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Is this normal on ADT? Body hair gone
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Sep 23 2:56pm | Replies (76)Comment receiving replies
Time to evaluate the value of living.
Treatments may not cure you but I am in the same condition, can’t be cured, but still alive with no cancer pain after 14 years, now 76 Had prostatectomy, then salvage radiation.
I have been on ADT since 03/2017 and along with Zytiga 4 years later and Darolutamide 2.5 years after that my cancer is undetectable for the last 10 months. It will come back, but there are treatments I can take when that happens.
Yes ADT isn’t fun, I get hot flashes and brain fog and muscle weakness/deterioration, but I exercise every day and do weight training three times a week and it keeps me going.
You can look into getting your metastasis zapped with SBRT if they come back. I did that.
If I stop with my drugs, my PSA rises right away, maybe the same for you. You can get accustomed to the drugs, it’s never perfect, but with exercise it can feel a lot less draining. Going on and off the drugs can make you live a lot shorter because they are not as effective when you stop and start.
Don’t give up.
Replies to "Time to evaluate the value of living. Treatments may not cure you but I am in..."
Thanks for your comment. My Oncologist doesn't believe that going off and back on ADT will affect how the drugs work or that it will make you resistant to the drugs. He quoted me some stats from a study regarding this. When I see him next month I will bring it up again.
I am glad to hear that you are able to tolerate you treatments as well as you have and I am also glad that they are working for you. This is only my second go around with ADT and my PSA went up very fast once I stopped taking the drugs the fist go around. So I will wait and see how this time goes.
Thanks again for sharing your story.
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I've made the same decision not to try pausing ADT.
The last research I read about suggested that ADT "vacations" are safe for earlier stages of PCa (and might even improve overall survival slightly), but resulted in lower overall survival for advanced PCa like mine.
Since ADT and ARSI have been keeping my PSA undetectable for three years so far — with manageable side effects — I'm not willing to risk taking a "vacation" and maybe seeing my cancer come back as castrate-resistant after a few months. It would be like poking a sleeping bear with a stick. 🙂
It's still early days, though. New research and evidence might. change my mind in the future.