Hi, my husband is recently diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, Gleason score of 9 , psa 13 and three mets as shown in the second MRI , he is around 70 years old with no other health issues .
Today he got his first shot , Degarelix 240mg , the urologist said we should wait for the result in a month, he said for now , we can’t tell which treatment may come next!
I googled the name and I found out it’s a chemotherapy medication, what does it mean to you ? Why this drug , does it mean that he must go under chemotherapy next ? Does it mean that his condition is extremely bad ? Has anybody tried this? I’m so worry, among side effect , there were stroke or sudden death, this is horrible!
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Seabird12
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It will reduce the testosterone levels to castration levels very quickly, usually in 24 hours. This is an adequate way to start the treatment.
You should forget about the urologist If he has only 3 metastases he should see a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist.
The Stampede study showed that there was a survival advantage by treating the primary tumor with radiation if the patients has 3 or less metastases. They could also treat the 3 metastases with radiation. Please, get a medical oncologist and eventually a radiation oncologist.
Tango is 100% right on radiating the 3 mets. . And I believe a medical oncologist will put you on Zytega along with adt since studies showed over a 40% reduction in deaths by doing that.
Very common drug. As an antagonist there is no hormone flare. Testosterone drops rapidly. Very effective. The downside is having to take it every month and some swelling at the injection site, which goes away after a few days. Degarelix is sold under the commercial name Firmagon. Good luck!
Coming from a guy who had his ass kicked for about 2.5 years by taking poison..... life saving poison..... but his choices are limited!!! Adding that from what I can judge, I would be considered a “worst case” scenario though!!!
Yes.... drug manufactures are obligated by law to notify potential users of ALL know side effects. If one person in 100,000 had a stroke while taking the med, it gets listed whether or not it was the result of other conditions or not until proven otherwise.
As you study this disease and it’s treatments you’ll find (as I did) that (based upon a lot that I have read) chasing unicorns and rainbows with treatments removed from typical standards of care have been proven to be mostly lethal!!! Not ruling it out but mostly “clinically unproven” is one hell of a crap shoot!!! There are options if in fact he simply can not tolerate a certain med but good luck finding one with no side effects or curtain risks. You need to accept that fact now.
Upon this drug taking effect, by depleting his testosterone, he should expect to loose most / all his libido. Expect mood swings from out of control laughing to out of control crying. Mad to happy ( more mad than happy). Hot flashes and night sweats will be a nuisance at best and can likely cause sleep deprivation (try to avoid day sleeping) Hair growth will slow to stop. He might become lethargic, and tired. A stick of deodorant will last months!!! And man boobs..... lets not forget those!!!! Or.... he’ll walk through unscathed!!! Roll the dice, its a crap shoot that no-one can answer until he’s going through it!
His “male hormone” are being chemically removed!!!! He will be joining us old the buffalo’s in the back of the heard while the young bulls lead!!!! That is human biology. Unless effected by man, a man ages by losing his T naturally only, we get it virtually overnight!!
He has a huge advantage by your admission being in good health and shape. Keep active by regular exercising, mind, body and faith. Continuing a healthy diet is also a must.
I do not believe that ADT will help with his mets but maybe you should think about finding a care giver that will spend a little more time with you and alleviate some of your concerns before they manifest into anxiety. Get a MO or a case manager advocate in addition to members here, to help ease your anxiety as well.
Please, please, please stop looking at all the gloom and dome and recognize all the successes in aPC cancer treatments!!!
Although my bedside manner may suck I offer my comments only to be constructive!! My Dr’s too didn’t tell me crap regarding potential side effects so I had to research them as the symptoms came along!! That took a terrible toll on my wife and I!! The symptoms may be hard to hear but to just stumble across them as you go through your treatment is far worse!!
I know (learned the hard way) that our care givers take all the news as hard as we do (whether or not we show it) so I no longer sugar coat anything with my wife who I alienated for too long. Maybe too far of a reversal but I know she prefers it kind of blunt!!!
It's not chemo, it's just a hormone therapy. You focused on very rare side effects instead of the common ones: loss of libido, hot flashes, loss of lean muscle and loss of bone density.
Here are possible next steps, which may include 6 rounds of chemo:
Welcome. I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s diagnosis, but there is a lot of help available that didn’t exist only a while ago. As you know, you have plenty of company, and the experience of others to help support you. I urge you to keep taking advantage of that!
As you also now know, Degarelix is not chemo.
Learn all you can about hormone deprivation therapy, also known as Androgen Deprivation Therapy or ADT. As correctly explained by previous posters, your husband’s drug is firmly in that class.
Please don’t worry about any life threatening side effects right now; they are rare, and his disease is at a stage where the effectiveness of this drug would make much greater risk acceptable.
All I will add is to say that in the experience of myself and many others, most the side effects are greatly reduced or eliminated by regular exercise, particularly weight training to minimize muscle loss. A healthy diet with some caloric restriction is also extremely helpful. It will keep the fat gain in check.
It’s true that ADT is no fun-with nearly no testosterone, libido is sharply affected. Depending on the role sex has in your lives at this point, this can range from a non factor to very distressing. Acceptance is beautiful principle but of course means different things to different folks.
Nevertheless, the side effects of fat gain, muscle loss with its accompanying fatigue, hot flashes, metabolic syndrome, bone density loss, cognitive issues-again ALL of these are greatly reduced or eliminated with the right kind of exercise and diet.
Without exercise, these same side effects can be overwhelming. So it’s a bit less of a ‘crapshoot’ than it is a new normal. How new depends on his existing habits.
Until something new and different is proven to work, ADT is the primary front line defense for advanced disease.
Be not afraid! As I said, ADT doesn’t have to be that bad an experience at all considering the benefit. Thanks to focused effort, I have experienced no side effects at all-other than the loss of libido, which does not affect everyone!
Technically speaking, it is a system wide chemical treatment for prostate cancer, so they classify it as a chemotherapy drug. The abiraterone acetate (zytiga) pills I took arrived packed in a bag labeling it as a chemo drug, but in reality, it's different
They are hormone therapy drugs and not at all like standard chemotherapy drugs for cancers. The real side effects you need to worry about are the normal ones already mentioned by others here, and not the ones you listed which are rare.
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Should I be concerned? Trying to talk myself out of overreacting!
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