Does zytiga cause pneumonia?

[Je1234]

Dad’s in the hospital with his 3rd case of pneumonia. The doctor stopped the zytiga because she said this was causing it. I asked could it be because he’s not been out of bed for 2 weeks. She said she’s sure it’s the Zytiga. I’m not sure if I believe her. I don’t know what to do. His psa lowers on it now they took it away.

[pjoshea13]

Zytiga is generally coupled with prednisone, which suppresses the immune system. I don't know what effect 5 mg prednisone ( 2 x day) has on most Zytiga patients.

My wife had a shingles attack in November 2015, just before learning of a recurrence of a plasmacytoma. She started on Velcade plus Dexamethasone, another immune suppressor in January 2016. Her oncologist said that shingles was common in his multiple myeloma [MM] patients & could last as long as 9 months. He loaded her up on antivirals, but to no effect. In desperation, she began taking astragalus, an immunomodulator, in late February 2016 & the shingles pain quickly went away.

I was a little leery, since one does not want to stimulate the immune system with MM. But shingles is opportunistic, errupting when the immune system is really depressed. & this started well before receiving dexamethasone.

I could cite a number of astragalus studies, but here is one from this month:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/307...

"Immunomodulatory activities of proteins from Astragalus membranaceus waste."

"The results indicated that the protein fractions could significantly increase the proliferation of splenic lymphocytes, peritoneal macrophages and bone marrow derived cells (BMDCs). AMWPDG2 showed the highest immunocompetence. AMWPDG2, AMWPDG4 and AMWPDG6 not only significantly improved the phagocytosis and immunomodulatory factors (IL-6, TNF-ɑ, NO, H2 O2 ) secretion of peritoneal macrophages, but also promoted the expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-12 p40, IL-1β, IL-1ɑ) and chemokines (CXCL1, CCL3) in BMDCs."

"Taken together, these results indicated that three protein fractions from the Astragalus membranaceus waste might be a potential natural immunomodulator."

After 3 bouts of pneumonia, your father might benefit from an immunomodulator.

-Patrick

[Je1234 in reply to pjoshea13]

This helps me understand better. Thank you.

[Tall_Allen]

Non-infectious pneumonitis has been reported in a post marketing study of Zytiga - whether that is because of the Zytiga is unknown. If he stops taking it, he has to wean himself from the prednisone slowly (it's dangerous to stop it abruptly). Perhaps his oncologist would be willing to prescribe Xtandi instead.

[Je1234 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Last night he was admitted for pneumonia and I got a lecture from the hospitalist about how she is stopping his cancer treatments because he’s suffering and she’s going to scan his body and show me all of the cancer that is spreading. I said ok please scan him because I didn’t know about any new cancer spreading. Today the oncologist told me that he didn’t have any further cancer spreading and the areas they have radiated is not getting any worse. They decided to restart his zytiga again because they think it’s working. I’m taking my dad home after he’s released and buying a hoyer lift and medical bed . I’ve had enough of this madness.

[NWLiving in reply to Je1234]

How confusing and unhelpful!!!!