Is docetaxel working

[Gary94]

Just had my 5th docetaxel treatment last Thursday and the doctor said I’m going to be doing 10 treatments and not 6 like I originally thought. My psa has been fluctuating from 11 to 9.5. I’m wondering how well this is working.

[Darryl Partner]

Did your doctor say how s/he was going to determine if docetaxel was being effective for you? What did your doctor say was the reason for increasing your treatments from 6 to 10?

[Gary94 in reply to Darryl]

She had no time for questions. This was the last time I was going to see her. She’s moving on to another practice.

[Hidden in reply to Gary94]

No time for questions. Good riddance.

[Tall_Allen]

It sometimes takes awhile for the effects to be noticeable. There is often an immediate PSA surge. Usually they like to see evidence of metastasis progression before giving up.

[paulofaus]

Gary, a lot of guys seem to get a good response from docetaxel, I don't think I did. My PSA dropped from 1.0 to 0.69 after round 6. It started creeping upwards a few months later, hitting 3.6 about 5 months after chemo ended. When I asked my Medical Oncologist why it didn't work for me, she insisted it did. I asked her how we know if it's working/worked and she said by CT scans. My CT scans 6 months after chemo, showed no new mets, but the spinal mets I already had were larger, so I'm still not convinced it did anything positive for me. Part of me thinks it has made things worse, but I guess I'll never know for sure. Cheers Paul.

[Scruffybut1]

I had a planned 10 and came thru without side effects and a great result. Don't worry, you'll complete the extra 4 in 12 weeks.