Sorry you find yourself in this situation. Thanks for your informative post which I think may show a developing direction in monitoring patients. My relapse in the sacrum a year and a half ago had a...
Stecruz, ADT is very difficult but by no means a horror story. You've no doubt read about the effects and they are not easy to put up with. But they are something you can live with, literally. I...
I chose Xtandi for the same reason that Mattam listed, plus it was the treatment my MO advised. Actually, though, I don't know if the two have been compared head-to-head yet but they certainly will...
Very exciting indeed. Maybe I will start watching my diet and cholesterol more closely if I really am not going to die from Pca soon. Just kidding. But I am very encouraged by these new therapies....
I was also able to read the article without a paywall. And regarding garyi's comment, it seems that the pace of discovery, testing and bringing new therapies to market is accelerating at such an...
Looking, I hope you won't ignore the above advice. But if you do, and if you happen to be one of the the fortunate guys with a very slow growing cancer that does not cause any trouble for many years...
I have not made a New Year's resolution in many years but this year I am: to stop complaining to my wife about my hot flashes, tiredness, weakness, fuzzy thinking and general I don't feel like doing...
Glad for you. It's encouraging to us all when we hear of someone doing well. Keep it up!...
Mattam, a vegan diet will not supply vitamin B12 unless one either takes a multivitamin or eats certain types of seaweed. Vegetables do not contain any B12. Vegetarians can get B12 from eggs and milk....
I got 18 months of Lupron on my first ride with it. It took about 9 months for the hot flashes to go away. I've read that while the time it takes for them to disappear is very variable, it is usually...
Very sorry to hear this. I know what you mean about ruining Christmas. Same thing happened to me last December and I kept quiet about the PSA. At the time I also had a bladder infection and bloody...
I have had one PSMA Gallium scan. I had no side effects at all. Any injected medication could possibly cause an allergic reaction but that would be something completely unpredictable and unexpected....
Yes, everyone is different. We all have different fears, hopes and histories. Take a look at my history. I'm just one storey but I'm glad I had the PSA done when I did. For years my PSA had been...
Stephen, yes been there,done that. It will get much better....
Sometimes the setting is so typical that the doctors can say with high likelihood that this is actually lung cancer rather than prostate spread to the lung. But other times only with a biopsy can one...
Yes, I too reflect on all the many, many blessings in my life. Family, friends and the ability to still enjoy this world. I suppose older people (ha, ha most avoid the word old and instead say older)...
Another reason to have a MO who keeps up with all the blizzard of new information and can sift out what may be useful....
Yes, thanks. If this holds up with further investigation it could lead to better treatment for the majority of us. Very encouraging that progress continues....
I am a pathologist and I think Peter has answered correctly though it is difficult to be certain with such an abbreviated report of the report. You should know that even though most pathologists will...
I so agree with mattam. When I read that "they found that enzalutamide...augments release of these two transcription factors..." I immediately thought oh ****!!! But it's a long way from bench...
Yes, I also want to know these survival/response curves but have to keep reminding myself that they all represent groups of patients and I am a group of one. Will I do better or worse than average?...
I do so love carbs of all sorts though! But it's true for me. A low carb diet is the best way I've found to lose weight....
Im_patient, the rising PSA is coming from somewhere and is almost certainly from PCa. The fact that the scans did not show a spot does not mean there is no cancer. The scans require a collection of...
You guys have spent a lot of time studying this issue! I am enrolled in the Mayo PSMA vs choline 11 study. That's why I waited so long to get the scans. The study stopped for a couple of months for...
Fairwind asks a very important question. My answer is that I think it is usually important to know where the recurrence is as soon as possible. If you study my profile you'll see that my recurrence...
I think that he should have PSA every three months at a minimum and while off treatment I'd have the ultrasensitive PSA. There are different ways of handling these things but my opinion is that if a...
Mattam, good for you on the exercise. In summer I have so many chores to do that wear me out that I don't do any specific exercise. But mowing a pasture, or piling manure with a skid steer is not...
Well I guess I qualify, too, both for my tumor primary extension and for "the horse has left the barn" in that I have had a bone met. I don't know, though. I have not gone back to read this lengthy...
Berdoo, spread of prostate cancer to the brain is pretty rare. This may be something else and may be curable with surgery with or without radiation so don't despair and certainly don't panic. There...
Good advice for us all, Rocky. Thank you for this and bless you. Peace....
Totally agree with 81GyGuy's article. When I was an internist/hematologist/MO in the 70's patients came in even then requesting, some demanding, a certain drug. My daughter is a PA working in an...
I think it's bipartisan bad politics so not really "political". A lot of problems are bipartisan. But I am not a moderator....
I don't see that the PBMs add anything to medical care except cost. To me they look like useless middlemen. Someone has to develop the formulary but that should be the insurance company. The whole...
This sort of reform has been a long time coming. No doubt caused by the remarkable acceleration in costs of new drugs. We all want new drugs to be developed so the drug companies need to have gold...
After I developed painful gynecomastia during my first Lupron course I started taking raloxifene which stopped the pain and further growth and reduced the gynecomastia somewhat but not much. Now in...
aleph, I have found that the Lupron hit me harder this time, too. And now that I've been on Xtandi for two weeks the hot flashes seem even worse. I want to second the advice about venlafaxine. It...
Yes, this is a very exciting trial. Reading the post today by LuvmyDAD and their experience with this treatment encourages my belief that early treatment is best, at least sometimes and for some...
Did you have any other reasons for the blood clots to develop such as a long road trip or airplane trip where you weren't walking for hours and maybe were cramped? That plus the megestrol would be a...
Cruise ship? Hahahaha! I feel like I am rowing upstream but going downstream. But yes, I am alive and the view from the boat is great....
Prat, he has a prostate and there are numerous reasons for small increases in PSA in such lucky guys. Prostatitis is just one of them. I don't see the a reason for concern here. But it sure wouldn't...
SteveO, this is a significant dilemma. The various types of PET scans will answer if the cancer is metastatic or locally recurrent but won't generally light up until the PSA is around 1 or higher. Do...
What is the normal range of PSA values for the lab where it was run? You can't evaluate the numbers without knowing the normal range. And different labs have different normals and results do not...
Here's my update on the medication saga. To re-cap: back in July my MO wanted to add Xtandi to the Lupron I'm on. After a week or two I received a form letter from my insurance saying they would not...
We_Davis, I don't know how anger and depression mix and maybe feed each other. I have never been sensitive or understanding about such things. I do know from my own painful experience that they are...
In the summer I don't do anything special at all to try to beat the side effects. I live on a farm and have more work to do than I can do to keep up. I am a beekeeper and in fact today I will be...
We_Davis I would be angry, too, if I were told Lupron has no side effects. I'm not shocked that you were told that. After close to 50 years in medicine nothing shocks me anymore. And surgeons are not...
I also have all of the Lupron effects mentioned above. It is hard for me just to walk to our barn to feed the horses because this requires up hill, down hill walking. Last time I was on Lupron I...
CJS10 I am so sorry to hear the words Scotch and ice in the same sentence except in a usage such as "I like to drink Scotch when there is ice on the lake"....
Yes, and did you know that when MRI first came out they were going to call it by the technology upon which it is based, NMR for nuclear magnetic resonance. But the nuclear part frightened people so...
Great topic. We really can be thankful for the remarkable advances that have occured and are occuring in medicine over the last 100-150 years as listed above. And I agree it really is a shame that...