My Dad's Metastatic Prostate Cancer U... - Advanced Prostate...

Advanced Prostate Cancer

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My Dad's Metastatic Prostate Cancer Update

jberg22 profile image
18 Replies

Not much has changed. I've wrote here it seem's like a year ago or more. He's on Zytiga + Prednisone.. he has MCRPC (metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer). It moved from his prostate area (prostate was removed) to the omentum, kinda like an apron hanging over the abdomen area. His current PSA is 0.26 and has stayed at that point the last 2 months. Every 3 months he has an injection of Eligard . He also does a Vitamin C injection ever week or two - high dose. He feels super good after those. Our Oncologist says it won't go down past that. We are hopeful that it will but science dictates otherwise( they said he has 4 years at the most - we are almost at 2 years since that diagnosis). He is 67 years old, has a young family, gainfully employed as an essential service worker/business. We are hoping for the best. Hopefully he sticks around for a long time.

Take care, and fight the good fight. I'm doing that with my Dad. I work with him and support him through all the ups and downs this disease (and meds) cause.

Cheers,

Jay

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jberg22
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18 Replies
Magnus1964 profile image
Magnus1964

If your Dad is on Lupron and zytiga he is not castrate resistant. Castrate resistant means you have failed all ADT drugs. Your Dad is far from that. His PSA is still low and he has not been on other ADT drugs like casodex, xtandi, etc.

jberg22 profile image
jberg22 in reply toMagnus1964

Coming from our Oncologist he is metastatic crastate resistant ...MCRPC.. she told me to google that to understand it. It has gone from the prostate to a far away place the omentum.... very rare.. He is on Eligard and Zytiga... maybe i'm missing something and I appreciate your input (pardon my spelling errors)

Tall_Allen profile image
Tall_Allen

I'm glad that the Zytiga is still working for him and keeping his mCRPC in check.

I Like the high c ivs . How does he feel in general now .? Is he happy about it all? Don’t gauge his life on the four year prediction. Many of us have outlived such news. They gave me 36 months originally ..I’m over five years now . It haven’t been trouble free . But I’m still here . Love your father and show him . Good to have a son like you ...

jberg22 profile image
jberg22 in reply to

He feels strong today, just like every other time he's on the High C. He's optimistic and has a strong faith in God. So let's see what happens. He has a lot of prayer warriors with him. Thank you for your comment. We are all in this together..... It gives me hope..stay safe and stay healthy ;-)

in reply tojberg22

Hey jberg22 ...All good stuff. I moved away from my naturalpathic dr . I miss doing the C. I feel that it helped me a lot . I think it’s proactive but costly to the average guy. Worth it . He sounds like a wonderful father figure . Or else you wouldn’t be here in his name . I believe in miracles .. Sometimes praying is all that we can do . He’s feeling good today ...that’s a win . We try to rack up as many good days as we can . It is a bitch to watch our folks age and then combat this cancer . Between his faith and you I’m not worried about your dad . He’s done well and is loved . My dad had pc as well . I lived far from him at the time and only saw him once after he had his RP . He’s was emaciated and looked weak and spindly .. he died before I was to move near him a month later. I should have checked my prostate at 40 . My huge ego prevented me from going to a Uro until i was in critical condition . Do NOT do that young man . I am convinced that diet and lifestyle as well as heredity and stress all help to develop a negative chemistry ripe for cancer . Eliminate stressors and watch yourself once you are 40 or if you even have changes in your urology like frequent peeing . Take care young man . Pops can do as well as anyone .. can 😎🙏. His faith will see him through ..

jberg22 profile image
jberg22 in reply to

Thank you! I have to check my prostate every year now because of my Dad's prognosis. I'm ok with that. Thank you for your kind words.

in reply tojberg22

Starting at 40 unless you have symptoms? You are aware 🤙🏽

dagreer profile image
dagreer in reply to

They gave me 3-5 years in 2011. I have held off of ANY treatment. Although that will change soon and I will probably go on the usual ADT.

in reply todagreer

You are a brave soul... very lucky . I went into k failure... and had only one pathway . I was given no choices . Life or death.

Patrick-Turner profile image
Patrick-Turner

Hi jberg 22,

There's no need to be so gloomy about your dad's Pca condition, if Psa is only 0.26.

Psa can be a maximum of 10,000, which might indicate serous sickness and not much longer to live.

But I was diagnosed in Dec 2009, and Gleason 9, inoperable, Psa at 6.0, age 62, and docs would not tell me how long I had, but I said maybe 2 years to 20 years, because by that time I had widely read the chat groups of the past about Pca. Most of those groups stopped working because the man who started them died of Pca, and could not maintain the website.

Anyway, new groups keep popping up, and a Psa of 0.26 is no cause for pessimism.

I've been on ADT with Lucrin since 2010, and I still lead a good life with higher QOL at nearly 73yo, and I have been cycling 200km a week for many years to keep my fitness up, and BMI = 22, waist 92cm, resting HR < 50, and no co-morbidities, so it looks like Pca will still kill me, because I am running out of treatment options.

ADT with add on drugs Cosadex and Zytiga worked to slow down but not kill Pca until 2018, and Psa hit 12. Chemo increased Psa to 50 after 5 shots Docetaxel. I quit chemo, and Psa went to 25, nobody knows why, but mets increased. Then in Nov 2018 I began Lu177 and had 4 shots by May 2019, and followup in August 2019 with PsMa Ga68 scan showed healing bone mets and no soft tissue mets. Psa was about 1.6, and it went to 0.32 by November 2019, but now its back up to maybe 5 right now so I will have to get more treatment, most likely will be more Lu177.

I have no pains or symptoms of Pca. But treatments exterminated sexual ability, not a problem, and I wake up 4 times a night to pee, not a problem, and worst side effect of so much RT etc is from the chemo, which has dulled my leg function, and slowed my average speed on bike by maybe 1kph. I am continent, and nobody has told me I have dementia or that I am plain stupid.

Pca to me is a chronic long term disease, but with careful timely treatments from doctors who know more than nothing, I have survived very well for more than 10 years after diagnosis.

So many ppl have chronic long term conditions that may or may not limit what they want to do in their lives. Only a lucky few live to 90 without enduring one or more big ill-health conditions. My mum lived to 98, old age got her, and she outlived all her friends.

But my dad and one sister of mine died at 60 from cancer, and another sister survived after treatment for Brca, so its highly likely I have Brca1+2 gene and maybe at some time, the best treatments now known and used won't work because my Pca may have un-treatable mutations. But its all OK, I can't live forever, and I didn't manage to have a family, so not many if any will miss me when I am gone. Such if life.

It is exceptionally good that you are assisting your dad and that you value him. So keep that up, and always about how to get best possible treatments.

A doctor once asked me if anyone valued me, and I had to consider this for awhile before I answered with a yes, and they were ppl I worked for. That was in the middle of a local recession in 1993, and I had a gloomy time in my life with little work, a change in career and then I thought that many of my clients didn't really value me because most paid me so poorly. Ah, BUT I VALUE ME I felt, and I owned my house, I could manage a change to a low pay sit down job of electronic repairs, without a speck of help from anyone, so that like with my sore knees at that time could go on. I had to quit the building trades.

I didn't mind frugality, and all this working at home and being broke and self distancing going on now to prevent C19 meant ppl now are having a life like I did in 1990's, and despite not having any family, I ain't depressed about it because I watched so many who did have families then have a following pile of problems to deal with.

So cheer up Jay, positive possibilities are there for you and dad, OK,

so take care eh?

Patrick Turner.

jberg22 profile image
jberg22 in reply toPatrick-Turner

Thanks Patrick for your post. I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your open, honest recount of your situation. Stay stead fast eh .

Cheers,

Jay

leo2634 profile image
leo2634

I don't know how the Oncologist came up with a four year death sentence but I wouldn't put too much faith in a final count down. I read a post from one of the Brothers here in our forum of fighters that is on his 27th year of fighting the beast. The amount of treatment and progress made is impressive so don't give up based on what your Doctor said. Leo

Muffin2019 profile image
Muffin2019

Sounds like you are very supportive, he needs that. Do not let them dictate how long he has to live, everybody is different. Some on here was given 6 months to a year but still around 5 years or longer, never surrender, learned that from my mom who passed 7 years ago at the age of 95.

I am not a physician; however my heart and prayers go out to your dad and family. His condition has a very poor prognosis for survival. Essentially you are describing prostate cancer which has metastasized as gastric cancer. This area is rift with a vascular network which keeps circulating cancer cells throughout the body via the vascular and lymphatic systems. These cells will eventually land and grow in other organs and bones. My understanding is that chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells in this network is about the only treatment which can give longevity and its success rate is about 25%.

I am assuming that when chemotherapy was discussed, there were other co-morbidity conditions existing to preclude this type of treatment. I hope that his affairs are in order and he has access to pain management. Travel with our Creator for strength.

Gourd Dancer

jberg22 profile image
jberg22 in reply to

From my research, anyone with his prognosis has had a very low success rate at the 5 year median survival rate. Let's see what happens though. We never discussed chemo, he went straight to ADT after his PSA went up to 200+. That's when the mets were discovered and he was placed on zytiga. He doesn't have to pay for that as he "qualified" for the study drug. So far so good. I suspect we weren't told to consider chemo because of the QOL and toll on the body. Let see what happens. Bone scan and chest/pelvic CT's came back negative in mid 2019. I guess we will have to do those again at some point soon.

Jay

Dostoevsky profile image
Dostoevsky

Good to hear jay bird ... honor, respect, responsibility. Your days will be long. Dad will have less worries when his son is at his side.

j-o-h-n profile image
j-o-h-n

"they said he has 4 years at the most"

Please ask them to give me the winning lotto numbers and dates (in a private post of course)....

Better yet, ask them when I can escape.....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Friday 05/08/2020 1:55 PM DST

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