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Posted 8/31/2014 8:36 AM (GMT 0)
I have been using HT, first Lupron and casodex for one year then Lupron and Zytiga for a year up to now and my psa has gone from 34 to 0.7 currently, my question is how long will HT work for me?
( I ask this knowing everyone is different and nobody knows )
I had robotic surgery and had the cancer spread to lymph nodes.
I am 56 years old and want to continue working as long as I can.
I have been told my cancer is aggressive .
how many survivors do we have here that have more than ten years of success with HT?
and when HT fails I was told that intravenous chemo was next, I fear this is coming within two years
and when this happens it is pretty much the end of life for me, I don't think I can continue working once I hit intravenous chemotherapy, and at that point I might as well hang it up.
I know nobody knows, but still I ask because I have to talk about it.

thanks
jack
Posted 8/31/2014 8:56 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Jack, we have the same Gleason score, and I have to ask how come no SRT was initiated after your op?
My PSA is climbing 6 months after op to now @ .08 or .09
At 4+3 it's supposed to be intermediate but I guess we find it a lot different.
Go well!
Posted 8/31/2014 11:54 AM (GMT 0)
I think it was JerryL who posted this a while back

From a book written in 2007 and much technology improvements since then,

Average Time to Hormone Therapy Failure
(Point in time when half the patients have developed advancing disease)

Widespread mets & symptoms:  8-9 months

Widespread mets, no symptoms:  18 months

Bone mets, pelvis, lower spine: 4-5 years

Lymph node mets, prostate in place: 7-8 years

Lymph node mets, prostate removed:  50-95% @ 10 years (depends on # of lymph nodes involved)

As you indicated, only an average and no two prostate cancers are identical.

LupronJim
Posted 8/31/2014 12:39 PM (GMT 0)
Jack,

Just as a comparison -

I was G4+4 in 7/12 cores, G4+3 in 2/12, clear in 3/12.
PSA 7
Free PSA 7
DaVinci surgery. EPE and positive margins. G 4+5.
Adjuvant IGRT with Calypso.
post op PSA <0.1

My "prediction" by several recognized oncologists was 3-5 years.
In Sept 2011 my PSA was up to 5, so I did a 6-month shot of Lupron.
Back down to PSA < 0.1
By June of this year, I was again up to 6, so have done another 6-month Lupron. I'll know better in late Sept. this year how things are going.
I currently have identifiable bone mets in 4 vertebrae and 5 ribs, although they are reduced after the first round of Lupron.

If I kick off before October 23, I will have beaten the 3 year prognosis, but lost on the 5.

Honestly, unless I get hit by a truck, 5 looks doable. I have no expectation to make 10.

I am still working, and expect to have to continue for the present time to keep my insurance. I have had to change jobs within the same company/group because of the impact of incontinence and colo-rectal damage from the RT on my ability to travel.
Posted 8/31/2014 6:29 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Jack
I also am wondering why SRT wasn't initiated along with ADT? Either immediately post RP or when PSA got to .2 twice in a row?
Bob
Posted 9/1/2014 2:07 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Jaxon,
I'm a g-9 and have made it almost 8 years before the ADT failed . Now I couldn't have an RP but still those are good numbers to think about . I'll bee getting a new clinical trial next week . . . Q
Posted 9/4/2014 1:17 PM (GMT 0)
Reason I did not do SRT, salvage radiation, is because after meeting with the Rad Onc. he did not seem very positive, stating that " we don't know where the cancer is exactly" also after hearing the stories of men who have had the radiation treatments I learned that it is no walk in the park either.
so I figured it best to stay where I am and keep what I have.
this kind of makes me mad when I look back at my diagnosis and the way the doctors sold me on surgery was that "you should do surgery because you will have radiation as a backup plan if surgery fails, and if you do radiation first then you cant do surgery" so after my surgery fails then they tell me "no I don't think radiation is a good option for you because we cant tell where the cancer is, and the side effects of radiation are pretty bad"

that is why I did not have SRT

thanks
jack












thanks
jack
Posted 9/10/2014 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
Jack,
That was the same response I got from my RO.
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