HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Hepcidin Test for PC

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/31/2017 4:01 AM (GMT 0)
I know I have been MIA for a while. Been having my own health issues and the constant worry/research about PC threw me into a place mentally that I had to get out of so I mostly stayed away from anything PC related. Quick update. Bob's PSA is up to .18 (waiting on newest test now) he is almost 2 1/2 years post op. His PSA has been on a slow rise since surgery. He refuses radiation. During today's visit I asked doctor bottom line, he's not going to do radiation so what do we need to do right now? He said "Let's run a hepcidin test" (now he's already had prolaris and I know it's like comparing apples and oranges but just want to throw this out there). I had never even heard of a hepcidin test. Not here, no other forums, no where. Doc said if the test comes back positive it means it's more probable to metastasize, if it's negative it means less aggressive and more likely to stay localized. I've already questioned Tony about this and he hasn't ever heard of this. Has anyone's doc ever done this? There is very little I can find on the internet about it. This is quoted from an article I found on it:
"Results: Serum GDF15 levels were higher in metastatic castration-resistant PCa patients with rapid disease progression than in metastatic PCa patients with slow disease progression. There was a trend to higher serum hepcidin - but not IL-6 - serum levels in patients with rapid disease progression than in slow disease progression. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) correlated with serum GDF15 and hepcidin levels. Serum GDF15 levels correlated with serum hepcidin levels. The height of serum GDF15 and hepcidin levels correlated with survival of patients in months. Increase of 25 ng/ml serum hepcidin predicted an increase in mortality by 10%.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the current manuscript supports the use of serum GDF15 and serum hepcidin measurements as prognostic markers in PCa.
Anyone have any thoughts or input?
Posted 5/31/2017 4:34 AM (GMT 0)
Hey Miki,
Welcome back!! Not something I've ever heard of. This might be ground-breaking stuff or a waste of time and money. Does your insurance cover the test? Is it expensive?
If Tony hasn't heard of it, hmmm. I would be interested in what TA has to say. Takes something waay off the beaten path to stump him.
My very best to you and Bob. I hope your own health issues have been resolved, or will be so .
Beth
Posted 5/31/2017 4:53 AM (GMT 0)
It's a new one to me. I think I found the same references to it as you did. It's an interesting theory, but I don't think it's use is that common at the moment.

Andrew
Posted 5/31/2017 7:36 AM (GMT 0)
New to me- there are a lot of biomarkers associated with metastases. I guess this is a relatively inexpensive one, which is a good quality to have. The one that's FDA-approved for men in his situation is Decipher (and they're now including a PORTOS score) but it is quite expensive (around $4,000).

But my question is this: what's the difference? If he doesn't want SRT no matter what, what would he do differently if the test came out one way or another? More tests will just raise anxiety.
Posted 5/31/2017 12:57 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with TA. Why bother if you already know that radiation is off the table.

Regarding further treatments, have you assessed ADT for the future? As a man who has had both radiation and ADT, radiation and its side effects were a walk in the park compared to ADT. I would take the effects of radiation many times over before using ADT. If he doesn't want radiation why would he subject himself to ADT? Or chemo, or any other proven treatments that often have more significant side effects than radiation.
Posted 5/31/2017 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
Why is radiation off the table?? Of all my treatments and procedures, radiation was the least intrusive and problematic..Compared to surgery and ADT, radiation is a walk in the park.....
Posted 6/1/2017 5:00 AM (GMT 0)
Quick update because it's been a horrible day. PSA went from .18 to .26 in three months. Doctor wants to do scans and start radiation. The Hepcidin test came back negative (which is good) so probably left over cells in the prostate bed due to the positive margin. Up to this point Bob's been rejecting the SRT because of a history w/ ulcerative colitis which we've discussed in another thread of mine. Because of the large jump I'm assuming the hepcidin test must not be a very good tool to determine aggressiveness because of the PSA jump. Hoping something I've said in this post makes sense because I'm still in hysterics over this latest test.
Posted 6/1/2017 5:33 AM (GMT 0)
Please pass on to Bob that radiation has gotten a lot more precise over the years and therefore, a lot less toxic. You have to consider what today's fast IMRT machines can do.

Looking at recent studies, this one found that only men who were currently taking medication for IBD had any exacerbation of symptoms. For the rest of them, bowel toxicity was very low:

www.practicalradonc.org/article/S1879-8500(14)00247-1/fulltext

And in this small study, they also found that late term rectal toxicity among men with IBD who received RT was very low. None suffered severe toxicity. And the only men who had anything more than mild symptoms were those who had an older kind of radiotherapy called 3D-CRT. Those who had modern IMRT had nothing more than mild symptoms.

meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/119630/abstract

Now, this means the RO has to plan carefully: no margin on the rectal side, discuss using a rectal balloon, very tight rectal dose constraints, and absolutely radiation must be cancelled on any days during which his bowels are distended. And he should be treated on a very fast VMAT linac. BTW - this is one time when visceral fat can be a blessing. But with proper care and a little help from anatomy, Bob can do well with SRT.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply