Hi all,
Need help…
A friend of mine is 70 been dealing with the monster for 14 years, Kaiser in California, and now his PSA explodes to 27 and he has spots in his Femur and ribs.
My complaint is they put him on Zytiga and Zometa. Shouldn’t he be moving forward with chemo??
He is several options : chemo, Zytiga, Xtandi, Provenge, and Xofigo. A biopsy may be able to detect any personalized options.
Hello Allen, he has no prostate to biopsy as it was removed years ago. do you mean biopsy on a met? He failed Xtandi due to an issue with his heart that caused him to discontinue. I’m nowhere as knowledgeable as you guys, but from what I’ve read chemo seems likely to knock his disease back better than most?
I should have explained more clearly. I meant a biopsy of a recent metastasis, not the prostate.
Is is that the biopsy of a bone met would tell if he has a mutation? And that would change his treatment?
It will tell you if there are any targetable therapies.
To supplement Tall Allen, if he has just a few spots, he can hit them with sbrt radiation.
Hello, more widespread mets, femur, ribs, many lymph’s in abdomen. Seems too widely disseminated to use localized treatment.
Agreed
Not clear, is he on hormone therapy?
He is on Lupron currently
Well in that case with the mets growing during Lupron, I would have to say it sounds like mcrPC, metastatic castration resistant Prostate Cancer, (tumors grow with low T). My PSA was similar to him , after four years without Lupron, my PSA grew to 35, but then resuming Lupron my PSA fell to <0.1. So my guess is that my PC is not mcrPC but just typical mPC. Question is then how to reduce mets that are resistant to hormone therapy? In my case I have tried using heat. Did you know that all cancer cells die when exposed to temperatures above 106 degrees F? That means you can apply heat locally to the cancer locations for short times at higher temperatures to kill the cancer tumors or slow their growth. I have been trying this with hot showers and heating pads for several years now and all I can say is it seems to work. I have had mets in lymph nodes, spine, and rib, also on tailbone and skull. So far with the Lupron and heat I seem to be controlling my cancer. I can say it has eliminated what I believe were tumors in lymph nodes, possibly in bones.
I have never heard this before, about heat.
canceractive.com/article/Hy....
That is just one of many artices about the subject, if you google "heat kills cancer". However, they seem to make it more complex and expensive than necessary.
I simply heat up a 2.5 lb weight to roughly 140 degrees and then lie on it or place it on a suspected tumor location. Of course you have to be careful not to burn the skin, so wrap it in a piece of cloth like a towel. Then put it on and off the tumor (or lie on it on the bed or on the floor, and try to avoid burning.
Or with a shower, turn the water temperature up to a point just below unbearable. I use a thermometer to measure the water temperature before applying, although lately I don't feel I need to do that. Just keep the water temperature "really hot" but not "too hot". Apply to the tumor location for a count of 25, 50 or whatever you can bear without scalding. In my case the skin turns red after about half a minute and I stop and cool it down.
I also purchased a mini-sauna for about $200 ( Serenelife, on Amazon).which I use once a week at 130 degrees for 25 minutes. The only problem with that is that it does not heat the head, and it may not heat as deeply as necessary for organs or far below the skin surface. I use the shower or 2.5 lb weight on head. Shower works fine. Kills headaches in minutes.
I use a thermometer like this.
Step #1 would be to find an oncologist who works only on prostate cancer.
I am in a very similar pattern of disease progression, and also at Kaiser. I have had discussions with my MO about the pros and cons of chemo. She is recommending that I avoid chemo because of the serious side effects. But much of it depends totally on her reading of my unique test results, including scans. I think you have to ask your doctor about why he or she is recommending that treatment approach-- what are your friend's unique test results/characteristics? And how does he feel about what's most important to him-- "quality of life" vs. "longevity at all costs"?
Some really great points there. He does seem to be avoiding chemo but yet seems to want that longevity that we all long for.
I am by no means an expert, but I think you are right in thinking chemo (Docetaxel) will really beat the disease down. My Dad uses ADT and chemo (6 x) which has really beat down his prostate cancer. I feel that the chemo did a great job damaging the cancer. It was not too bad at first and got a little worse towards the end, but he got through it and is happy with his PSA now. I would encourage him to do the chemo.
Chemo may well indeed be the best next sequence for him. This should be discussed. Not something to fear. For most here, side effects are quite manageable. If something more severe such as peripheral neuropathy starts to emerge he can stop it. Beware made-up therapies found on google or YouTube. He could literally get burned. 🔥
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