Chemotherapy and Salvestrols

I am really interested in following this discussion.  My dad is a prostate cancer patient, so I'm interested in your story.  I have been researching a lot of these up-coming drugs, and according to a pharma strategy blog, I have been reading TAK 700 has a similar mechanism of action to Abiraterone, but may allegedly be superior...  although the jury may not be out on that one yet (as far as the trials are concerned).

My dad was on a trial for MDV3100 which didn't work for him but he may have been on the placebo arm, or his PCa is hormone refractory and not receptive to the drug...  It's worth considering whether there is a placebo arm or not when entering a trial as that is the risk that you are taking on.  Also it's worth considering about how your oncologist is and whether they will pull you from the trial if it's not working for you.  They are not supposed to, but you probably have an idea of how much your oncologist has your back...
I have a question.  My dad is on taxotere right now, has just completed 3 cycles.  First diagnosed 1998, RP 1999, remission until late 2008, radiotherapy 2009, androgen blockade 2010, MDV3100 trial 2011, docetaxel 2012.  How much damage does docetaxel/taxotere really do?  I understood it was one of the more "gentle" chemos, and certainly the dosage for mCRPC is 25% lower than for metastatic advanced breast cancer (75mg/m2 vs 100mg/m2).  Is there anything he can do to help deal with the liver damage.  I believe all his tests are coming back ok.  Someone recommended milk thistle.  Any thoughts on this?
 Also, I would like to encourage him to take salvestrols. Could you provide a link & recommendation for purchase? His PSA pre-chemo was 17, post chemo 9 and then 10, so I am not sure how effective it is so I think we need to start looking at alternatives.  I would appreciate any advice really.  He is pretty hard to persuade and usually only responds to things that have demonstrated scientific effectiveness to randomised blinded testing.  He was an engineer/trained as a physicist and is extremely cynical and untrusting, so persuading him is hard.  And he doesn't really subscribe to big-pharma conspiracy theory...
One last question, any thoughts on the issue of refined sugar consumption feeding tumour growth, and fructose (or HFCS) related liver damage, and whether these are significant concerns/factors for a PCa patient?
Any help and advice much appreciated
Best wishes
Hannah

Is it safe to combine salvestrols with chemotherapy

Answer:
Docetaxel is a classic cytotoxic chemotherapy agent that is toxic to normal cells as well as the cancer cellls. It is therefore toxic to other normal cells such as liver cells and consequently is hepatotoxic. Milk thistle can help with the liver and does itself contain salvestrols.

TAK-700 (Orteronel) is similar to Zytiga (Abiraterone) because it works by inhibiting the enzyme CYP17. However it is a weaker inhibitor than Zytiga and there is an important difference between them in that Zytiga is an irreversible inhibitor whilst the inhibition with TAK-700 is reversible. This means that clinically Zytiga is much more efficient at inhibiting the CYP17 enzyme and causes total androgen blockade which TAK-700 is not able to do. So TAK-700 is a weaker partial inhibitor of CYP17 compared to Zytiga which is a potent and irreversible inhibitor.

Salvestrols can safely be taken alongside hormonal therapy agents such as Zytiga and TAK-700. The recomended dose here is 6000 points per day.

Salvestrols can also be safely taken alongside other medications such as chemotherapy. There are clinical results from China which show that Salvestrol Q40 reduces the side effects from taxotere chemotherapy and increases the anticancer effects.

On the days receiving chemotherapy the recommended dose is 2000 points. In the recovery period the dose can be increased to 6000 points daily for maximum effect.