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Acceptance of Prostate Cancer and its side effects

Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Dec 3 9:23pm | Replies (40)
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@chamblee54

Thanks you for this post. I’m meeting with a Dr at MD Anderson in 2 weeks to help me pick out of treatment. I’m Gleason 7 with 1 as a 4+3 so I do need to treat. But the suggested IMRT x 28 and the hormone therapy has me concerned also about quality of life. I’m especially wary of the hormone therapy - mood swings and other side effects. I also so far have rejected surgery due to incontinence risks. The quality of life vs quantity is not talked about much. Best wishes.

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Replies to "Thanks you for this post. I’m meeting with a Dr at MD Anderson in 2 weeks..."
hhwillis | @hhwillis | Mar 27 1:08pm

Chamblee54, you might want to take a look at a review done by "The Lancet" two years ago -

"Androgen deprivation therapy use and duration with definitive radiotherapy for localised prostate cancer: an individual patient data meta-analysis" (search for https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00705-1 ).
It found the addition of just 3 months of ADT decreased the cumulative incidence of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) progression, local progression, and improved event-free survival, and reduced adverse outcomes by more than a third; 6 months of ADT cut the risk for adverse outcomes in half.
See also DOI: 10.1007/s00345-024-04862-0

The two questions I asked myself were:
1. How much longer might I live, but for my prostate cancer? - Answer: Although I am 78 and have some other health issues, I am overall pretty healthy for my age, with better than 50% chance of another 10 years, and better than 25% chance of 15 years.
2. How much am I willing to do now - while I am healthy enough to deal with any side effects - to minimize my chances of suffering metastasis, chemo, etc in the years ahead? Answer: A lot.

Everyone must make their own choice, with no guarantee what the outcome will be. I don't think the temporary side effects of thorough treatment now will diminish my overall quality of life all that much, compared to the (admittedly small) chance of a really bad outcome if I don't.

I watched my Mom die of breast cancer in 1969, and my wife die of PSP three years ago. No doubt, those experiences influence my own choice now.

I have decided to "prophylactically" treat aggressively now, in the hope of avoiding a worse outcome in my final years.

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ltdan2021 | @ltdan2021 | Dec 3 9:23pm

Well, I will tell you this, my friend I’ve been going to MD Anderson for almost a year now couldn’t have asked for any better people pretty caring. I wish I would’ve done a little bit more research on where I was at free having my prostate removed with the option of Any other treatment Gleason report of 4+5=9 nodes in my hip and my shoulder region and maybe on my lung not sure yet waiting to see on that on a lung biopsy the side effect are pretty rough . Lupron shot 2 second shot every six months started with our Arleta , I’ll share a photo of what my fingers look like after taking a couple months of Arleta. We’ve switched it now to the Zytiga with a shot of prednisone .

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