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Replies to "I should have been more clear - I meant testing the biopsies for mutations and anomalies..."
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 23 hours ago | Replies (17)
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I should have been more clear - I meant testing the biopsies for mutations and anomalies - we just got ‘adenocarcinoma of prostate origin’ from the lung Mets - I mean, isn’t there more information in that cluster?
Replies to "I should have been more clear - I meant testing the biopsies for mutations and anomalies..."
Dpfbanks, ‘Adenocarcinoma’ IS informative; it is a particular type of PCa arising from glandular cells - not intraductal, neuroendocrine or urothelial. It’s most probably the same type he originally had.
Actually, this sounds like good news if he survived the first bout for 17 yrs; hopefully it has not undergone too many changes in that time frame.
Phil
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I see what you mean. As far as I understand (not a molecular biologist), all your cancer cells aren't exactly the same — tiny mutations are happening all the time. So even if they could determine castrate sensitivity for the tiny sampling of cells in your biopsy, they wouldn't know if there are others that are on the verge of evolving castrate resistance, or whether they're dormant or active.
That's why it makes the most sense to monitor systemically, to see what your millions or billions of cancer cells are doing together. If your PSA is falling, then ADT is working to hold back the flood, regardless of how any individual cancer cell is responding.
I hope that makes sense.