Update

Although I check in with HW on occasion, I have not really posted anything in about a year. My husband had a recurrence of his cancer a year ago, 2 1/2 years after his prostatectomy. He had SRT, which was not successful.

In April of 2015 my husband's PSA spiked to 0.13 and we decided to pull the trigger for SRT. All indications were positive for success with SRT but it did not bring my husband's PSA down. He was treated at MSKCC. His RO tried to find the cancer before his SRT through an MRI but it was too small to be seen. I thought that SRT would eradicate the cancer because the statistics were in my husband's favor. However, the cancer was not in the prostate area or my husband's PSA would have gone down.

When it became clear that my husband's SRT had failed, his RO (who I like) tried to find where the cancer was with a PET scan and an MRI. However, nothing was visible. There is a new scan called a PSMA scan, which is coming to MSKCC soon, which shows cancer at a low PSA. We were told that in Germany the PSMA scan was able to find cancer 40% of the time on patients with a PSA between 0.2 and 0.4. My husband's PSA was 0.2 at his last visit. His RO wants to see what his PSA is later this month, and then proceed accordingly. I suspect that he will recommend the PSMA scan when it arrives at MSKCC.

Although we could have found the scan somewhere in the world and had it, we are sticking with MSKCC. My husband's RO's recommendation is to surgically remove any lymph nodes that the cancer is found in, and to radiate any bone area where it is found. His RO thinks that the cancer is in the lymph nodes at this point.

Post Edited (bluebird123) : 5/14/2016 3:52:08 PM (GMT-6)

Bluebird, really sorry to read this, best wishes to you both. This was the news I never wanted to see from you. You and he were such a help to me, I wish I could somehow return the help.
no doubt you know, it's so early in the game and his situation can be managed for years, decades.

Hi Bluebird,

I also am a patient at MSKCC, and my numbers and history are remarkably similar to yours. I started at Sloan in late 2011 after surgery in upstate NY had clearly failed. I live near Albany, so AMTRAK makes visits to Sloan easy. Did HT + SRT at Sloan in the winter of 2011-12. Got a nice "break" from this as PSA remained undetectable until December 2014. Since then, monitoring but no treatment yet. Most recent PSA .26. I have a round of scans and PSA scheduled at Sloan in two weeks; meet with my medical oncologist at Kimmel Center a week later. I found your info about PSMA very interesting-- I will bring it up in my meeting.

Also, there is a really interesting article about the so-called Warburg Effect in today's NY Times magazine. Recommend this article, as thinking in Sloan about this effect on cancer growth is highlighted. In essence the idea is to "starve" cancer cells by way of glucose deprivation. One intriguing idea is to employ metformin, which reduces glucose output by the liver. First line drug for diabetics, and there numerous trials for various cancers underway. Lots of info on the web. I am going to talk with my oncologist about metformin, as I have no contra conditions about the drug, and more importantly I want to stave off HT for as long as possible. Not looking for a cure, just trying to slow those cancer cells down. Best wishes!

NewspaperLover
Age 72
Surgery 2009 upstate NY. Biopsy high grade Gleason 7.
2011 PSA emerged. Grew rapidly to .19. Moved management of my case to Sloan-Kettering. Sloan upgraded surgical path to Gleason 8.
Winter 2011-2012 SRT + HT at Sloan. PSA remained undetectable for 2 1/2 years.
December 2014. PSA .08.
June 2015.PSA .11. CAT and bone scans negative. Recommended colonoscopy and endoscopy clean.
January 2016. PSA .26. (0h darn!)
Next round of scans and PSA scheduled late May.