Posted 3/31/2016 11:40 PM (GMT 0)
Dear Susie,
We're pleased to welcome you from Scotland ! We've got members here from every corner of the globe. You have already received many messages, filled with advice, expertise, personal experiences, and support.
The support, care, and concern you are showing right now for your father is very evident in your posts. He needs you right now, and it's wonderful that you are right there for him, supporting him every step of the way. It's a lot to deal with when you first get diagnosed --- getting used to new medical regimens, meeting new doctors, going through comprehensive tests and scans, making decisions, becoming educated about prostate cancer, and then beginning new treatments.
I'm thankful to hear that your father has already gotten started on his treatments. His PSA is beginning to respond to the ADT hormone therapy injections --- that's a positive first step. As the weeks go on, your father will hopefully see his PSA levels decrease over time. Since he's newly diagnosed, the ADT shots are just getting started --- these shots essentially begin to "starve" certain cancer cells that are responsive to hormone deprivation. This is why you are seeing the decline in his PSA levels at this time.
As your post reveals, your father's case has some complexities. There are quite a few of us here who have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. We're here to share our experiences, offer a bit of advice if needed, answer any questions that we can ... but most of all ... to lend our care, concern, and SUPPORT to you and your father as he begins to seek treatments.
When I was diagnosed, the prostate cancer had already spread into both of my lungs. I had been healthy my entire life. My doctors started me immediately on ADT hormone shots, and my PSA began to decrease. Realizing that I needed to take an aggressive approach, I then started chemotherapy treatments. With your father's situation, it would be important to pursue chemo treatments, if at all possible, based on the concerns you shared about his liver. I hope that his condition stabilizes soon, so that chemo treatments can be implemented, as his doctors had hoped.
For advanced cases like ours, it's important to understand that the ADT hormone shots COMBINED with the chemotherapy infusions attack the cancer cells in two DIFFERENT ways. The chemo treatments attack the resistant cancer cells that the ADT hormone shots don't impact. I have other friends who also have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, and they have also pursued chemo treatments while still receiving the ADT hormone shots, just as I have done. To give your father a visual description, you can tell him that it's like loading up a double-barreled shotgun --- and "shooting" at the cancer in two ways, instead of just one way. Like me, your father is going to need to pursue aggressive treatments to begin treating his cancer in the most effective way possible.
You are showing that you have tremendous loyalty to your father. It takes bravery and courage and strength to begin treatments, and I know that you will be there for him. Assemble the best team of doctors that you can for your father's case. In your father's case, it would be important to have a medical oncologist on the case. There are also specialized "urology oncologists" at larger hospitals, who specialize in prostate cancer, who can also share their expertise and wise counsel. All of us deserve the best doctors and medical care we can find, and I wish the very same for your father, as well !
There are newer breakthrough medications such as XTANDI and ZYTIGA, which may also come into play in your father's treatment plan in the future. These medications have emerged in very recent years and have already helped thousands of prostate cancer patients around the globe. We have members here who have been dealing with advanced cases and have been helped by XTANDI and ZYTIGA. After I finished up my chemotherapy infusions, then I went on ZYTIGA, which has continued to help control the cancer and suppress the PSA level to the greatest extent possible. You can see that in my case, that a combination of ADT hormone shots, followed by chemo infusions, and then taking the prescription medication ZYTIGA have all been used consecutively to attack my cancer in an aggressive, proactive way.
In addition to the PSA lab levels that you are monitoring, PLEASE ask your doctor to continue monitoring the testosterone level. You want the testosterone level to drop to a VERY low level, to help control the cancer to the fullest extent possible. In my case, my oncologist began noticing some upward "flares and spikes" in my testosterone levels, which resulted in upward spikes in my PSA levels. Realizing this was a concern, we tried different forms of ADT shots over time, until we found a form of ADT shot that brought the testosterone down to the lowest level possible.
In my case, as it would be in your father's case, it's important to form close bonds with your father's doctors and medical team. You will be consulting with them frequently, discussing options, making decisions, & mapping out treatment choices. I meet with my primary oncologist faithfully every month, so that we can closely monitor my case. When you meet with your father's doctors, provide honest answers --- ask lots of questions --- seek their opinions --- and form a close and trusted connection with them. Great doctors become LIFELINES in all of this !
We all have to become warriors in all of this --- warriors surveying a vast battlefield that lies before us, as far as the eyes can see --- armed with information, courage, determination, & resilience. Over time, for myself and other friends of mine engaged in this battle alongside me --- I have learned that the most VALUABLE weapon that you should keep with you on this battlefield is HOPE. There is no substitute for HOPE ... its value in this battle is priceless and beyond measure ...
Most of all, Susie --- it's important for me to say that in all of this, for your father's sake --- it's essential to stay in close contact with family, friends, and faith, in whatever form that may take for your father --- it's important that your father stay involved with his usual activities, hobbies, interests, social events, and pastimes --- to the fullest extent possible. Dealing with prostate cancer treatments can take an emotional and physical toll at times --- so LIVING LIFE each day, and staying connected with the world will help your father's well-being immensely.
I'm thinking of you and your father right now as I write this, Susie. Please keep in touch with us here, and let your father know he has our collective thoughts and well wishes supporting him right now, as his treatments continue. We're all sending you our support from different corners of the globe ... and we're standing alongside you and your father right now. That's the powerful impact of this website, as evidenced by all the messages you have received !
Thoughts and prayers ~ to you and your father ~ from across the miles to Scotland ~
"Cyclone Team Fan" From Iowa State University