Shingles.

[pjoshea13]

New Canadian paper below warns that shingles may spuriously affect PSA.

***

I caught chickenpox 45 years ago from my daughter & really should get a shingles vaccine shot.

My wife, who did get the shot has since had 2 attacks. Tomorrow will be 3 years since her doctor called an ambulance to take her to the ER because of vagus nerve pain (everyone panics when there is chest pain). ER eventually lost interest when they couldn't find a clot, but couldn't release her because she was incapacitated by pain. She spent 3 nights & days in the cancer ward (she was under treatment for a plasmacytoma) before the right mix of drugs was found to manage the pain.

Her oncologist said that more than half of his multiple myeloma cases experience shingles - in one case, for 9 months. My wife was loaded up with the antiviral Aciclovir & continues to be on an antiviral.

The weeks went by without good pain control. My son had insisted that astragalus might help, & she was willing to try anything. Within a day or so the shingles attack subsided. Astragalus is an immunomodulator.

It occurs to me that many here might harbor the varicella zoster virus. & that PCa treatments or stress can reactivate it. All it takes is a weak immune system for it to re-emerge.

Anyway, if PSA goes up don't panic. & if all else fails try astragalus.

-Patrick

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/305...

Clin Case Rep. 2018 Oct 22;6(12):2338-2340. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.1838. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Spurious elevation of Prostate-specific antigen associated with shingles in a prostate cancer patient undergoing active surveillance.

Mesci A1, Liu SK1, Loblaw DA1.

Author information

1

Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Institute, Sunnybrook Hospital University of Toronto Ontario Canada.

Abstract

Spurious PSA increase in prostate cancer associated with shingles reactivation should be considered under the right clinical scenario to avoid unnecessary investigations or treatment.

KEYWORDS:

active surveillance; prostate cancer; shingles; spurious PSA elevation

PMID: 30564325 PMCID: PMC6293149 DOI: 10.1002/ccr3.1838

[NPfisherman]

You are on a roll, amigo....I see my MO in January--will discuss...Thank you, again

[cesanon]

Myers (or maybe it was Datolli) had me take a shingles shot prior to commencing treatment.

[ITCandy]

I just received my first Shingrix vaccination two weeks ago with a second scheduled in 8 weeks. Your post reinforces my decision to go ahead with it because who really wants to add shingles to their list of ailments. Everyone I've spoken to about it says the outbreak is extremely painful.

As always, thank you for your valuable posts.

[cesanon in reply to ITCandy]

Shingrix is safer and more effective than the old shots. It's hard to find though.

[ITCandy in reply to cesanon]

Yes, I lucked out getting it and my pharmacist has already put my second shot aside for me.

I don’t have any experience with Zostavax but I didn’t have any issues or side effects from Shingrix at all.

[gusgold]

Patrick.

do you think the 2 shot shingrix vaccine 8 weeks apart could cause a spike in PSA. The pharmacist advised my wife not to get the shots...said the 1st shot side effects kept him out of work for 3 days...he said a lot of patients were getting the same side effects....I had the 2 shot series without any problems

Gus

[pjoshea13]

Gus,

No idea.

Re: side effects:

"Questions Remain about Shingrix Safety in Rheumatic Disease

No answers yet, because patients were excluded from trials"

medpagetoday.com/meetingcov...

-Patrick

[Stegosaurus37]

I've had both Shinglex shots now. My PCP was a bit skeptical and said there have been cases where the Shinglex shots triggered an attack. An ex-Flight Surgeon who's a member of one of my veterans' groups says he's asked the question "if the natural immune system antibodies (from the childhood chickenpox) don't work, why should I think some artificial pharmaceutical will?' He says the answer he always gets is "That's a very good question, Doctor."

So who knows?

[RJ-MN]

Both of my Shingrix vaccinations gave me a day of significant flu-like symptoms, but that is a small price to pay for any kind of shingles prevention.

[Brook5318]

I got my first case of shingles toward the end of my adjuvant RT

[j-o-h-n]

NP, Me and my roof are covered...

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Friday 12/21/2018 5:21 PM EST

[BigRich]

Sorry to hear of your wife suffering this pain. I am glad that she got relief, We hate to see our love ones suffer.

BigRich