyway that’s really one of the primary reasons we decided on the institute here.  

Mrs. S:             He had scheduled surgery. He was scheduled for surgery about four days after we visited here. So, we had to cancel the surgery, but we had a friend who did have the surgery and nine months later the cancer came back, plus he has to live with the side effects for the rest of his life. We figured, boy, we’ve got to give something else a try.  

CDC:                That’s very interesting. Now that you have been through the treatment, how can you describe, if you had to talk to someone who never heard about hyperthermia, how is the treatment?  Was it comfortable?  Was it hard to take?   

Patient:            No, the treatment actually is painless. The radiation is painless. The people in radiation are very thorough. The hyperthermia takes 45 minutes and it’s done through a heat treat that does no pain to it. So there’s no pain to the treatment at all. It just takes time and, of course, if you have the time, it’s very good.  

CDC:                Because I hear from other patients and other people, they say when you go through the standard care of treatment, which usually is chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, after the procedure itself, you don’t feel very well. So, the contrast with hyperthermia, how do you feel as the treatment progressed week by week?  

Patient:            Actually, I had no illness at all; except it does make you a little more tired by the end of the day, but that was, actually, the only thing I ever noticed.  

CDC:                That’s fantastic. You just finished the treatment a week ago, last week.  

Patient:            Yes.  

CDC:                 Do you have any side effects?  

Patient:            No, not at all.  

CDC:                That’s fantastic. You mentioned already that you didn’t’ do any special diet. You were just regular people.  

Patient:            And, actually, we have never done any special diet. We’re kind of traditional people that, this is the first time we’ve done anything different other than the traditional way of doing things.  

CDC:                Do you know if I have any other questions?  

Patient:            Anything I’d like to ask?  

Mrs. S:             One thing is that the side effects from prostate cancer, the treatment that the traditional medicine uses, are, you can be impotent, you can be incontinent, you can have constantly diarrhea for the rest of your life, and who wants to live with that if you don’t’ have to?  Everything is working just great, so we’re really glad, plus it’s gone.  

Patient:            Yeah, we’re very happy.  

CDC:                That’s very interesting. When you, you said at the beginning that the hyperthermia sounds, I don’t remember exactly the word that you used, but very interesting. Did you still have doubts about this kind of treatment or after the research that you did, you saw that it was done in Germany, the resources you had gave you confidence?  

Mrs. S:             When we first came here, we were still a little skeptical, but we figured it doesn’t hurt to try and see what happened. Then when we came here we started talking to people and all the good results people have had, it built up our confidence in it, and then, of course, getting the PSA results through the months, that continued making us say, “Hey, look!  It’s going down!” So that’s really been proven to be the best thing we could have done.  

CDC:                Alright. Do you think you can describe how do you feel physically and emotionally now after the treatment is done, compared to when you were diagnosed?  

Patient:            Well, I’d have to say I was quite upset when I first found out that I had Prostate Cancer. That’s something that I knew a lot of men had gotten after they up in age. I’m 76 now and my father had it. Of course, he never had been treated. Since we have a family of longevity, I thought at 76 that we should do something about this, because I think I’m in good physical health, so I think we should do something about it that would be positive. This fit the bill just fine. At the end of the treatment, I’m very happy. I couldn’t be happier.  

CDC:                All right. Thank you so much for answering these questions. The main reason we are doing that is because some other people will see what you have to say and maybe we can help them.  

Patient:            I hope so.  

CDC:                Thank you so much.