When Gary decided to end the immunotherapy pilot study with liver mets and a PSA of 900 in May, 2015, he told the clinician in Portland (Todd's new team) that he wanted to spend as much time as he had left with quality of life just living. It was his Hail Mary and it failed. But he also returned to our local medonc to give some past tx a second go-round.
Docetaxil and xtandi kept him going until February of this year. But with a psa reaching nearly 1500, it looked like he had exhausted his options.
Then the medonc said he wanted to try a very old and no longer used as protocol chemo called mitoxantrone. Bet you haven't even heard of it (except TA of course)
The medonc made out like this was his Hail Mary and none of us had much faith. I didn't even add it to my Sig line. Well it's there now. After 7 cycles Gary's psa has steadily dropped from 1416 in March to 792 today! A steady decrease of 200 points per tx!!!
Two weeks ago his weight had fallen to a low of 113 pounds. Another Hail Mary med, carafate, has helped his vomiting, good weed and constantly putting food in front of him has increased his appetite, and a diuretic, spironolactone, has taken care of the ascites fluid. Today he weighed 120. He gained 7 lbs in two weeks. He is no longer sleeping through the day and is resuming some activity. In October he will turn 58, against all odds and expectations (well, I myself have always expected him to beat the odds).
If I were in Gary's shoes, I'm sure I would have called it quits long ago. He is my hero and my inspiration. Thank you all my HW friends for helping us through this journey. We aren't done yet!!!
Beth for Gary
