I'm not Scott Adams

but I wish him well.

A few days ago, Scott Adams the famous creator of the “Dilbert” cartoon, posted a plea to President Trump to help him persuade the hospital to approve treatment with an experimental medication for his metastatic stage 4 prostate cancer. This produced a response from the president as well as much media coverage. It left me feeling confused.

“Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy also responded on social media: ‘The President wants to help.’

Swiss drugmaker Novartis, which makes Pluvicto, said last month that the drug reduced the risk of progression or death in patients with prostate cancer by 28%. Pluvicto is part of a class of drugs that combines cell-killing radioactive particles with molecules that attach themselves to tumors.”

(https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-will-help-dilbert-creator-scott-adams-obtain-cancer-treatment-2025-11-03/)

Mainstream media was quick to give the story headlines:

And that’s what troubles me. I truly sympathize with Mr. Adams. I have the same diagnosis myself, and I understand how frightening it is to know that one has this incurable form of cancer. I can feel the fear behind his decision to reach out all the way to the president to get a medication that may extend his life.

Up to now, my cancer has responded to hormone blocking therapy in the form of the drug Lupron, which suppresses testosterone. Unlike most cancers, prostate cancer feeds on testosterone. Cutting off the cancer’s fuel supply works to stop growth and even reverses it — as long as the cancer has not metastasized to the point where it can fuel itself otherwise. I take it that this is the case with Scott Adams. He is no longer able to defeat the cancer with the hormone suppressant Lupron. I feel deeply sympathetic to him.

However, the drug Pluvitco is very new, and my examination of the available data indicates it is only marginally helpful while introducing radiation into the body as an attempt to accurately target the cancer cells and kill them. It sounds to me like a desperate choice — one I too might choose to make if I were in Mr. Adams’s place.

So far, I haven’t needed to confront a choice like that, and I hope and pray that I never will. Just because it has happened to him does not mean it is my destiny too. I don’t know anything about Adams’s lifestyle, nutrition habits, general health, alcohol consumption, or past medical history. I should not let his situation frighten me. I am benefitting from the knowledge I have gained from my friends and my wife after reaching out when my diagnosis moved to state 4 over two years ago. My general health is excellent, my bloodwork is superb, and my PSA is still <0.1 — undetectable. But I did fall into a bout of depression when I first read about Mr. Adams this week. That’s in and of itself a problem, one which I hope will benefit from the act of writing this brief essay.

Fear is the enemy. Peace of mind is necessary in order to avoid getting into “fight or flight” mode and having it take over my metabolism. I have learned that stress is very dangerous because it converts normal metabolism into a state where energy is diverted to the brain and the limbs and muscles as if preparing to fight a wild animal. I learned this two years ago, and I am determined to avoid it as part of my personal therapy, just as I faithfully take my vitamins and supplements.

I told you over a year ago that I am a guinea pig for defeating cancer with good health practices. If I do all the things I am committed to doing, I believe I can defeat this cancer. My few hours of depression passed as I talked through it with Marcia, my beloved wife. We are doing fine. I have suspicions about all the publicity Mr. Adams has generated for Novartis and its latest wonder drug. I prefer to believe our bodies are capable of healing themselves if given a chance, and my goal is to give mine all the chances I can find right now before I get to that desperate situation that Scott Adams is facing.

Thank you all for being there for me.

John