Would you stop ADT

Would you stop ADT? At 63 the Urologist said surgery was not an option. He sent me to a Radiologist Oncologist who told me to come back when in pain. They sent me for a 2nd opinion to a Chemo Oncologist at Denver University who told me I would have 10 years if lucky though what ever time I had left would improve by 18 months is I had Chemo within a year of HT. Sadly I went back to Urologist who put me on Lupron palliative care. Yes my PSA went down from 43 to 1.4 but SE took the man out of me. Waited for a year went to MD Anderson in Houston. The doctor at MD stated if only using the blood test, CT, MRI, and bone scan done at MD that I did not have cancer. Though reading the earlier DX from Colorado suggested otherwise. He further stated that the Lupron did shrink the tumors. In addition after reading the bone scan T-11 he said was non specific for possibility of metastases and CT scan showed no measurable prostatic mass and no evidence for metastatic disease along with MRI bone metastasis none appreciated. But he said by the test in Colorado you have Cancer. They Offered IMRT for 10 weeks in Houston. I could not afford it physically, emotionally , financially so I opted to get 45 days locally of IMRT for local control. Physically I have no problems with the RT and still continue to work a 40 hour week PSA now .23 ///// Just hard to decide on ADT 4th shot in June. Thanks Joe

It is .23 on3/16/16

Thanks that is about what I had in mind after the June shot in 6 month will be 65 on medicare and other supplemental. The Doctor now using are very reluctant to say try.

flywithme,

I think the medical oncologist at Denver University gave you some good advice, and it's not too late to take him up on it. Perhaps you won't get the full 18 extra months (that's just an average anyway), but perhaps you can redeem a lot of that if you act quickly.

Perhaps you may be misinterpreting what the MD Anderson doctor was saying, or maybe I was confused... The Lupron shots shrink the metastases, but they do not eliminate the cancer entirely. I think that what he's telling you is that the Lupron has been effective at doing what it is supposed to accomplish. The fact that the mets were visible on the earlier bone scan and CT but are no longer detectable is evidence that they were in fact metastases. Lesions that show up on the bone scan/CT that disappear after ADT is proof that they were metastases. They are not gone, but they are greatly reduced - which is great news in itself! So is your excellent PSA response. If you want to add on to that success, chemo may be your best option.

If you decide against Taxotere therapy, you can discuss with your oncologist going on intermittent ADT instead of continuous ADT.

- Allen