I have just completed another cycle of my homegrown therapy: 3 months castrate followed by 3 months with testosterone [T] > 1,000 ng/dL. The difference this time is that I was receiving radiation on L5 during the castrate phase.
The PSA during these cycles follow a familiar patern to me. PSA is very close to zero when I begin the T phase. During the third month of T, it rises 50% to ~37.
I didn't do monthly tests in this cycle. I wasn't sure how the radiation would affect them. But at the end of the third month of T, on2/29, my PSA was only 13.6.
Seems that almost two-thirds of my PSA was due to the L5 lesion. That still leaves the one-third, of course.
I have never produced much PSA. It was only 0.8 when a nodule was found. So the numbers above are big numbers for me.
My aim with radiation was to (a) treat the lesion before it became a major problem; (b) debulk the cancer; (c) discover the L5 contribution to my PSA number.
I shall now resume monthy PSA testing & discover how the lesion was affecting PSA doubling time.
I'm posting this as it might be of interest to anyone with a solitary bony met.
-Patrick
What do you mean by "castrate?" Did you actually have an orchiectomy?
I had a bilateral orchiectomy in November to try to lower the testosterone and to get off of the Lupron. My testosterone level still remains too high, though, well above the 20 or less therapeutic level. (I guess that I'm so much of a stud that my body still produces so much testosterone----even with testicles removed....lol)
But I don't regret having the orchiectomy--- I got a nice new set of large fake balls, as my own testicles had shrunk so much from three years of hormone therapy.
My own PSA has been climbing, though, I'm on Xtandi and was on a reduced dose, but we just increased the dose back to 120 mg, so I'm hoping that it will bring the PSA back down. It's currently up to 5.20 in Feb., from 3.61 in January.
CERICWIN
By castrate, I meant <50 ng/dL. I suppose I should aim lower. I'm still intact, but with some atrophy, of course.
Good luck with the higher Xtandi dose.
-Patrick