I was diagnosed in June, 2018 with PSA 37, Gleason 4+4. Had external radiation in Nov, 2018. Been on Zoladex and Casodex for two years. PSA was around 0.05 until 6 months ago when it rose to 0.3. Just had my most recent test and it's now 0.9.
I have an appointment in a month for another shot of Zoladex. Just wondering if I should be concerned with the rise to 0.9 and contact my oncologist or just wait until my appointment in a month. Thoughts.
Thanks.
They say Casodex prevents PCa from using any testosterone, until it stops doing that and instead, becomes food for the cancer, being a hormone itself. I haven't confirmed that in my research but I'm sure you'll hear it from others who claim they have. I've been using casodex, with finasteride and tamsulosin for 2 years now, no other treatment, after diagnosed GL 4+3, PSA = 16.8 in 2018. My PSA dropped to <0.1 and stayed there, so there's that anecdotal evidence. Good luck, brother.
Hi Rich, I note you said you've been taking tamsulosin for two years. I was initially prescribed tamsulosin by my urologist but my oncologist suggested I stop taking it for a day or two to see if could pee without it. To my delight I could, so I stopped taking it. I was wondering if you've ever tried not taking it to see what happens? Cheers 😎 DD.
i take finasteride with tamsulosin... and found this article just now... suggesting tamsulosin montherapy is better than finasteride monotherapy. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... -- But i place more weight on personal testimony like yours than on NIH studies. Soooo what i think i will do is my own experiment: stop the tamsulosin for a week, see if there's any difference. then renew taking both, see how that works... then stop the finasteride for a week.
Thanks for the post, my friend. Will report my results as I go.
Hi Rich, hope it works for you as the side effects of tamsolusin for me were not good, all the best 😎 DD.
Well it has you concerned enough to post to this website, so at a minimum I would reach out to them to make sure they saw the results. I would use that opportunity to ask if they want to start another treatment or want some sort of scan prior to the appointment.
Zytiga would be a good next step.
With external beam radiation, biochemical recurrence is nadir+2, which you haven't yet reached. However, the ADT is starting to fail, suggesting there is still some active cancer. I think you should discuss getting some imaging done--at least an mpMRI to check if there is any local recurrence, which can still be treated; possibly an Axumin PET scan if your insurance will allow it (they may not allow it until your PSA reaches 2.0)
If imaging finds nothing, eliminate the Casodex. Sometimes the cancer "learns" how to feed on Casodex, and taking it away slows down the cancer. After that, you can discuss whether a more powerful hormone therapy is right for you. You may be able to get Nubiqa.
Thanks for the feedback, what is mpMRI?
multiparametric MRI - ask your radiation oncologist
Hi
My NaF Bone Scan last week showed a significant increase in uptake from previous.
The widespread sclerotic osseous lesions are stable but new/increased NaF uptake is now seen at multiple sites.
My PSA has increase since 1.4 in Dec to 22.0 at present.
My Oncologist has started me on 10 days of Bicalutamide to be followed with an injection of Zoladex.
Reading comments on Casodex I am wondering which is the best option from here on.
Keep with the Bicalutamide and postpone the Zoladex?
Any advice would be appreciated.
"Reading comments on Casodex I am wondering which is the best option from here on."
I don't know what comments you are referring to. I don't think I suggested that. Why would you continue only on Casodex? That sounds pretty crazy to me.
you are a breath of fresh air, a guiding light, a... just glad you're here, my friend. Not sure what's causing the gynecomastia if not a hormone.... so you're saying it's not the casodex... well, a small price to pay. In the sack, 4 breasts are more fun than just 2... anywho! carry on, Starkalan.
Okay, Okay so I looked up "Starkalan" and nada...... so I figure you mean the STAR KAPLAN (GABE).....welcome back....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Friday 05/29/2020 8:26 PM DST
nope. try again!
Stark Tall_Alan?
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Sunday 05/31/2020 5:44 PM DST
nope but you're close.... lol This must be payback for the other time... lol
Okay I apologize for what I wrote about you in the unisex bathroom......Now you can tell me..... You know I'm like Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit..... "Knock and a Knock Knock.....________ ________."
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Sunday 05/31/2020 11:12 PM DST
ohh no ya don't... i have faith in you. retrace your steps and mine.... you'll get it... just like i finally got the LOL LOL LOL thing.
Geez.... I'm so slow..... It's Nalakrats Hebrew style.....(Reason for being so slow is that I'm a Jew who's been cloistered in a monestary, A real Schumonk)....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Monday 06/01/2020 8:51 PM DST
schmonk! good one... off topic, right to left is how the moving edge of the moon phases goes... so you can always know if it's waning or waxing.
Thanks for the info.... I'll use it at the next cocktail party that I'll be attending... (waning and waxing - hmmmm)...
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Thursday 06/04/2020 6:09 PM DST
cocktail, ginger ale, 5 cents a glass. if ya don't like it, shove it up your Ask me no questions and I will tell no lies, you'll get hit with a bag of sh...aving cream, right between the eyes.
Memories.........yep the good ole days when I thought only women had tits....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Friday 06/05/2020 10:22 PM DST
i wonder... what does a titmouse have?
Casabas.....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Saturday 06/06/2020 11:03 AM DST
hahahaha -- yer a pisser! very sweet melons, had them once or twice while in miami. epicurus.com/Glossary/casab...
Miami or Yourami?
Serious question now: You appear to be a movie buff, what is your favorite movie (only one)?....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Sunday 06/07/2020 11:28 PM DST
Not a fan of war movies, not a fan of war or the militarization of society. BUT giant fan of Kirk Douglas and Seven Days in May (1964) was some of his best work, in that genre.
I write screenplays, John; since learning the craft, I've never seen films the same way a movie buff does. Same thing happened after studying acting for 8 years; I don't see actors and their work the same way fans do.
But to answer your question... very difficult, since films are classified by genre, so I'd have to choose a favorite genre, then choose a favorite all time member of that genre.
I keep a running list of films, which span almost a century of filmmaking, since TCM (Turner Classic Movies) surprises me now and then. I favor social commentary-themed films over most others but art films and satirical comedy trump those, I think.
My favorite movie WAS Fantasia for many years, due to loving classical music, especially the Nutcracker Suite.
So in the war film genre, would be hard to choose between The 39 Steps (1935), The Pianist (2002), Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), Two Women (1960), Schindler's List (1993), Train of Life (1998), A Few Good Men (1992). WWII films bring back memories of my Dad, who was in the AAC, went down in Austria and held in a POW camp there until liberated by the Ruskies toward the end of the war, '44 or '45. I couldn't appreciated the damage PTSD had done to him until I was much older. Realizing that he'd hidden it all from my sister and me and maybe from Mom as well... just tears me apart, even now, as I write this.
But none of those would make it to my all-time fave... a toss-up between Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and La Strada (1954). Although Citizen Kane (1941), On the Waterfront (1954) and Gone With the Wind (1939) are what most movie producers regard as the best films ever put on celluloid, I would've included 12 Angry Men (1957).
Foreign films and indies (independently produced) are probably the only films that hold my interest anymore. Out of the 300+ new movies that come out of Hollywood per year, there might be 2 or 3 that I'd actually go to the theater to see... and that's a lot.
Well, that oughta keep you going for a while. lol
PS I saw Paths of Glory twice, once when I was very young and recently a few years ago. Honor, integrity, truth, courage, respect... these are much too weighty for me put into words. Tolerance, mercy, compassion, fraternity, love for fellow earthlings... also difficult to transmit the depth of emotions they evoke.
My favorite movie WAS Fantasia for many years, due to loving classical music, especially the Nutcracker Suite.
THATS CAUSE YOU TAKE A HIT WHEN WATCHING IT.....
So in the war film genre, would be hard to choose between The 39 Steps (1935), The Pianist (2002), Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), Two Women (1960), Schindler's List (1993), Train of Life (1998), A Few Good Men (1992). WWII films bring back memories of my Dad, who was in the AAC, went down in Austria and held in a POW camp there until liberated by the Ruskies toward the end of the war, '44 or '45. I couldn't appreciated the damage PTSD had done to him until I was much older. Realizing that he'd hidden it all from my sister and me and maybe from Mom as well... just tears me apart, even now, as I write this.
I CAN RELATE TO YOUR FEELING.... MY OLDEST BROTHER WAS IN THE NORMANDY INVASION AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE...
ME SECOND WAR FILM WOULD BE "THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI"
But none of those would make it to my all-time fave... a toss-up between Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and La Strada (1954). Although Citizen Kane (1941), On the Waterfront (1954) and Gone With the Wind (1939) are what most movie producers regard as the best films ever put on celluloid, I would've included 12 Angry Men (1957).
AS A KID I USED TO DELIVER GROCERIES AND ONE OF MY CUSTOMERS WAS ROD STEIGER, AND ROBERT WEBBER FROM12 ANGRY MEN. I'VE SEEN EVERY MOVIE YOU LISTED (I WAS A FOREIGN FILM BUFF). CARY GRANT (COMEDY ARSENIC AND OLD LACE). I WASN'T FOND OF LA STRADA ( A. QUINN - FELLINI WAS TOO DEEP FOR ME) TWO WOMEN WITH THE LOVE OF MY LIFE - SOFIA LOREN (THE OTHER LOVE WAS AUDREY HEPBURN). FUNNY MOVIE TO WATCH "BIG DEAL ON MODONNA STREET" - ITALIAN, ONE OF MY FAVORITE ACTORS WAS ALBERTO SORDI. EVER WATCH "DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE? I CAN GO ON FOR DAYS I BETTER STOP...(PS I'VE ALSO MET GENE WILDER - WALKED HIS DOG - TOGETHER... BTW - PATHS OF GLORY IS REALLY A POLITICAL ANTI-WAR MOVIE.....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Tuesday 06/09/2020 2:32 PM DST
war films are tricky to label one way or the other. although they expose the horrors of man's inhumanity to man, war also brings out the best in people also, ironically. That paradox is what gets me.
and i was too young to do hits when Fantasia came out! lol
gonna look up Big Deal on Madonna Street... will be co-writing a bio-pic with writing partner about growing up in the Italian ghetto of the South Bronx... he titled it Madonna of 180th Street. Nick taught me everything I know about filmmaking and screenwriting. He has a nasty habit of "borrowing" stuff from other people... now I REALLY gotta check out that film... 1958... yep, Nick was 8 yrs old and had already fallen in love with the same lady you did. Me? I fell for Brigitte Bardot. Then, much later, Susan Sarandon. But my all time Hollywood sex-goddess? 100% Norma Jeane Mortenson.
Arthur avenue..... I was born and raised in the south Bronx.... The address you feared the most was 1910 Authur Avenue.....
If that was a ghetto?.... we called that the north Bronx....... I was in the south Bronx... Three north gangs from that Italian neighborhood were the I.T.'s (Italian Tigers)...Fordham Baldies and the Guinea Dukes (as opposed to the Irish Dukes, and the PRT's (Puerto Rican Tigers) from my neighborhood, the south Bronx)....
I have a picture of my son's class who were in a play "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" Susan Sarandon is in the picture in the middle of the students....
I gotta stop..... I'll be going on and on....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Wednesday 06/10/2020 11:07 AM DST
One more (sorry).. I know I sound like I'm an investor in the film "Paths of Glory" but to me it is excellent in every manner.
Anyway I will quote what I heard the film critic Roger Ebert say on TV. He said that the best war movie of all time made was "Paths of Glory", then corrected himself and said "the best movie ever made".....
I know I know 'sausage his own"....
p.s. Marilyn was okay but i'd take Audrey Hepburn any day.....
(I think you opened up a Pandora's box)....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Wednesday 06/10/2020 12:27 PM DST
soseedge jizone is the correct spelling. lol i'm from brooklyn, bro. nick's from da bronx, so i know nothing about the gangs and 'hoods you mentioned. we had the egyptian lords, the real thing that the terribly bad movie Lords of Flatbush was based on.
i was not in a gang, preferring to sing do-wop on the streets of brooklyn, under the train trestles and in subway stations. i sang with Ronnie and the Excellents, but not the original bronx group. By the 80s, another guy named ronnie had stolen the name of the group, something i didn't know. When i found out, i quit the group, which was going nowhere anyway.
roger ebert was a dick - all critics, especially movie critics, are the lowest form of life. they're critics because they can't create the art they critique. feel free to love paths of glory, if it floats yer boat.
youtube.com/watch?v=POz8d6q...
From the Bronx: (If you can't get it then click on song title on top of video)
youtube.com/watch?v=H6LaAUG...
Trivia:
If you lived in Brooklyn and were going into Manattan "you were going to the city"
If you lived in the Bronx and were going into Manhattan "you were going downtown"
BTW 1910 Authur Avenue was the address of "Selective Service" (the draft board)....
Anyway: soseedge jizone (fanghoul)....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Thursday 06/11/2020 5:34 PM DST
ba fanghoul u gots anghoul hahahaa - yes, the draft board!! now that you mention it, i remember guys talking about arthur ave. For us, it was fort hamilton army base. But i did not know you guys said going downtown. makes sense. like the dividing line between uptown manhattan and the bronx was always sketchy... i STILL aint sure! i went to City College, 135st and st. nicholas ave, hung out with the brothers on amsterdam ave. That youtube site if you let it run, has a load of other do-wop... thnx for that... nick has a story about meeting donna summers in a club called Le Jardin, escorted her home, she tells him her boyfriend is "connected" and he'd better head back to the train before he got caught with her... lol
i lived a few blocks away from Jay Silverheels... let's see if you know who HE is! hahahha and down Ocean Pkwy was Cousin Brucie. Murray the K lived i don't know where, nobody liked him, the egomaniac that he was.
Don't get me started... oh well, too late.
"You mean "Kemosabe" means sonofabitch? You better watch it or I'll put a tear in your other eye... Cousin Brucie...... and Murray the K..... a blast from the past.....So Who was "MoonDog'."?..
Oh you mean CCNY (Christian College Now Yiddish)..... As a small child my family lived on both upper Amsterdam and Columbus avenues (from and to the Bronx).....
Enjoy the movie.....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Friday 06/12/2020 5:39 PM DST
i hope i'm forgetting one of us mentioned MoonDog before, because this is the kind of coincidence that is beyond the mathematical possibilities to be merely coincidence. last week, I happened to remember a funny thing that happened when i was 16, with my friends coming out of a dance place in the village, saturday nite. we'd walk all over lower manhattan until the sun came up and head back to washington sq. Sundays were when people showed up there with guitars, flutes and recorders, drums of all kinds, marimbas and autoharps, harmonicas and whatever. but i digress.
So we're walking along some street somewhere and pass this statue, or what looked like a statue, standing outside some storefront. i stopped to take a closer look but my friends kept walking down the block. I got within about 4 feet away and suddenly the damn thing came alive and grunted loudly as it lunged at me slightly! i ran like a jackrabbit, got up to my friends and fuck if they refused to believe me. Finally one guy was laughing and told me that was MoonDog. I never did find out his story but apparently, he'd just stand around doing nothing, with that cowl covering his face, the long beard below, the odd collection of rags hanging from him like ancient robes on a roman priest... i doubt there's anything online about him, maybe an article in the archives from the Village Voice? Screw magazine? St. Marks Press? Damn, John... too weird you bring him up when i hadn't thought about that incident in centuries! ok, decades but who's counting?
CCNY, hilarious! kitty kollege. the place did look like buildings outta the Renaissance, cathedrals, etc. The chassids and chinese made it impossible to compete, all grading went "on the curve" but the school's professors were creme of the cream.
Still haven't seen I Soliti Ignoti but it got nicola's seal of approval. But i gotta ask... you actually saw Train of Life? outside film festivals, no one's heard of it. i couldn't find a copy anywhere, had to pay $35 to somebody on ebay, for the VHS casette, then buy a $90 unit that played both tapes and DVDs and could convert both ways. Still have the unit, about 200 tapes and 400 CVDs and DVDs... gotta put it all on the 5TB external and recycle all that plastic.
Funny story, cause I had the same experience with MoonDog when I saw him one night in a doorway on 57th street and 6th avenue. Had to change my trousers....(pants for you guys in Bklyn). BTW you can view him on Wikipedia.
I also have a dual VCR and DVD player just for that same reason. There are a few companies who can transfer all of your old crap to new crap (Legacy box and etc.) or you can do it yourself.
Sorry but I did Not see the movie "Train of Life"... Read reviews now and it looks like a film I would enjoy.
Bring back Doo Wop and Disco...
Take care and have fun....
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Saturday 06/13/2020 11:53 AM DST
come on... the term trousers aint geo-specific to the bronx. and my tribe all over the garment center, we also had slacks, drawers, jeans and chinos.
and yeah, i almost shit my bvds too.
There is a way to send larger files over the net... not sure exactly how big the film was. Lemme look for it, will get back to you on that. i may even have a video compressor that will work and do have HandBrake, which i haven't used yet.
PS. This oughta give ya a few laughs - sent via nick youtube.com/watch?v=LSkOnp7...
Thanks.....but does it come with Italian subtitles?
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Saturday 06/13/2020 7:56 PM DST
in case yer not kidding, subtitles for Comizi d'amore can be gotten from several different sources. google it. i found Train of Life but it's a really bad copy, so i found another, better one, small enuff to send via wetransfer dot com -- send me your email in a private chat here and i'll send you the link to download it from.
I know you didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway, my favorite best movie of all time is:
PATHS OF GLORY (Kirk Douglas) In Black and White...
During World War I, commanding officer General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his subordinate, General Mireau (George Macready), to attack a German trench position, offering a promotion as an incentive. Though the mission is foolhardy to the point of suicide, Mireau commands his own subordinate, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), to plan the attack. When it ends in disaster, General Mireau demands the court-martial of three random soldiers in order to save face.
Release date: December 25, 1957 (USA)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Budget: 935,000 USD
Cinematography: Georg Krause
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson, Calder Willingham
Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.
j-o-h-n Sunday 06/07/2020 11:41 PM DST
That is so low, wish mine was that low, it is working.
That type of PSA rise suggests that a recurrence may be happening if the trend (doubling time) continues, in terms of length of time between readings.
I'd move past the urologist, in terms of treatment planning.
PSA Starting to Rise. 
Apalutamide and rising PSA 
Docetaxel after rising PSA
PSA rising…..Duke Champ? 
Rising PSA after Prostatectomy
