ADT and SRT Journey

Reachout - Tall Allen has many reports out that he has written concerning ADT I don't know if you have had a chance to read any of them but some great publications supporting ADT I'm sure he will be along here shortly with some good advice.

Larry

Hello, Gary and fellow Journeymen—
Is there one-stop shopping to read up on ADT studies? Or an “ADT Greatest Hits” reading list? I’m extraordinarily lazy and hoping those of you who have already done the hard research will spoon-feed me.

For a start, Dr. Dattoli has a short book on hormone therapy and there’s a Canadian one also, lead author Dr Wassersug. Both available on Amazon. Have ordered but not read either.

garyi said...
You're kidding....right, and what's the hurry

I know it’s really hard to tell when I’m being serious — not one of my best qualities, but I’ve had it all my life and can’t seem to shake it — but actually I am. Just trying to get ahead of the curve. After I posted — around 2 am from my insomnia-inducing hotel room in Japan — I realized TA would have stuff at PCaNews and I can start there — but then I fell asleep for 4 hours, thankfully — also thank you Artist Mark and Progressing — see, I’ll be in great shape to meet Abramowitz and you and Prato Monday morning — 13 hr flight to ATL ahead of me — Prato says he’ll let me use all my vocabulary, and I’ll need it...

Skypilot56 said...
... they said with my path report I should be on it for a minimum of two years and then we will see from their so I quess that's what I'm going by for right now maybe if my psa stays undetectable after a year maybe might end it? Not really sure guess we'll have to wait and see ...

Larry - I've mentioned this before so forgive me for repeating myself, but I've heard everything from six months to three years. Originally it was supposed to be six months (two before like you, two during ART and two after) then that stretched out to one year due to delayed RT, then settled on eighteen months after RO said the RT would still be working for another 8-9 months after the end of RT.

So far I've been undetectable so it appears everything worked just fine and hopefully it will for you too.

Dan, welcome, and good to see you here. You already know my story, and that I've got little insight to your situation other than it's similar to yours.
You'll get some replies from very knowledgeable guys here, shortly. Although it does tend to be relatively quiet here.

You might want to copy and paste your post into a new, separate, thread of your very own, to get members focused on your situation specifically.

Ken

scar1919 said...


....Did your MO say anything about your T-levels? I am not familiar with Casodex, but my husband's T-level went from 560 to 9 in four weeks on Degarelax. He just got his Lupron shot last week. Your number seems kind of high after Casodex and 10 days on Lupron.

I can definitely tell a difference in my husbands demeanor this past week. He is a little short tempered and more forgetful.

I've always been forgetful and short tempered according to my wife

My T-level started out at over 700, so it's down over 50%, and no, my MO was unconcerned about it.

Hi Dan I welcome you to our little group here that has gotten much larger since I started this thread I really wish you didn't have to be here but glad you found us. As Prato said we have some very knowledgeable individuals on here with many years experience as you can tell from the number of hits to this thread that there are probably several guys like yourself just learning and starting the ADT and SRT route , some of us who have been on for a few months and some that have been on this journey for quite a while. Lots of different treatments and experiences that seem to pop up almost every day so I invite you to stick around gather some info and insight ask questions give us your experiences then find yourself a good team of doctors and make a plan. Wishing the best for you and your family

Larry

Good advice, Larry.
Hope you have a good week.

Hi John yep getting closer to the end I had 37 should be done Feb 8th.

Larry

Larry....not sorry to tell you three of us had a wonderful brunch, on the beach, in SoFL. Sunny, 80 degrees, lots of eye candy that could be appreciated in spite of ADT, a healthy apple tart, and a guiltless Bloody Mary. Life should be lived, even with PCa.

Discussing our cases, it was reinforced how different intervention and medical recommendations can be for otherwise subtle histories. So your comments are quite appropriate. Do your own homework my brothers, taking our well meaning advise with more than a bit of salt. Once your mind is made up, IMHO, neither be deterred, nor look back. No one answer fits all.

Best of luck on a beautiful South Florida day!

Hey all, a bit late to this thread but thought I'd share my limited perspective on ADT.

I was on it for 3 years. Studies seem to be indicating shorter sentences may be as effective, and some consider it settled science. 18-24 months at least as good as 3 years. Could be. I'm not going to argue that, let some of the smart folks be dogmatic about it. Mine was part of my primary therapy, EBRT + ADT. This is not the same as the SRT situation.

Anyway, I understood ADT had two broad aims for guys in my situation. First, we know there is tumor tissue in the prostate. So, we do ADT before and during radiation, since the ADT sensitizes (stresses?) the PCa cells to radiation so it's more effective in whacking the little rascals there.

Second, with an aggressive case like mine, there was a good chance the PCa cells had escaped and were settling in far away places to bide their time. ADT was intended to continue making life hard for them, depriving them of testosterone so they couldn't survive, or at least not reproduce there. However, prostate cells divide slowly, like only once every two years or more. The idea with 3 year ADT was to make sure that even when the laggards decided to try to divide, they'd expire in the process due to lack of testosterone. So, if we stopped ADT earlier, then those slow dividers could have waited out the drought and then be successful later.

But, maybe the slow dividers aren't really a threat anyway. Maybe that's why the shorter ADT terms actually do seem to work. It takes something like 42 divisions before tumors become a problem. Well, at 2+ years to divide, I sure won't live long enough for 42 divisions to happen! As long as they stay that slow, then it doesn't matter even if they do begin to do their thing. It'll be many years before they're even detectable.

If the more rapidly dividing cells get whacked by reproducing during the ADT drought, then maybe those are the only ones that matter.

Again, lots of studies out there. But for what it's worth, this is my humble and lay understanding of ADT, and the theory underlying why I agreed to the 3 year term. The 1st year was interesting as changes happened. The 2nd year was tough, because I could still remember what I was missing. The 3rd year was easy, because it was just more of the same, marking time, and I didn't really care about anything anymore.

Redwing57 said...
The 1st year was interesting as changes happened. The 2nd year was tough, because I could still remember what I was missing. The 3rd year was easy, because it was just more of the same, marking time, and I didn't really care about anything anymore.

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –