@stage4lovolmetpc Hi there. I appreciate your input and perspective, thank you 🙂

I believe you are referencing the book "Fight Cancer Like A Man" by Dr. Stephen Petteruti. I think I paid $24-$25, somewhere in that range, but I just pulled it up on Amazon (which is where I purchased it) and the paperback is currently $19.99 and the Kindle version is $8.99. I highly recommend that book, if, for nothing else, to provide food for thought. His YouTube channel, Intellectual Medicine, is full of interesting video content. I do not know this Dr., nor have any affiliation with him, so absolutely no conflict of interest in recommending his work. He has an entire chapter on Repurposed Drug Therapy.

I want to be careful about copyright infringement, and, therefore, don't feel it's appropriate to reproduce his work in this forum. I did, however, provide a list of his repurposed drug list in another post, which I maybe shouldn't have done, but I did, so there's that.

That being said, I will, in the spirit of information sharing and discourse, mention one drug that he included in his book. It is Atorvastatin, which is customarily used for heart disease treatment and prevention. The info I will now provide is from the book, not from me personally.

He says, and I am summarizing here, one way statin drugs can help patients with prostate cancer is by blocking the mevalonate pathway. The mevalonate pathway produces sterols and isoprene, which are essential for tumor growth and progression. Cholesterol can also contribute to cancel cell proliferation by stimulating mTOR and other pathways that help promote cancer. Cancer cells have a higher cholesterol requirement than normal cells, and they divide faster than normal cells; therefore, they are more cholesterol dependent. Another possible way that statin drugs can help to prevent cancer progression is by supporting a process called ferroptosis.

A retrospective study published in Research and Reports in Urology in 2020 of 875 men who had already had a radical prostatectomy showed a 40% reduction in the risk of a biochemical recurrence.

Another possible mechanism of action is their ability to shut down mutated p53 proteins, which can accelerate cancer. Mutated forms of p53 have been found in nearly every type of human cancer.

He states in his practice, he is a functional medicine physician with over 30 years of experience, he rarely uses statins for their original purpose... heart disease treatment and prevention. He says there are some concerns that statins can lead to an increased risk of diabetes or potentially damage tendon and muscle connections, but, since they combine it with Metformin, the diabetes risk is diminished, and one must do a risk/benefit analysis with respect to the potential tendon and muscle damage. He lists possible side effects for all of the repurposed drugs he discusses in the book.

So, that information makes me curious to learn more. And what's fascinating about the universe in which we reside are the synchronicities that occur for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Cholesterol and cancer came up three different times, in three different ways, over a three day time period. The first was with his PCP who said his cholesterol is fine (even though his LDL is 111), because the overall ratio is fine. The second, unintended, was coming across a video on the Intellectual Medicine YouTube channel that covered this subject. The third was a newsletter from the leader of a prostate cancer support group that said he read an article about doctors specializing in urology and cardiology, and, while being experts in their fields, they don't realize how much the tests one orders (lipid panel or CRP for a cardiologist & PSA for a urologist) can show problems in the others' line of work. He states "prostate cancer cells over express LDL receptors to absorb cholesterol for growth fuel and to synthesize androgens inside the prostate tumor". He continues, "After a prostatectomy, higher HDL can be linked to lower risk of cancer recurrence. CRP - the inflammation marker your cardiologist watches closely has been linked to shorter survival in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients. The same things that damage arteries are often the same ones feeding prostate cancer".

So, based on all of the above, am I going to research this? You bet I am.

One other note for now. I learned from a Nurse Practitioner in the Palliative Care space that American Ginseng, 2,000 mg by mouth daily, can help with cancer-related fatigue. It can take up to 8 weeks to work. Were you aware of this? This is based on studies by the Mayo Clinic. The only caveat she expressed is a 1% increase in potential bleeding risk for individuals on prescription blood thinners, such as Eliquis. As with anything, people should research this for themselves, and consult with their doctor/pharmacist before incorporating into their health regimen.

Pretty much everyone I know is fatigued, regardless of whether they've had a cancer diagnosis or not, so why isn't this common knowledge? Can you imagine if all the synthetic "energy boosters" could be replaced with a God-given plant root for the majority of people? I'd say that would be a little bit of heaven on earth!

Tomorrow I'll respond to the questions you posed in your post. I kind of went off on a tangent here, 😉