Michael_T said...
What are the risks that Bob is worried about? Presumably the SEs of SRT, but is there any specific or other conditions that make the potential SEs particularly onerous for him?
I also wonder if given his G6 pathology that the risk of future mets is extremely low and that could be his thinking. Hopefully some of the smarter guys here can respond to that...
Purgatory said...
Do I regret SRT: YES. My story/disaster with SRT is too well known here. Within 6 months, cancer returned with a vengeance. And the SRT has left me 100% disabled, and with perm. chronic pain/fatigue, and is worsening over time. I had SRT in 2009/
Worse medical decision of my life.
With surgery, SRT, maybe even RT, drugs, anesthesia------------- any and all of it, sometimes things just turn into crap, let's face it. Sometimes the turning into crap is not even all that uncommon. The cure vs disease, risk vs reward.
Wow, downgraded to 100% G6, and yet with a positive margin and steadily rising PSA from somewhere < .02 5 weeks post surgery to .11.
Now apparently, from what I read, the % of guys with true G6 ever dying from PC is darned close to zero. And those with mets but not ever dying of PC before dying of something else many years later is an extremely low number also. But keep in mind, I think those with mets or even dying from PC #s are based on G6s who do not have treatment, instead have AS, and some small % turn out to have mets or even death from PC later on. I think it is presumed those guys were not
true G6, there must have been some more aggressive cells inside them that Bx missed. But Y'all have a surgical pathology downgraded to a 100% G6 from that very minimal amount of 3+4=7 to start with. Which probably would have qualified Y'all for AS to start with.
IOW, by the path numbers, his risk is still extremely low. Except for that pesky rising PSA. Dang what a dilemma!
I do know this, just because that is the way I roll(YMMV): while I was trying to figure it out, I would be researching the heck out of dietary and even supplemental things that
might help, maybe. Most especially dietary, since you have to eat something anyway. Stuff like
ground flaxseed added to breakfast or salads,
raw broccoli a serving daily or 2 servings a few times a week, lots of onions and garlic maybe added to the broccoli and salads, whatever he doesn't hate too much, or maybe even likes. I'd check my vitamin D blood level and supplement if needed to keep it in a high normal range. I would look into a so called drug called Apatone, FDA orphan drug status(or at least at one time don't know about
now), which is nothing more than vitamin C in combo with Vitamin K in a specific ratio. If you look hard you can find a couple of really interesting small clinical trials on that(in some of my 1st posts here). By way of a major coincidence, no doubt, my PSA- for 1st time in history- just happened to drop 26% during the 2 months I took it while I was waiting for surgery. But caveat emptor, all my docs were unimpressed, only I was impressed. I would do that again if I was in that spot. In fact, I do so every now and then anyway. But YMMV for sure. (you can't get the drug, but you can get the vitamin C/K in the correct ratio easily enough)
Still, what the heck? Especially when it comes to diet? While you are trying to figure out if the SRT is worth the risk especially compared to your G6 risk, research it and become a study of one. The risks for adding certain foods seems exceedingly low compared to anything else, and it's something that can be done regardless of any other decisions. (though always check with the docs to make sure something won't interfere with any chosen treatments.)
God bless and help you on trying to figure all this out, what ever he decides!