I'm sorry to hear about the diagnosis — it's a shock adjusting to living with cancer, especially for the first year or so. And I do hope health agencies reconsider the recommendation against routine PSA testing from age 40, because it's had a high human cost in rising rates of advanced prostate cancer at first diagnosis.

If your cancer is oligometastatic (just to a couple of places) and castrate-sensitive, there's a good chance they can at least pause it for a long time (if not indefinitely). There's lots of good information in threads here. Even if there are many metastases and/or the cancer is already castrate-resistant, newer treatments and approaches are showing a lot of promise.

I'm stage 4b, oligometastatic to my spine (we discovered it when I went to the ER because I was having trouble walking). I've had 2 1/2 years with no progression, after

1. Immediate emergency debulking surgery (to ease the pressure on my spinal cord)
2. Radiation to the metastasis site 4 weeks after diagnosis
3. Radiation to the prostate 6 months after diagnosis
4. Continual ADT and ARSI (Erleada) since diagnosis.

My PSA remains < 0.01 on the ultra-sensitive test — fingers crossed for the next 12-week test this coming Friday.

@clarkb, how was your appointment? Do you have a treatment plan?

You are in good hands. Dr. Kwon and his team have monitored and controlled my husband's Stage 4 cancer since 2011. They refer to their treatment protocol as "whack a mole." Hang in there.