PSA elevated in 30 days, Doc suggests Hormone Therapy

jkinobay
jkinobay Member Posts: 298 Member
edited March 2014 in Prostate Cancer #1
I am an HNC survivor of about 3 yrs. I have a good friend who had Prostate surgery about a yr. ago followed up with radiation therapy. NOw, about a yr. later his PSA has gone from about 1.4 to about 3.5 in only 30 days. His Oncol suggests hormone therapy.

Can anyone tell us what he is up against, what to expect, what is the success probability?

He is of course quite concerned as am I a neighbor and friend.

Appreciate your help

JK

Comments

  • Trew
    Trew Member Posts: 932 Member
    #2
    The pros and cons of hormone
    The pros and cons of hormone therapy have been discussed a lot here- see if you can search them out. I just finished a hot flash- they don't last long. And what to expect? There are different outcomes. Every one of us is different and we respond in different ways to cancer treatment. ED is a given. Hot flashes are a given. Modd swings are part of it. You can look up the side effects of the specific hormone treatment- eligard, Lupron, ettc- and read the side effects. Most of us get most of them.

    Is that ok for a start?
  • jkinobay
    jkinobay Member Posts: 298 Member
    #3
    Trew said:

    The pros and cons of hormone
    The pros and cons of hormone therapy have been discussed a lot here- see if you can search them out. I just finished a hot flash- they don't last long. And what to expect? There are different outcomes. Every one of us is different and we respond in different ways to cancer treatment. ED is a given. Hot flashes are a given. Modd swings are part of it. You can look up the side effects of the specific hormone treatment- eligard, Lupron, ettc- and read the side effects. Most of us get most of them.

    Is that ok for a start?

    Absolutely a good start. My
    Absolutely a good start. My friend needs to get the name of the specific therapy his Oncol recommends..............and go from there.

    Thanks so much...........JK
  • wayne2
    wayne2 Member Posts: 31
    #4
    hormone therepy
    Hi kjinobat.........I like the boat;I fish a lot on our local lake. I,ve been undergoing hormone therepy for six months now. I had external beam radiation for my prostate cancer. my psa dropped to 0.4 over a period of a year or so, but over the next year or so came back up to 3.8. I started FIRMAGON hormone therepy; one shot every month. After the first month, my psa was down to 0.4 and then two months later was down to 0.1. Side effects seem ok as long as I stay active: fishing, church,gym, socializing,etc.Firmagon is one of the latest of hormone treatments;acts quickly to suppress the testosterone (which feeds the prostate cancer).

    Hope this helps, but best to talk to the Urologist,etc.

    Peace...........wayne2
  • JohnK11
    JohnK11 Member Posts: 23
    #5
    Re : my experience on hormone treatment (10-month report)

    I am one of the least lucky prostate cancer patient
    (I've only seen a few people with comparable or worse
    experience). After Robotic surgery, my PSA DID NOT go down,
    and stayed at 7 (retest 2 weeks later at 9.2 --> 2+ month
    doubling time).
    Since the PSA was so high, and doubling time short,
    I did not even consider SRT (unlikely that all the cancer
    is nearby the removed prostate)
    However, hormone treatment seems to be working.
    The uro claim 5-8 years of effectiveness, but that might
    be optimistic. There are treatments beyond that, but
    some of the side effects are horrendous (I don't think I
    want to go chemo just to extend my life by 2-4 months).
    The side effects of hormone seems to be okay --hot flashes are
    a bother, but I got used to it.
    I still live an reasonably active life--go to work
    every weekday (fortunately, office job), play singles tennis
    (not as rigorously as before, but I am getting older), walk
    a lot, not other serious side effects (perhaps having trouble
    getting full 8 hours of sleep since I tend to get up every
    2 hours to pee--still some urinary leakage).
    So, as long as the hormone (intermittent) treatment
    works, I am going on with my life as before. My attitude is
    that I have lived a reasonably full life, been involved with
    a few discoveries (bottom and top quark), so will like a full
    life until I go. Cheers.

    P.S. ED is not a concern for me; hormone other than Trelstar
    or Lupron might have lesser side effects.

    ---------------------------
    PC history
    4/09 Pre-biopsy PSA 4.2 (this triggered the
    7/09 biopsy 4+3=7 Gleason prostate cancer)
    10/09 Pre-surgery PSA 6.7
    10/9/09 DaVinci surgery (Gleason 4+3=7; T3c; right seminary
    vesicle cancerous; has to remove that AND "way beyond the
    prostate" to get negative margin)
    11/30/09 6 weeks post surgery 7.0/6.4
    12/13/09 8 weeks post surgery 9.2 (doubling time 2+ months)
    12/16/09--took Trelstar (Lupron surrogate)
    3/3/10 <.1 (testoserone 13)
    3/15/10 --took 2nd Trelstar LA shot
    6/10 PSA <.1
    8/1/10 --took 3rd Trelstar LA shot (plan to go intermittent)

    12/09 Both the Bone scan and the Prostascint/MRI scans were
    negative (the uro says that most of the time, one would
    not see cancerous modules in these scans until your PSA is
    ~40+.

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