The second chemotherapy session is coming to an end, and if all of them are like this one, I can move with confidence. Over the last two weeks, I felt like a normal person. I worked, I ate and I played with the kids much as I used to do. I didn’t feel limited in any way. The side effects were extremely mild. I forgot to take the anti-nausea capsule (I’m not good with drugs.) on the second day and didn’t suffer for it. On the third day, I left it out on purpose. During the second week, I experienced a slight discomfort when urinating and an increased urge to do so even when my bladder was largely empty. This woke me up a few times at night and kept me close to the loo during the day, but it’s something I can live with.
Over the last two weeks, I’ve ridden my trainer according to plan. Easy thirty-minute rides on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night, and a longer ride on Saturday morning. The visuals and interactivity of FulGaz kept my boredom at bay. I’ve discovered a few rides that work for me in terms of length and difficulty, and I ride them in turn. My heart rate stays between 130 and 135 and my performance at 140 W or so. It’s under control, moderate, just right to help with chemotherapy.
What won’t help with chemotherapy is polysaccharide K (PSK). I introduced this substance a couple of posts ago when I explored obscure therapies. I have now read the two papers a friend had sent me. This wasn’t altogether easy. I have no background in clinical research and don’t understand the jargon. But with some focus and advanced Google-fu, I figured it out.
The first paper, a metastudy of available clinical trials (three, with 1094 patients), showed that PSK is beneficial to patients whose colon cancer had been removed surgically. This is a clear statement that is of no immediate consequence to me. PSK is used clinically in Japan but not available in Switzerland (or other European countries, I think). This might call for a buyers’ club, but three caveats remain.
First, I am not Japanese and might thus not react to the drug in the way the Japanese do. Second, the chemotherapy regime that PSK has been shown to boost is different from what I am treated with. In Japan, they use oral fluorinated pyrimidines. I get, intravenously, oxaliplatin, calcium folinate and the antibody Avastin in addition to fluorouracil. Third, were the clinical trials controlled for exercise?
Whether it makes sense to add PSK to my chemotherapy regime depends on what it does. Not too much is known. Worse yet, for a biochemist like me, no one knows exactly what PSK is. The polysaccharide is bound to protein but no one knows which. The second paper reviews research that shows PSK to be immunostimulatory and that it boosts a particular kind of immune cells (T helper cell type 1) over another (T helper cell type 2). This is apparently required for an effective response to cancer. With my poor background in immunology, I can’t really judge this. I didn’t even know there were two types of T helper cells.
I will discuss this with my doctor again, tomorrow when the third chemo session starts, but what’s really to be gained? As PSK is not a drug in Switzerland, the only way of procuring it would be by flying to Japan (which I’d love to do again) and getting a prescription there. But what do I know how the Japanese health system works? Powdered extracts and ground-up mushrooms, which are available in Switzerland, sound it bit dodgy to me. What do I get, and how much do I take? For now, I’ll stick with chemo and exercise.
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