Sad news, but I think he declined treatment very early on

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has died from prostate cancer. He chose alternative treatments including the anti-parasitic medications ivermectin and fenbendazole, which did not work for him and have no evidence they can be used to treat cancer. It's your life and you can make your own choices. His were costly.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

There was a time, before he took a strange lurch in his views and public statements, that I very much enjoyed his comics and their witty commentary on office politics.

I had the same cancer progression as the article reports for him: prostate cancer that metastasized rapidly to my bones, compressed my spine, and left me paralyzed from the ribs down with much reduced sensation. Things turned out differently for me only thanks to aggressive early intervention and a good share of plain dumb luck.

What are your sources?

I was diagnosed at PSA 28 due to my own ignorance. I’ve assumed Scott was in the same boat.

It matters to me because I’m disappointed that he didn’t share what wrong choices and bad decisions he made. I don’t mean I wished for a struggle session. I wishes for Scott to use his audience and remaining time to raise awareness of how a wealthy, intelligent man can die from a preventable disease.

I’ve never found any discussion by Scott of his journey - meaning, again, how did it get so advanced? So if you’ve heard details please share the source.

It won’t help me. I know how I let it get so far. I’d like to understand how Scott’s got so far. No man should die if this disease but if wealthy guys like Scott Adams & Ryne Sandberg are dying then PC prevention messaging is inadequate.

@kenshabby I agree it would be nice to know some details of Scott Adams and Ryne Sandbergs situations. It would help many men by raising awareness. However, in my situation, I had my psa tested every year since 2016, but all of the sudden in Jan 2025 it had gone to 4.3 from 1.0 and I now have Gleason 9 IDPC. I think sometimes men get crazy aggressive PCa and you can’t always blame the man for not getting screened. I wish I would have been getting tested every 3 months but im not sure anyone does that prior to a cancer diagnosis.

We may never get the full picture of his treatment choices, lifestyle or anything else, all that we know for certain is that a member of our club had a very bad case of prostate cancer that took him. I believe that compassion has no gray areas and be it this man or any other, anyone who suffers from this disease or dies from this disease takes a little but of us with him because with those things we realize that none of us are truly out of the woods or safe from prostate cancers grip. I'll never say about anyone in these circumstances "this is sad new but..." because there is no but, it's sad news.

@survivor5280 yes..but what I meant was that I had read he did not want to be treated traditionally and lost several yrs which -if he had been treated with ADT, radiation, etc- the outcome may have been different. I also wondered about Ryne Sandburg and several other more or less famous men who passed away from PC. At theend of the day, we are all human and brothers, whether we like each other or share political belief or other sympatico...I abhor cancer deaths of any kind..but I do like to know particulars of PC deaths..just to know more of the details as to why they died..( in Scott's case, I think he did commit to anti-parasitic medications, ivermectin and fenbendazole early on, which obviously did not suppress his PC at all )

I was diagnosed with early stage Gleason score 6 prostate cancer in November of 2018 at the Mayo Clinic as part of a general medical exam which I primarily asked for to have diagnosed complex neurological symptoms I was experiencing after a series of injuries and bad, even abusive medical care which led to a severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome which resulted is those symptoms which the doctors at Mayo Clinic refused to verify just as the medical doctors who caused the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome caused were refusing to admit what they did to me. The Mayo Clinic is useless, who can trust them? To explain what am saying involves a more comprehensive explanation, but, I know I do not trust the Mayo Clinic. I am still suffering from severe nerve and muscle issues that the Mayo Clinic refuses to examine and diagnose, because they are not really the place they claim to be saying that you should go to be seen there when no one else is doing anything for you. I had a so called cancer care team after the diagnosis of stage 1 Gleason 6 prostate cancer and can't even get a message through to the doctor that said he would be available to message on the patient portal when I finally got back in for a followup PSA and MRI in 2024. At that only followup appointment in 2024 they found my PSA had gone up to 14.7 and the MRI showed the spot in the prostate had also lit up more. They said they wanted to do another biopsy, but, since they already did one and found cancer in November of 2018 I didn't want them to spread it with another biopsy and I also did not want to pee blood for another week and a half like the first time I had one, so I asked for a PET Scan to see if it had spread outside of the prostate throughout my body in after the 5 years since they last saw me. They refused to do a PET Scan, but, the doctor in my "Cancer Care Team" said I could message him on the patient portal, I told him I hadn't been able to do so since 2019, he said he would fix that, I haven't been able to message him since, so, I know the Mayo Clinic does not care. In the fall of 2025 I got a referral to Mayo Clinic for a general medical exam for the ongoing nerve and muscle symptoms, and other issues, which included followup on the prostate cancer. I got this reply in an email regarding my request to be seen at Mayo Clinic: Consultative Medicine Clinic
To: You
We appreciate the confidence you have expressed in Mayo Clinic and thank you for your recent request.
The Division of General Internal Medicine, Minnesota has received your information. Unfortunately, demand for our health care services exceeds our capacity. We have thoroughly reviewed your provided materials to determine if we can add further value or treatment options to your care. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you an appointment at this time. Please know decisions like this are not easy, Mayo Clinic strives to provide the best care possible to all of those in need.

My reply to them which I don't think even went through was this:
To: Consultative Medicine Clinic
You say you appreciate the confidence I have expressed in Mayo Clinic, but obviously such confidence would be misplaced, I really did not expect that you would do anything of benefit to me, I just thought I had to prove it by getting a referral to make it clear that you are totally useless and that to have any confidence in the Mayo Clinic is misplaced confidence, I believe I have proven that the Mayo Clinic is a useless medical entity. I will cure myself and advocate that everyone else should do the same. I know you are completely and utterly useless.

Not having a second biopsy was not a good idea. A 3+3 is not considered cancer by many doctors. It should not be treated, for example. Since your PSA has gone up so much a biopsy really needs to be done to figure out where you are at. Even then, a biopsy might not be enough, Frequently people have a 3+4 or 4+3 and after a prostatectomy they find out they are a Gleason nine. They can only biopsy one percent of your prostate when they do it, so there are a lot of chances to miss hotspots. They also don’t always show up in the MRI.

If you are so down on Mayo it’s time to hit another center of excellence and get a biopsy done. With a higher Gleason score it is likely you have cancer, You don’t wanna leave it alone and let it get more aggressive.

I didn’t go to the Mayo clinic. I am in a different medical system.. I know many people that have gone to both Mayo and other places, and the results are very reliable in both cases.

You’re refusing to have a second biopsy made it very difficult to work with you. That can really frustrate a doctor, They are only people and want to try to help. There was no way to know Whether your cancer had spread, and if so, how much. Find another center of excellence and get yourself tested.

@rm61, there is a lot to unpack in your message. If you have complaints about the care your received at Mayo Clinic for prostate cancer, I encourage you to contact the Office of Patient Experience. Here's how:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/about-mayo-clinic/patient-experience
Phone: 844-544-0036
Email: opx@mayo.edu

They can also help with issues related to the patient portal.

It sounds like your PCP made a physician referral to the General Internal Medicine department. As the letter stated, this department receives more requests for appointments than slots available. I'm sorry that you were unable to get an appointment at this time.

I agree with @jeffmarc that you might consider another center of excellence and urge you to consider the testing required to monitor your health.

@rm61
That is really unfortunate on so many levels and I am advising you to look for help in another center ASAP. Even if they offer you all that you require it is obvious that you lost confidence in your team and that can only be source of great anxiety going forward.

Please go to anther Cancer Center of Excellence ASAP and try to follow doctor's advice regarding steps that need to happen for proper staging and diagnosis. Scans can check for spread and they will be done, but correct gleason evaluation is externally important for decision making regarding treatments that will be implemented. Also, you need to know your Decipher score that is done on biopsy samples to evaluate aggressiveness of your cancer. And no, biopsy does not disseminate cancer.

I hope I understood wrongly your statement that "you will cure yourself" - I hope you do not mean just using some alternative treatments ? : (((

Wishing you all the best and do not give up - just find medical team that is available and willing to work with you .