If you've had an elevated PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test and want to discuss your options to determine whether this means you have prostate cancer, Dr. Yarnell can help guide you through the maze of testing options. He uses multiple tests beyond just the PSA, as well MRI and special ultrasound screening of the prostate and the Michigan Prostate Score, to help decide whether or not a prostate biopsy makes sense for you. And he offers naturopathic adjunct therapies if a biopsy does seem appropriate to help reduce the risk of adverse effects. Dr. Yarnell can also help refer you to the most open-minded urologists in the Puget Sound area to make your care the most integrative and coordinated possible. If you're trying to decide whether to get screened for prostate cancer in the first place, Dr. Yarnell can help guide you through that process. Rather than it just being a simple process of testing the PSA and doing a biopsy whenever it is high, Dr. Yarnell uses a more nuanced approach that avoids unnecessary biopsies without missing dangerous cancers. And he takes into account your general health and family history, not just the result of one blood test. Please contact our office if you want to find out more.
Low-Grade Prostate Cancer
If you have prostate cancer that is Gleason 3+3 or 3+4 and not very widespread in the prostate, this is considered low-grade disease. Something like 80% of prostate cancer fits this description, and there is a growing movement to stop even calling this cancer. That's because unlike other cancers, this type of disease rarely spreads and is almost never lethal. Patients with this type of prostate "cancer" do very well with naturopathic treatment because they do not need aggressive interventions like surgery and radiation. Perhaps the strongest evidence yet of this reality is the ProtecT trial conducted in the United Kingdom. It randomized 1,643 (!) British men with low-grade prostate cancer to have their prostates removed, get radiation therapy, or do nothing. After 10 years, there was no difference in how many men died from prostate cancer or any other cause between these three groups. Dr. Yarnell goes beyond doing nothing, adding herbal therapies along with nutritional and lifestyle changes to optimize health in patients with low-grade prostate cancer. Having worked with hundreds of patients in this situation, he can help you monitor to make sure your cancer doesn't progress, help you navigate your treatment options, and support your general health in the most holistic yet evidence-based way possible.
High-Grade or Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Dr. Yarnell also works with patients who more aggressive, life-threatening types of prostate cancer. He employs a more thorough approach to staging, using several tests that are largely ignored in mainstream medical practice despite having excellent evidence as to their utility (such as the prostatic acid phosphatase and circulating tumor cell tests). He can work together with you, your family, and your care team to both help decide which conventional therapy is right for you, and provide many adjunct therapies that help reduce side effects and improve outcomes. Please don't wait until you've already had definitive treatment, whether it is prostatectomy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, or anything else. It is much easier to start naturopathic adjunct therapies before these treatments begin to help prevent problems than waiting until complications develop and then trying to fix them. So if you want the doctor who literally wrote the textbook on prostate cancer and naturopathic medicine, with over two decades of experience, call our office and schedule a consultation today with Dr. Eric Yarnell.