Hi!
Is there any ongoing studies or upcoming research that gives you hope regarding advanced prostate cancer? Very thankful for the opportunity to hear about it!
From a daughter who has been searching the 18,468 results for "advanced prostate cancer" on PubMed and is feeling mostly exhausted/confused at the moment.
Not related to your query, did your father stop being on Firmagon or other ADT? If yes and his T got back to normal by now, how is he doing PSA-wise?
He hasn’t yet, one doctor is saying ”the sooner the better” and the other one is saying ”1 year” so he does something in the middle.
should add: have not read all 18,484 results (yet)
Hello,
I would say if your Dad's cancer is adenocarcinoma and PSMA avid and if everything else has failed then I would certainly check out Lutetium 177. It is not yet approved in North America but it is mainstream in Germany, Australia, South Africa, India and elsewhere. There are a number of PSMA targeted radiopharmaceutical trials going on in the United States and Canada. If these prove to be successful, then Lutetium 177/PSMA and perhaps Actinium should be approved by the FDA (and Health Canada) in a year or two. Hope that helps!
Thank you!!
The radiotherapeutic agents using FAPI ligands. Similar to Lu 177 PSMA but the FAPI ligands do not depend of PSMA expression or the PSA. They are supposed to work with any cancer.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?te...
wow thank you!!
May I ask: do you take any supplements?
No.
There is scarse with studies using FAPI, I wish there were more!
Supraphysiologic testosterone (SPT) and bipolar androgen therapy (BAT) give me hope. If we can identify why a person may or may not respond then these might be possibly more positive adjuncts to the standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).
I did estrogen-based ADT for 5 months and followed it with SPT. I've been on SPT for a little over a year and so far I've gone 8 times as long as my Mayo doctors' original predictions regarding the return of my cancer (their predictions were 3 months max after surgery. So far it has been just under 2 years). Why has it worked for me so far? Why didn't I have any PSA flare-up, even in the first month of SPT? My MO was against it and thought I was going to kill myself, but after a year of SPT, she acknowledges that it has worked. But she doesn't know why it has worked. So how can we predict who it will help, or should we simply try it as a standard practice and monitor results via PSA or scans? Are the people who respond to BAT or SPT just lucky and is the response just a mirage? (given the number of patients, trials, and studies this seems unlikely)
Thank you!!
We just had a successful report yesterday of BAT working for my husband after being CR for over a year. Our oncologist is cautiously excited and anxious to see next month’s PSA. Very best wishes for continued success for you!
That's great! Best of luck to you as well.
Was Mayo onboard with this adventurous treatment? I imagine them being by-the-book and staying in their lane.
Mayo is incredibly by the book and seemed unwilling to entertain any deviation. My experience was a "resistance is futile" one. So my relationship with them was short-lived and involved fights and yelling.
Nobody was really on board with it - other than me and I thought that I might be signing up for a disaster of my own making.
After a year my SOC MO (not from Mayo!) is on board with it. She is SOC so doesn't have a lot of input but kind of looks the other way and tells me to keep doing what I'm doing.
Thanks. That's what I thought. Glad to hear that this treatment is working for you.
Here are the ones I'm keeping my eye on:
SM-88: tymeinc.com/our-science/sm-...
Veyonda: noxopharm.com/site/content/
Tulsa-pro: profoundmedical.com/new-tulsa/
Thank you!!
Get Prostate Cancer Foundation's patient guide, a great reference that will answer a lot of questions. pcf.org
Ok thank you!!
I have been living with metastasized prostate cancer for 10 years and currently symptomatic. I'll be trying Bipolar Androgen Therapy (BAT) starting next Thursday. I really believe this will be a turning point. BAT has been shown to be effective on approximately 66% of patients (from a reliable source that I will not disclose at this time), so take this statement as hearsay. BAT is currently not a standard of care treatment. PS: There is always hope.
Thank you!!
In a response to the original question - there is research going on with immunotherapy that if it works as well as expected may be a major step forward treating advanced cancer. I can't go into more detail - this was info from a leading researcher/MD who is leading the research. No papers that I can refer you to yet.
Thank you!!
Have you read Jane McLellands how to starve cancer?
I have it but drinking wine and sometimes eating sugar seems to make my father happier and feeling more normal during this experience, so I feel like trying to control his diet would do more harm :/
Jim Allison at MD Anderson is running a trial soon using triple blockade immunotherapy. CDLA4, PD-1 and VISTA.
The trial is open to all comers, not selective like other trials. Any man with Prostate Cancer.
He is building on previous trial results and blocking whatever is causing the cancer to escape the treatment. Step by logical step.
I believe he is closer than most to achieving a treatment to give durable remissions to a large percentage of men in the trial.
The side effects are bad for some guys and he is planning that new dosage and frequency will alter that. Time will tell.
I read recently that he is not impressed with the scatter gun approach of other trials.
Immunotherapy with chemo or PARPi or ADT etc...
He thinks they are throwing stuff at the cancer and hoping for a lucky break. (to be fair that might work). But as he is a scientist I can see why he is frustrated.
Something to consider when watching this trial is that Allison has prostate cancer himself. There is nothing like skin in the game to focus your mind. Also that is wife also is a leading oncologist at MD A.
Another point to remember is that Allisons brother died of prostate cancer recently.
If you ever read of some magic cure that is supposedly in a lab somewhere. Call B.S.
Allison won the Nobel prize for his work on cancer, if anyone had access to a magic cure it would be him and his brother would be alive.
Thank you!! I tried googling about the triple blockade immunotherapy but I could find anything, do you have any links for reading more?
I couldn’t find anything either. I think it’s CTLA4, PD-1 and VISTA if that helps. Please post if you find anything.
These reference the VISTA pathway
ascopost.com/issues/septemb...
mdanderson.org/newsroom/com...
This video introduces Allisons approach.
Lu-177 and chemo naive patient (me) Check this out...plus Duke will have new Lu-177 trials next year and FDA approval for SOC in a little less than two years .
Thank you!!
Interesting read - but I suspect actual human trials are a few years off: medicalnewstoday.com/articl...
Thank you!!
I used to post the "Promising, latest and greatest" research findings, but after two years, got fatigue. I'm diagnosed with PCa, currently the 40 year old ADT treatment is having me in remission. Added Taxotere infusions to sweep for any ADT resistant cancer cells hanging around.
Current PSA <0.02, ADT is working, Taxotere who knows, my point: For my life term, only interested in actionable treatment.
Although, I've signed away all my PCa treatment and results data to Dana-Farber for research. Hope my PCa data helps...
Thank you so much for sharing! Have you been on continuous ADT or have you had any vacations?
No vacation, but last week my doc said he recommends stoping ADT, I'm ecstatic!
Patrick showed me that there is a PC-study that has been suspended
clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show...
I'm still metastatic hormone sensitive, the study is about castrate resistance...
Exercise
Surgery + Radiation for Advanced PCa Offers Better Survival than RT + xRT 
What do you think? 
FYI: from the VA research information on Veterans 
