Guest guest Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Time for an update. (SRT= salvage radiation therapy) Bottom Line: failed surgery and now SRT looks like a failure. (dx. 12/2/09; surgery 1/25/10, G 4+3 with small margin and ECP) My PSA was 0.27 3 weeks before starting SRT, with a fast PSADT of 2 months. I finished SRT on 5/13/11 and just got my latest PSA, which was 0.60. We will repeat the PSA in 30 days and maybe another 30 days after that. My doctor (Scholz) said that once the recurrence is established, it is on to HT. He seems to indicate that if I start HT before bone mets, it might hold the fort for 11 years (median). That seems pretty long. Any thoughts? Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Hi Mel: Got your report and hope it is not bad. As for me a "Novice" in this chemical field y'all throw at me I might has well had not read any material from Strum, Mayo clinic, Cancers Centers of America, nor listened to my friends telling me what Doctors to use, which hospitals to use. I've got to talk live to some Oncologist in Phoenix, but they just listened. Someone talked yesterday talked about getting another opinion on 26 samples that were removed from my Prostate at two different times. He mentioned $500.00. What about $5200.00. They wanted $200.00 per sample. I even had problems with Medicare approving my bone scan, and CT scans. It is probably true the poor die young. My problem started with two bad falls on my backside in one year with tail bone cracked in half both times. It was so hard my Doctor at the time said I could have caused damage to some internal organs. Bur anyway that is when my BHP started big time. At times I wish I had never had the two biops.. Thanks/Rody n 7/12/2011 2:40 PM, billikm wrote: Time for an update. (SRT= salvage radiation therapy) Bottom Line: failed surgery and now SRT looks like a failure. (dx. 12/2/09; surgery 1/25/10, G 4+3 with small margin and ECP) My PSA was 0.27 3 weeks before starting SRT, with a fast PSADT of 2 months. I finished SRT on 5/13/11 and just got my latest PSA, which was 0.60. We will repeat the PSA in 30 days and maybe another 30 days after that. My doctor (Scholz) said that once the recurrence is established, it is on to HT. He seems to indicate that if I start HT before bone mets, it might hold the fort for 11 years (median). That seems pretty long. Any thoughts? Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 I am surprised that they didn't start the HT during the EBRT or SRT as you put it. There have been studies stating better results wit SRT if hormones are use 1 - 2 years after. I am currently finishing my final year of HT then we will find out how successful my SRT has been. Time for an update. (SRT= salvage radiation therapy) Bottom Line: failed surgery and now SRT looks like a failure. (dx. 12/2/09; surgery 1/25/10, G 4+3 with small margin and ECP) My PSA was 0.27 3 weeks before starting SRT, with a fast PSADT of 2 months. I finished SRT on 5/13/11 and just got my latest PSA, which was 0.60. We will repeat the PSA in 30 days and maybe another 30 days after that. My doctor (Scholz) said that once the recurrence is established, it is on to HT. He seems to indicate that if I start HT before bone mets, it might hold the fort for 11 years (median). That seems pretty long. Any thoughts? Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Mel It may give you some hope that I was in a similar position nearly 15 years ago. I'm still batting. (sorry cricketing term!!!) No two cases are alike, but I hope you have a better outcome still than I have! Re: Not good news today billikm wrote:> Time for an update.>> (SRT= salvage radiation therapy)>> Bottom Line: failed surgery and now SRT looks like a failure.> (dx. 12/2/09; surgery 1/25/10, G 4+3 with small margin and ECP)>> My PSA was 0.27 3 weeks before starting SRT, with a fast PSADT> of 2 months.>> I finished SRT on 5/13/11 and just got my latest PSA, which was> 0.60.>> We will repeat the PSA in 30 days and maybe another 30 days> after that. My doctor (Scholz) said that once the recurrence is> established, it is on to HT.>> He seems to indicate that if I start HT before bone mets, it> might hold the fort for 11 years (median). That seems pretty> long. Any thoughts?>> MelDamn!I'm really sorry to hear that Mel. You've really been throughthe wringer on this.As I understand it, a patient's response to hormone therapydepends on how early it is started and how hormone sensitive hiscancer is. On the first score, you're ahead. Many people don'tstart hormone therapy until their PSA is in the tens or evenhundreds. It used to be thought that it didn't matter when youstart but now, as I understand it, there is evidence thatstarting early prolongs life.As for the second issue, there's no way to know until you try it.Will you live 11 years? Nobody can say. Chuck Maack on thislist is still alive 18 years after diagnosis and hasn't yet hadany symptoms. Francois Mitterand, the former French President,lived 15 years after his diagnosis of inoperable, metatstaticPCa. The first eight of those years he was President of France.I think you have a good chance. We have a number of new drugsthat weren't available to Mitterand, or to Chuck for that matter,that may make a real difference in longevity. We also knowsignificantly more about traditional hormone therapy than we didwhen we started using it many years ago. The guys with a medianlife expectancy of 11 years were mostly diagnosed well more than11 years ago and did not have the benefit of that knowledge.At this point I recommend the following:1. Educate yourself about hormone therapy. I particularly recommend material by Strum or "Snuffy" Myers. Also look at Chuck Maack's web pages and TerryHerbert's.2. Locate a good oncologist.Ideally it should be a real prostate cancer expert, not a generalmedical oncologist. If it were me, knowing that real experts arefew and far between, I'd at least want an oncologist who wouldlisten and help when I brought in printouts of papers by Strum orMyers or others and not just dismiss them without interest.Sometimes we have to participate in our own treatment strategyand we need doctors who will work with us on that.3. Do NOT give up on life!Maybe you'll have 25 years more. Maybe you'll have 5. Butwhatever it is, you want those to be years of full living, notyears of anxiety and depression.We're all born with a death sentence. We just don't know how andwhen it will happen. With the diagnosis of a fatal illness westart to get more concrete information about the details and it'sharder to adopt our standard defense of just thinking aboutsomething else.But really, not that much has changed. There's no reason why ourlater years should be less full, less interesting, or lesssatisfying than our earlier years. I think it's important toremember that and not give up on living because we are afraid ofdying.There will be hard days. There will be sleepless nights. Therewill be times when you have trouble focusing on anything at allexcept your own personal worries. But you have already facedthat with your previous history with the disease. You alreadyknow that you can deal with it. You're an experienced guy. Soplease keep up your spirits.Best of luck.Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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