The consequence of successfully treating cancer is that the surviving cancer cells are resistant to the treatment. So as we successfully treat the cancer, it becomes more aggressive. This has been used by some to "prove" that treatments are bad since they only make the cancer more aggressive.
The goal of treatment is to extend life, not to keep the cancer from becoming more aggressive. Metastatic cancer will eventually find a way around every treatment we throw at it, but the alternative is dying sooner.
Its not necessary that we have to let cancer become aggressive. The problem is that we have beenblocking only one path of cancer growth that is androgen path. More research is needed to block all major paths of cancer progression simultaneously . Recent study about role of prolactin in cancer progression is a good step in right direction.. Sometimes I think "who wants a real cure...they just want to peddle their exremely expensive semi cures to keep their economy going by keeping the patient alive and sick and bankrupt families." First reseach should be about these multiple pathways of progression and a combination of meds to block all major pathways.
For advanced PCa the patients should systematically undergo a genetic testing before they take some ADT, like abiraterone, without knowing if it will not cause more illness .
"One possible reason for that resistance, the study indicated, appears to be that the therapy causes some adenocarcinoma cells to become neuroendocrine cancer-type cells."
This was discussed in this study showing an association between Zytiga and "treatment emergent" form of neuroendocrine small-cell PCa in about 20% of participants.
“Can”? .......Anything “Can” happen. Luckily for me ,I’m one that has been given some years of life extended by adt.. it ain’t no party ... but I’m here when I don’t think I would have been without the dreaded adt..
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Right. We can't be worrying about the disease we "might" get later when we have to fight the disease we have now.
Some of these arguments remind of people who say, "Don't get radiation or chemotherapy because that causes cancer later" or "Big Pharma is just keeping us alive so they can make more money!"
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No bull ! What they did to me is not offend done. My perspective was survival by any means. I was given only 50/50 to survive first year. I ran with the ball. Thank God I’m stilling doing as well as I am . Only the one that has had the tentacles of apc choking him out , can understand ...fear of treatments NO Way fear apc eating you for lunch . It’s a tuff bastard . We must become grizzled mentally to live with this fiend .. hahaha. 😂when we were told that apc thrives on T I said chop em off.. anything to get the upper hand( albeit only temporarily) ..We are having good days as of late . No complaints for me. I hope that you’re feeling well .. 😎✌️
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Amen Whimpy
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Nobody has answers for APC . We are all fishing 🎣
Hi Claude:
Very interesting article. It did not say at what level the Glutamine reading is when it indicates the resistance is failing. Do you know?
No, I found this study incidentally, but if you know that you are Gleason 9 or 10, you can be almost sure that you could be already castration resistant several months after starting ADT.
Thus it would be interesting to start other therapies from the beginning if a blood test indicates a bad glutamine level and predicts when therapy resistance could occur with an ADT.
Published in 2005 by Robert Amato and Haby Henery, two Metastatic Prostate Cancer Researchers. Their working Hypothesis:
“Recently, chemotherapy is being reported to show a survival advantage. The stage is set for chemotherapy to be given earlier in men with prostate cancer. As a working hypothesis, transformation from an androgen-dependent to an androgen-independent phenotype is mediated by the expansion of an androgen-independent clone already present at the time of androgen deprivation. If this model is correct, then it would be desirable to bring treatment to bear on the androgen-independent component when the corresponding tumor burden is minimal. We view the androgen-independent component as analogous to “microscopic residual” or micro-metastatic disease for which adjuvant chemotherapy has shown to be effective in other contexts.”
As a result, Chemotherapy and ADT are usually given at the same time.
Research continues; sometimes in different directions.
With Gleason of 7 (4-3) and 10 of 12 samples cancerous, I had 40 doses of external-beam radiation which failed to cure me. I went on ADT (Lupron). Have been on it and nothing else for six years. Latest PSA reading was .22.
The fatigue has gotten worse overtime but I find that walking a lot and maintaining my weight helps. Hot flashes are not as intense or as long was they were about 5 years ago.
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