Rising PSA after RP

Hi, My PSA also started to rise about 1yr post rrp & I selected the option of choice, radiation.Thank GOD you do have that choice!Then a yr after that began to rise again & am presently on Lupron.Now Post 2yrs down the road from Lupron start, PSA negligible, 0.1 or less but as Stuart say's it's not a cure all.
I think the relapse rate for guy's in this category after Rads is something like 75% so don't be discourged if yours comes back after the Rads also.
Just hang in there & don't let it frighten you!
Good Luck, Benji

AuthorUnknown said:

Best wishes. I have noticed that there seems to be a peculiar incidence of recurrence of PC after RP where the cancer was confined to the prostate. I also notice that the prostate is probably the most aggressively biopsied organ of all. I wonder whether there is a connection. I mean, they punch 12 or 18 or more holes in a cancerous organ, sometimes more than once. I think it's impossible not to distribute cells back through the several layers of punctured tissues. Then they operate and say, "It was confined to the prostate -- you're good." Then later they say, "Oops, your prostate is gone but there's PC elsewhere in your body. We have no idea why." I have an idea why.

Lupronized: I have also wondered if the biopsy procedure itself contributes to the "escape" of cancer cells from the prostate gland. When I had the biopsy (six tissue samples, one positive for cancer) I felt like I was being shot by a cannon. I know, it's supposed to be a simple "snap-like" sensation similar to a rubber band snap, but it didn't feel that way to me.

This may be a case of some of us being the victims of our own success, e.g., finding the cancer early.

Willx said:

Lupronized: I have also wondered if the biopsy procedure itself contributes to the "escape" of cancer cells from the prostate gland. When I had the biopsy (six tissue samples, one positive for cancer) I felt like I was being shot by a cannon. I know, it's supposed to be a simple "snap-like" sensation similar to a rubber band snap, but it didn't feel that way to me.

This may be a case of some of us being the victims of our own success, e.g., finding the cancer early.

Willx: I am really getting to suspect strongly that the biopsies may be part of the problem, not the solution. As a well-read non-doctor I am unaware of any other organ in which removal of confined cancer is regularly followed by recurrence elsewhere, nor of any other organ as aggressively biopsied as the prostate. It seems possible that the two are connected.

After PSA over 700 (1500 if the 2x rule is applied, as I had been on Proscar and then Avodart) I was diagnosed by CT-scan showing mets to the lymph nodes all the way up to my diaphragm. I have never had a prostate biopsy. Bone scan was clear of bone mets. Interesting, eh? The way I take it, the breakout from the prostate was natural, scavenged up by the lymph system, hence no bone mets yet. Others with early detection and 2, 3, 4, 5, sometimes six biopsies of up to 18 punctures each, keep reporting RP with cancer confined to the prostate followed by rising PSA. Something is really, really wrong here.

I went on Lupron and in a few months PSA was 1.3 and CT-scan showed 50% reduction of masses in the lymph nodes.

Now I'm taking steps to try to be in the "lucky 10%" You know about that, don't you? Of advanced PC cases who go on Lupron, 10% fail in the first year (the "unlucky 10%"), 80% get remission for 24-36 months, and 10% get remission as long as they continue on Lupron and live. My nurse has a patient who has been on 1-month Lupron for 16 years.

When my Uro told me about the 10-80-10 he looked me in the eye and said, "We don't know why, but we're beginning to find some clues."

Well, research indicates some clues, all of them dietary:

Lycopene is now recognized as a preventative. Only the medical profession seems slow to comprehend that some preventatives can also be therapeutic.

DIM, the interesting ingredient in cruciform vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens and a few others). Lots of evidence that DIM induces apoptosis (natural cell death) in PC cells.

Natural vitamin D and muscle relaxants, a prescription-only cocktail, recently reported to **** PC growth by 70%.

Pomegranate juice, reported recently to reduce human PC tumors in mice when fed in relatively low concentrations.

Capsaicin, reported in recent days to induce apoptosis in PC cells. This is the "hot" ingredient in peppers, although it is dose-related and the effective doses are substantial for humans -- on the order of 3-4 habañera peppers per day for a 200-lb man. Caution, that's 1000 times as strong as jalapeño pepper.

Aspirin, known to have mild anti-cancer properties.

Ibuprofen, known to have mild anti-cancer properties.

Vitamin D, known to have anti-cancer properties.

Other stuff, with news emerging almost monthly.

It's strange, though... my Uro neither asked me about what I eat nor recommended I add or remove things from my diet. If something is not a pharmaceutical, surgery or radiation, it's not on his radar screen.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear of confirmation someday that the "lucky 10%%" are those with certain dietary profiles.