Posted 4/27/2011 12:08 AM (GMT 0)
I will try and post an accurate chronology of all of my history along with psa readings. I have some notes to coalate before I can do it.
Regarding your Taxotere question. -
In Jan of 2010, I was coming off ketonconizole (which didnt help at all psa -wise) and I had a psa of 197. One month later, my next psa was 856. The same day i received the 856 result, I started Taxotere (Feb of 2010). A "cycle" of Taxotere is 3 weeks. So, two cycles = 6 weeks. When I went in for my onco consult and Taxotere infusion for the second cycle, my psa was 1430! The docs said this could happen. By the start of the third cycle it was down to 800ish again, and continued to drop all the way to 173 by the 7th cycle. I then took a "vacation" from the Taxotere for a couple of months, and did a trial where i self injected GMCSF every day in order to boost my immune system. My psa started to rise again and i abandoned the GMCSF trial and restarted Taxotere in August 2010 with a PSA of 650. The Taxotere dropped the psa back down to 325 before starting to rise again. Continued rise in PSA made it apparent that I had become resistant to Taxotere. I stopped Taxotere in Feb 11 with a psa around 600. My total number of Taxotere cycles was 14, or 42 weeks worth.
Side effects are cumulative. I had hardly any problems at first. My head hair thinned but did not all fall out. I have real good hair, though. My facial hair went, eye brows, mustache. I think Lupron did for the rest of my body hair even before chemo. Not much nausea with Taxotere. Fatigue started to become a problem towards the end of my run with Taxotere. Fatigue would set in on day 2 and last till about day 10. I was able to keep up activities during the 2010 portion of the Taxotere run, such as coaching softball and reffing soccer. Now, I am no longer able to do those activities due to increased bone mets and fatigue.
One thing to note is that the Taxotere dose prescribed for prostate cancer is lower than for other cancers it is used for, such as Breast or Ovarian. That is why (I think) most breast cancer patients lose their hair, while prostate cancer Taxotere patients do not necessarily lose their hair. I’m not sure why there is a reduced dosage of Taxotere for prostate cancer, but I heard a rumor it may be because most pCA Tax patients are older men, and maybe not as strong and so are given less of a dose.
So far Jevtana has more pronounced side effects with fatigue and nausea, but has not had an effect on my hair, as my eyebrows and mustache are coming back in.
Regards to All -