HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Firmagon Here we go

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 6/27/2019 12:52 PM (GMT 0)
HI boys its been a while
Started on Firmagon injections in April and has dropped psa from 7.8 to 0.10 after 2 injections, all scans clear. Radiation oncologist wanted to start Hormone therapy in 2016, thankfully I met with Oncologist Daniel Petrylak from Yale and he wasn't ready to "change my quality of life" Injections are every 28 days for 7 months and then we wait and watch. Side effects aren't all that bad, hot flashes,much more frequent urination, and the big one is injection site pain for about a week, will keep my friends posted
Keep the faith, Peace T
Posted 6/27/2019 1:15 PM (GMT 0)
Good luck Steve, please keep us posted on your progress.
I started on Firmagon as an adjunct to SRT, but had a tough time with the injection site reaction. So I switched to Lupron, not sure that was a great idea.
There are studies underway on a six month Firmagon shot, might be already pending approval, don’t recall where I read that
Posted 6/27/2019 1:52 PM (GMT 0)
Steve,
Looks like you're having a good response to ADT. It appears you're having a recurrence following salvage and you plan to be on ADT for seven more months. Are you doing intermittent ADT?

Good luck going forward!
Posted 6/27/2019 2:35 PM (GMT 0)
total therapy is 7 months then will monitor psa, studies have shown that 7 month treatment with Firmagon has kept psa at bay in 10% of patients indefinitely. Fingers crossed
Posted 6/27/2019 6:42 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Steve,
I just finished a year on firmagon and am now on break with just monthly PSA and T tests. I found that injection site pain varied. As you know, that first shot is a triple dose administered as two injections and as expected hurt quite a bit more than the shots that followed. I told my wife the next morning I felt like I came in second best in a knife fight. But after that I found the monthly shots varied - they all hurt for a few days after the shot, but some were less painful than others, and none were nearly as bad as the first (triple dose) shot.

I got through the whole year without any hot flashes, but from what I read on this site, that makes my response pretty rare. When the time comes to start the next round I will ask for Firmagon again. As I see it, the nuisance of monthly shots and the injection site pain is a fair trade-off for the minimal side effects I've had so far.
Jim
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply