Prostate cancer signal reawakens 'sleeper agent' cells in bones

The ability of the cancer to be dormant and undetectable for years is at once negative and positive. I would rather it be dormant than active, but how do we ever know our true status? A client of mine went nearly 16 years with undetectable PSA only to then have a recurrence. He is now on HT. His doctor said that in his experience it is not really that rare for the long dormant cells to exist and then re-activate.

Another problem is that though dormant (not dividing and/or spreading), the cells can continue to mutate and, if reactivated, can be more aggressive and harder to control than they had been before going dormant. My understanding is that PCa cells usually go to the bones and lay dormant. They do not produce enough PSA to show up and they are too small to be seen on any scan.

Apparently HT will usually weaken the cells so the period of dormancy is extended, sometimes indefinitely. That is certainly my hope.