Lupron or Not at 76?

I have had prostate cancer since 2009. I have been on lupron since 2011. It has kept my PSA level below one. I am now 73 years old in my PSA is now at 1.8. Just last week, my doctor put me on Abirateone acetate to reduce my PSA level. So Lupe has been working for me all the way up until now and I have not complained once.
good luck.

My understanding is that ADT injectables such as Lupron are covered under Medicare Part B and therefore require less patient involvement with prescription costs under Part D and coinsurance or copay issues. Also, patient compliance is "guaranteed".
I have no reason to think that it is a revenue issue.

@tbgb50 don't miss the surgery too much. It is not a walk in the sunshine. Both options work very well! They have both their own pros and cons. Take it easy, at least you don't have to make a decision. It's a difficult one.

I am sorry to hear that your wife has passed away. Good that you have found this site, you get excellent information here and some company.

My husband is 5 months post surgery and 8 months post diagnosis. Thanks for asking, he is much better now. Does what every man does on this site: try to stay positive and try to be brave. You will be much better in 8 months time as well!

I have had prostate cancer since 2009. I have been on lupron since 2011. It has kept my PSA level below one. I am now 73 years old in my PSA is now at 1.8. Just last week, my doctor put me on Abirateone acetate to reduce my PSA level. So Lupe has been working for me all the way up until now and I have not complained once.
good luck.

@michaelcharles now I know all of that and I understand why the injection is covered. I just wish someone would have verbally said that to me about choice. And I know the daily pill can be missed by human error.

A lot couldn’t afford the additional costs, me too probably. I learned all this after I had the injection. I had the injection because at the time with all the test results I was just going along with my first care team suggested. I am elated I got the second opinion because I wasn’t going to but at last minute I did.

I had 44 radiation treatments and 4 months of Lupron at age 83. Th e Lupron almost killed me and think it would have if I had not stopped at 4 months. The pain in my muscles, head, and bones was awful 24 hours per day. The sweats were bad also but not life threatening. My recovered testosterone was 111 and falling. It has been a year since my treatments, and I am now on testosterone replacement therapy which has stopped the serious side effects. After 2 weeks on testosterone, I am seeing some libido recovery. I have also read new research articles that state that low testosterone has no benefit and can harm the cardiovascular, muscle, and bone systems.

@pesquallie Thanks for telling me about your experience.

These are the concerns that prompted me to ask my question in the first place. I'm seeing the oncologist today for the radiation mapping and am going to ask about Orgovyx as many in this discussion have recommended. Either way, I'm going to take it 6 months at a time - the recommendation is 2 years of Lupron. If I'm able to live normally even with unpleasant side effects, I ll extend another 6 months. If it is a disaster, I may just stop.

My husband had a Gleason 4+5 biopsy as well. We learned from the Radio Oncologist that the radiation kills the cancer cells effectively but not immediately. They die in slow motion and it takes roughly one year until the dying process and the radiation's effect stop. For a "standard" PCa cell this is fast enough since PC grows slowly. However, very aggressive cancer cells are highly active and more robust. They could be still able to proliferate so that the cancer is not suffocated enough or may even sneak out of the radiation area. Hence, ADT kind of paralyzes or freezes the cells in order to suppress their activity during the radiation's effective time. This is the reason why radiation alone is not suited aggainst aggressive cancer as in your case. We had not understood why they recommend ADT for so much longer than this one year post radiation, apart from a more is more strategy (which is not always a good one). However, since my husband decided for surgery, we did not follow up on this topic any more.

Ask your RO about this and whether one year wouldn't be a good compromise in your case, or maybe even a bit shorter. It seems that the effect of ADT doesn’t end abruptely when you stop it. All the best to you!