11 anniversaries since diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer

Yes, I am keeping a close eye on it, and it sounds promising. My fear is that if I tried it now, in a year or two my currently highly-stable, castrate-sensistive PCa could come back as castrate-resistant.

I might have chosen that therapy if it had been offered to me right at the beginning, before I knew how I'd respond to radiation, ADT, and ARSI. However, after a rapid PSA decline to undetectable and stability for nearly three years, as well as tolerating the treatments without too much difficulty, I have the extra info (prior coin flips, if you will, or choosing the first door in the Monty Hall Problem) that change the risk calculation for me, so it will take a much bigger body of evidence now to convince me to upset the apple cart.

In 2021, I wouldn't have known that this approach would end up working so well for me, so I'd have been willing to risk a more drastic one, like you did.

If your treatment has resulted in an undetectable PSA for 3 years, I wouldn't do anything differently either! With so many new drugs, treatments and combinations to choose from it's hard to know what is the right thing to do. But if it's working, I wouldn't change anything.

Good luck to you!

Thank you, this has helped a lot, I’ve been having a hard time coping with my stage 4A situation.

RAPL, ADT, Abiraterone, Prednisone and just finished 38 Radiation sessions.

No detectible PSA, I guess slim chance of being cancer free but possible.

I can live with this, but recently had to stop Abiraterone due to high liver enzymes… will go back on again in a month. Nervous being off of it for 5 months though.

Anyhow, thank you for showing me a way.

Regards

At stage 4b (oligometastatic) myself, I'd love to think I could be cancer free some day, but I'll be happy to settle for managing my cancer as a long-term chronic disease until old age, like we can now with HIV/AIDS.

We might be arriving at that point in 2024, but we won't know for sure for a few more years until researchers have done follow-up surveys and crunched the numbers. The author of this article thinks there's a good chance:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/treating-prostate-cancer-at-any-stage/

When you got off of Arbiterone, did your fatigue go away,?
?

Lordy your doing well with a stage 4 diagnosis . Your on hormone therapy ....BUT still, outstanding progress . Remember , research is changing things so quick that they probably have a replacement for hormone therapy soon ! I had operation March 31, 2021 . My PSA did not go to zero , it hung around 0.14 and a slight rise . About a year ago I got 22 sessions of radiation with no chemicals or ADT . Now my PSA is sliding . from 0.14 , it went to 0.072 after about 5 months , and now is at 0.056 . this is after a year . It takes this long for radiation to work ? My next test for PSA is in 2.5 weeks . Im starting to loose sleep over it . I get up and walk around the house with the dogs at 3 am . My stress around PSA is bad . My father passed away with PC about 26 years ago - I know the world has changed since then . I was his care giver . He suffered in silence . I closed his eyes and drew the sheets over his head upon his death 26 years ago at his age of 67 . That stuck with me . I have good care here , but I am haunted by my past caring for my father . Any ideas ? James on Vancouver Island .

My father died of colon cancer 14 years ago. He waited too long, and then didn't want to fight it, so he spent most of the last year of his life just lying in a hospital bed.

I promised my kids that if it ever happened to me, I'd fight. I didn't think I'd have to keep the promise so soon, but I did.

There's a saying in aviation that you have to keep flying the plane until every piece of it stops moving. I apply that to life as well. This isn't our fathers' cancer, and we have a lot more tools to keep living *almost* normal lives.

yes , I agree with you . Its tough seeing our fathers this way . My father hated doctors , he was a Chemical Engineer by education. Smart man , but hated doctors . He told me they do too much "guess work" ! That was dad though . He was a kind man.

Yoru aviation analogy hit home . "Any landing that you walk away from - IS a good landing" , I was taught in Private school ...later on at the aviation academy we tweeted this saying a bit . With the IFR and jet endorsement you began to trust ATC and the whole support system around you . I started flying when I was 15 . Private license at 16 , commercial license at 18 and so on . Flying in remote areas of Africa , to Europe to Latin America. I did it all . Makes me wonder , with th radio bank and transponder at my pelvic level and radiation from flying at FL410 or FL 390 ....makes me wonder what the role of radiation played in the PC I have . Likely mostly genetics I think as dad likely had it in his 50's , but discovered it at 60 . died at 67 . God Bless you Sir ! James on Vancouver Island .

I would so love to talk to you more. My dad is 75 and was just diagnosed with stage 4 metric prostate cancer and we need guidance , advice and help!

Hi; on 04/15/24 I was diagnosed with PC metastatic to the bones up to my spine also in lymph nodes. Gleason:9.
They said 5 years of survival with the triplet therapy (eligard injection, nubeqa tablets, chemo doxetacel) I am on second round of chemo holding well. First round I ended up in hospital for 5 days; neutroponic fever and sinus infection.
Thank you the positive news that the survival projections sometimes are too pessimistic!
Let’s keep on rocking!