Hormone injections vs chemo

[Chrisnev]

My father was diagnosed with prostate camcer in February and in lymph nodes hes 83 yrs old they said theu didnt want to do surgery cuz of age no chemo or radiation it would make him very sick and uncomfortable so they went with the hormone shot. His PSA wer at 21.06 amd as of friday may 17 his psa are 4.66 they said he may want to consider surgery or chemo now. We decided to just keep him on injections hes doing good and i feel like with his age the chemo will be worse for him

[Tall_Allen]

Is he otherwise healthy? What other ailments does he have - diabetes? Cardiovascular disease? How about lungs, kidneys, liver, dementia? Is his blood work OK? adequate red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets? If he has more than 5 years of expected life expectancy, I think you should discuss with his doctor more than just the hormone shot. Perhaps not surgery or chemo, but perhaps whole pelvic radiation and/or some additional hormone therapy. The elderly often don't get the benefit of life extending treatment. Please read this:

pcnrv.blogspot.com/2016/08/...

[Chrisnev in reply to Tall_Allen]

He has high blood pressure and his mvp levels are low is glycose was a little high too on blood wrk

[Tall_Allen in reply to Chrisnev]

Sounds like nothing that would preclude radiation. Talk to a radiation oncologist.

[Hidden]

I don't see the need for aggressive treatments right now. The guy is 83. ADT could give him control over the disease for the rest of his life. If he becomes castrate resistant in his lifetime, he's got second-line ADT. If things change, he can rethink it. For now, I think he is on the right course.

[FCoffey]

What does your father want? Is he competent to decide on his treatments?

[Hidden]

I had a guy that was a young 82 in my radiation group. They told him he would be 92 before any problems would arise. He said that’s not good enough 102 maybe. He had no issues with the treatment. He was not on adt. My hero.

[CalBear74]

They now want to get the next mortgage payment, IMHO. (Excuse my cynicism, I was in the healthcare sector for 30 years.) An 83 year old ought not to endure the stress of surgery and/or radiation. Go with ADT and if he becomes resistant some day, consider other modalities or second line drugs, which are expanding all the time.. I am a 77 year old G 8, dx in 2012, and have been on Lupron since 2016, before that Eligard/Casodex combo. Life can be good if you can optimize your exposure to the healthcare system.

[Hidden in reply to CalBear74]

If I had a choice either adt or radiation and both would work the same I would do the radiation. In most cases I know you need both. 83 is young for a lot of people. I’ve never heard anyone say adt cured anything. 83 isn’t old for radiation like I had. Each case is different

[Break60]

Since long term ADT is debilitating for most guys I would think radiation and a short course of ADT would be more productive and less problematic.

[j-o-h-n]

Get him a young mistress....He'll do just fine, believe me....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Thursday 05/23/2019 4:37 PM DST