Avodart to avoid SRT(Success/Failure ).

I am on Avodart to avoid/delay SRT. Psa came down to half(0.16 to 0.10)in six months,remained almost static for next six months then started increasing. At present it is 0.15. Should I consider it success or failure?
Who all have gone or are going this way and what are your views on use of Avodart? Please share your experience.

Hello ksk54,

You might refer to my PSA history chart by clicking on the link in my signature.

I had robotic surgery in May, 2011. After that, the only time my PSA was ever truly "undetectable" was six weeks after surgery. My slow PSA progression began three months later when my results came back at .01. I still remember the feeling of my heart falling out of my chest when I read those results.

Thirty months after surgery (Jan 2014), my PSA had progressed to .079 and I was fully prepared to start SRT. I even had the CT Scan, MRI, and tattoo markers put in place. But I was (and am) so scared to death of radiation, I thought I would try one last thing in an attempt to delay SRT as long as possible. Enter Avodart.

Although my urologist didn't think it would have much of an effect on me, three months after starting Avodart, my PSA dropped from .079 to .024, cutting it by 70% and to the lowest recorded value since my "undetectable" reading in July, 2011. My PSA hovered around this low level until a year later when my PSA began to rise again. By October 2015, my PSA had progressed to .06 and I knew that SRT was on the horizon. I decided to stop the Avodart so that I could get all traces of the drug out of my system in preparation for future PSA tests. I wanted true PSA readings that weren't "skewed" by the Avodart.

The Avodart gave me the SRT delay I had hoped for. Prior to the Avodart regimen, my local area was still using older radiation machines. Although my radiation oncologist is probably one of the most experienced and respected physicians in my region, those old machines worried me. Lucky for me, around the same time I was taking the Avodart, a brand new radiation treatment facility was built and it now houses the latest and greatest Liniarc machines available.

This past January, my PSA rose to .070 and I decided to reopen the dialog with my radiation oncologist. I'm now in the process of getting all the insurance approvals out of the way and then my doc is ready to do another MRI in preparation for SRT. I expect to start within a month.

Yes, I know my PSA level is quite low. Although my cancer was down-graded to Gleason 6, my pathology indicated bilateral involvement, EPE, and a positive surgical margin. But I knew from the beginning that with my post-op pathology and subsequent PSA detected a month after surgery that I would need radiation at some point to mop up the remaining cancer.

I figure I'll hit it with radiation now while the cancer is quite small and "theoretically" contained within the prostate bed. I want to maximize my chances of success. So for me, now is the time.

Good luck to you going forward.

Avodart is not likely to be as effective as avodart with ADT.
Bob