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Prostate cancer radiation failed
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 10 2:29pm | Replies (59)Comment receiving replies
Good points (and for prostate cancer, add ADT as the third "old school" treatment, dating back to the 1940s I think).
Fortunately, things have changed a lot since your book came out in 2010. Second-gen ARSIs arrived just before the pandemic (Erleada, which I'm on, was approved around 2018), and they've been game changers.
If/when things progress, a common option is Pluvicto: it is still technically radiation, but can target widely-scattered cancer, which traditional external radiation can't. And there are immunotherapies and all kinds of other treatments.
In 2010 our path forward for metastatic prostate cancer was usually ADT ➡️ radiation ➡️ chemo ➡️ "I'm so sorry, there's nothing else we can do."
Now my RO gets so excited that he sounds like a kid in a candy shop talking about all the new treatment options available if my current ADT+ARSI stops working. He also says it could be 10+ years before that happens. More here:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/treating-prostate-cancer-at-any-stage/
Replies to "Good points (and for prostate cancer, add ADT as the third "old school" treatment, dating back..."
Thanks for the feedback. Didn't realize the book was already 10 years old. Will consider that while reading it.
Great article - especially for those not well versed in this disease. It does seem like help is on the way!
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I will add a bit of anecdotal, completely unscientific evidence. My uncle is a retired GP, surgeon, and coroner who still keeps up on the research.
He's always been very no-nonsense: when his parents were diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s and 1980s, he told his sister (my mother) that they would die soon and there was nothing anyone could do, even when the oncologists were still holding out hope.
When my mom called him about my diagnosis (stage 4 oligometastatic PCa to my spine), he told her "Oh, don't worry about that. He'll be fine." Not what either of us expected to hear from Dr. ToughLove, but I'll take it. 🙂