Hi gang

[sinned1972]

46 year old advanced Stage IV here. Diagnosed last week. Feb 2019 PSA 10.6, March 2019 PSA 10.8. Gleason in 11 of the 12 points 9-10. Mets localized and skip mets. Regional tumor board recommending robotic RP, followed by external beam rad therapy...and a 5-7 timeline. I refuse to accept that. Been looking into CBD and supplemental home remedies. Thoughts?

[Schwah]

You will hear other viable options here involving varied forms of radiation and RP. No one here will recommend cbd or natural remedies alone to deal with this. You have to hit it hard and early. You have an aggressive cancer that as it spreads will be more and more difficult to deal with. Get a couple of opinions from medical centers of excellence. The boys here will recommend one near you. You’re only 46 man. Don’t be foolish. Studies show men who deal with PC with only natural unconventional remedies die much sooner. Add that stuff if you want. Lots of info on this site. But not that alone. Unless you don’t care to live longer.

Schwah

[sinned1972 in reply to Schwah]

Thanks bro, I must’ve not worded that clearly. I’m for sure getting the RP, nothing to do with the cancer, my symptoms are so bad it’s causing other health problems so it needs to come out. And the rad to follow obviously to attempt and deal with the spread. Just looking for other options to stack on the modern medicine approach.

[BarronS in reply to sinned1972]

It's good that you are opting for the standard of care. If you become fatigued from the radiation or put on hormone therapy, I would recommend 2000mg of ginseng when you wake up. My father has been on it for 2 weeks now and it improved his energy lots. They also did a study regarding cancer fatigue and taking 2000mg of ginseng in the morning. It ended up improving fatigue by 20 points on a 100 point scale compared to placebo.

amazon.com/gp/product/B07DW...

Here is the one my father is taking if you are interested.

[Tall_Allen in reply to sinned1972]

Did you mean external beam therapy to the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes? I think it is a very bad idea to have an RP knowing in advance that you will follow up with salvage radiation. Side effects are much worse and results are no better than if you had done it right with brachy boost therapy in the first place.

pcnrv.blogspot.com/2018/11/...

It's probably an autocorrection, but you wrote: "Mets localized and skip mets." skip mets?

[sinned1972 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Yes Allen, they are recommending external beam radiation to the remaining prostate and pelvic lymph nodes. The reason for the RP has nothing to do with the cancer, as I mentioned, it’s causing extreme blockage and needs to be removed to prevent further urinary issues to the bladder and liver. They are stating while they are in for the RP, they will remove some of the surrounding lymph nodes but some of them according to doctors are unreachable through standard RP surgery, and the invasiveness of a surgery to reach them is not practical. The lymph node in question that is the most concerning is near the rectum. They are calling it something called skip metastasis, which indicates when lymph nodes between the primary cancer and the lymph nodes affected are unaffected. Somewhat rare I’m told.

[Tall_Allen in reply to sinned1972]

Can you have HoLEP instead? The lymph drainage pattern from the prostate is very unpredictable. There have been some early trials of intraoperative sentinel lymph node detection. Detection of very small LN metastases remains elusive and even the most thorough ePLND is incomplete.

[Zetabow]

Nothing wrong with natural remedies BUT in my opinion they should compliment standard treatments. PC has a lot of treatment options that have a track record of success.

[HopingForTheBest1]

I suggest you consider looking in to having genetic testing (such as Color Genomics at color.com) for possible BRCA2+ mutation, which unfortunately predisposes us to the aggressive version of PC. If you are + there are specific precision medicine therapies you will benefit from, such as PARP inhibitor proven effective for this diagnosis.

Also, Provenge immunotherapy could be a viable option.

[sinned1972 in reply to HopingForTheBest1]

Going to request the BRCA2 test on Monday. Was just watching the Stanford teleconference on marking genes for proper chemo therapy.

[JimVanHorn]

I did not have RP. I had 42 radiations in 2007 and found metastases on hip area in 2011. Had 30 more radiations, started Lupron every 3 months for 6 1/2 years. Stopped therapy 1 year ago, on Christmas Eve told I no longer have cancer, and total time of cancer was eleven years. My life was normal and did very well on Lupron (Eligard - generic). I can have orgasms and I am 74 tears old.

[JimVanHorn]

I am 74 years old.

[whatsinaname in reply to JimVanHorn]

Did you change your diet from meat eating to plant eating ?? Thanks.

[JimVanHorn in reply to whatsinaname]

When I was on Lupron I ate 3 ounces of protein every meal. Now I am on a vegan diet with egg whites for breakfast. I have more energy and hope to loose weight.

[whatsinaname in reply to JimVanHorn]

Good for you, JimVanHorn. Thanks a ton.

[sinned1972]

Went to my radiation therapy appt today and met with the doc. He was surprised and stated I should be on Lupron ASAP to slow any potential spread or growth of the cancer while waiting on my RP and RT. Any thoughts, previous doctors thought waiting on ADT until reoccurrence after the RP and RT was a better course of treatment.

[JimVanHorn]

You understand that Lupron only slows the PCa cells from reproducing, but they can spread and metastasize while on Lupron. When your PSA is under 1.00 the cells are reproducing very slowly. I was on Lupron for 6 1/2 years and now I no longer have cancer. Over eleven years I had a total of 72 radiations.