Lupron vs Orchiectomy

[Cancerisnotme]

I am curious if anyone has had Lupron injections for some time and has experienced severe muscle loss in the legs? I exercise regularly with walking and lifting weights to help prevent muscle and bone weakening. Whatever I do I can not seem to be able to keep the strength in my legs. I was diagnosed 1 1/2 years ago with metastatic PC Gleason 8. Age 49 at diagnosis PSA 63. I have done well as far as PSA (now .2) for the past 6 months and scans show reduction in bone mets. My current meds are Lupron every 3 months and Abiratirone + prednisone. I have been considering orchiectomy in place of the Lupron in the hope to relieve the leg muscle loss. I read a post from Break60 that the estrogen patch therapy helped with leg strength, but my MO is not in favor of this therapy. When I asked this question to my MO, he seemed in favor of the orchiectomy for cost and convenience reasons. He could not give me a clear answer as to weather it would help with leg strength though. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Tall_Allen]

The lean muscle loss (called sarcopenia) is due to testosterone depletion -

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

It doesn't matter if testosterone is depleted by orchiectomy or Lupron.

"No differences in changed visceral adipose tissue [VAT], lean body mass [LBM] and android/gynoid fat [AG] ratio were observed between the groups."

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

Perhaps ask your oncologist to look at the following article:

touchoncology.com/androgen-...

[Cancerisnotme in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thank you Tall_Allen. These articles really helped. I am going to push a little harder for him to look at my estrogen profile. I am thinking using patches may ease some of the side effects of ADT or orchiectomy as a adjuvant therapy. In the mean time I just have to work a lot harder on strengthening my legs though different exercise.

[VictoryPC]

Goes with the Lupron but don't do too much of it (over 18 months) or the problems will really start.