Hi everyone, I've been a lurker here for quite a while so I figured it was time to share my father's journey into this horrible disease.
Dad is 65y old and was diagnosed in April 2017 with Gleason 9, a PSA 95 and regional lymph nodes involved.
First Bone Scintigraphy in May 2017 showed no mets at the bones.
His urologist insisted on surgery anyway and claimed we were at the absolute limits for it and that without it dad would've had 6 months left at the very most, after that ADT was a must to control the monster.
Dad's PSA before surgery was up to 138, he had it in June 2017 and everything went very well (non robotic one because a bit complicated according to the urologist).
The pathological report stated it was actually a Gleason 7 and not a 9 like the biopsy said, positive margins but microscopic, stage T3b.
Then two months after we had the devastating news, it was August 2017 and dad's PSA climbed to 300+, both him and the urologist couldn't believe the cancer had escaped the prostate and spread so quickly so at that point Lupron and Casodex were a must and so was finding both an oncologist and a radiotherapist.
Dad's PSA dropped to 14 in September 2017, so the Lupron and Casodex did their job extremely well and in a very short time period too.
Pet scan in October 2017 showed several lymph nodes (I think 4 or 5) over his body affected and enlarged.
So he was actually stage 4 sadly and the surgery failed, but still up to today, both the urologist and even his oncologists (he has 2 that work together in the same room) insist that it did in fact help to remove the prostate and a lot.
It was like attacking the main base of an army and preventing the soldiers from using supplies and fuel.
Dad's oncologists wanted to combine the ADT with 6 sessions of chemo with Docetaxel to make the treatment even more effective, all of that that lowered his PSA to 5.75 in January 2018.
To my big surprise he actually tolerated the chemo very well and didn't lose weight or anything, the side effects were just minor annoyances.
Then both ADT and chemo stopped working after 6 months.
We went again for a PET Scan at the end of March 2018, that actually despite the PSA increase to 7.58 showed a huge improvement, the disappearance of every lymph node except one that actually shrunk in size by 50%, there was also a suspicious bone lesion but his radiotherapist was 100% sure it's a hernia and not cancer.
So here we are in May 2018, Casodex and Docetaxel failed both after 6 months but the oncologists say we still have various possibilities so they put my father on Abiraterone 20 days ago, hopefully this will last.
He still takes Lupron injections every 3 months and cortison.
Last PSA before taking Abiraterone was up to 15.5 and that was 20 days ago, now we are waiting to see if this treatment is effective and keeps this monster at bay.
The oncologist thinks dad is still hormone naive in some way so wants to try every sort of treatment and some sort of radiotherapy in vein too (never heard of that).
Our options for the future are Xtandi, Jevtana, Immunoterapy with Provenge, this radiotherapy in vein and a few other experimental drugs.
My father is perfectly healthy for his age and doesn't have any other medical conditions, also eats very well (mostly vegetables and avoids red meat, dairy and sugar) and has a quite optimistic mindset.
The other good news is that here in Italy everything is covered by the government so we don't have to pay for the treatments. Abiraterone costs as much as 6000 euros without insurance.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
Possible castrate resistance already?
Rising PSA after being off ADT for 16 months
RO said 6-12 months
Latest results with initial treatment
ADT failure and measuring testosterone
