Any hopeful stage 4 storries

@beaquilter He is doing OK overall He is about to turn 80, so his issues seem more age-related than cancer related, which has been true all along. He had some SBRT to a spinal met in late May; we return to Mayo Rochester for scans and labs the week of August 24. His PSA is not undetectable or close enough to it to assume no active cancer anywhere in his body, so next steps will depend on what the scans and labs show later this month.

@northoftheborder Zytiga kept my husband's cancer suppressed for three years starting in January 2020, which was a blessing since health care was partly shut down during the pandemic.

@christinadiersen50 My husband was first diagnosed in 2005 and initially treated locally with brachytherapy and external beam radiation. After six years the cancer recurred, and he became a Mayo Rochester patient of Dr. Kwon, and also of a local medical oncologist at Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis. He had spot radiation to mets until they started showing up frequently and in greater numbers, after which he had docetaxel chemotherapy. He began early on with Casodex and Lupron, which he still gets in six-month shots. He has had spot radiation and spot ablation to spinal mets over the years, includng as recently as May 2026. He started Zytiga in January 2020 and it kept his cancer in remission for three years after that. Since that time, he has been put on Xtandi, but couldn't tolerate it, and at the moment he is not taking any oral cancer medication and is only getting Lupron shots. I suspect that will change after he has scans and labs at Mayo Rochester later this month because his PSA seems to be indicating active cancer somewhere.

@todd7017
Just saw you understand how this works, You say you have Gleason scores of 7, 8 and 9. As far as doctors are concerned, the only number that counts is the nine. You will be treated as a Gleeson 9 Going forward. That is very aggressive, But I know people with Gleeson nine that are still alive 15, 20 and 25 years later.

It is not a death sentence. Prostate cancer is usually a chronic disease, not a deadly disease. With the proper treatment, you should live many years. You need to get a PSMA PET scan to find out if your cancer has spread anywhere outside the prostate. Once you have that information, your doctors can give you an idea of what treatments you can reasonably have to extend your life.

Don’t get panicked, You have plenty of time it’s just a matter of getting the right treatment. I’m still around 16 years later after four reoccurrences and metastasis on my spine. I’ve been undetectable for the last 33 months. Treatment works on the drugs are really good.

@james4511 I have some spots to my rib bone in the upper left side of my chest that cause pain recently. For the time being I'm taking Ibuprofen and Acetamenifin. My psa just started rising from undetectable to .05 in March of this year, and .08 in July. I had gleason 9 in 2013 before RP. Can they spot treat rib with radiation? TIA.

@natem Yes. Spot radiation can be done on most bony mets. My husband has had SBRT to many mets on his spine and also on a shoulder blade. They planned to do a rib also, but decided the scans were showing an old injury and not a met, so didn't do the rib.

@lag Great, thank you very much!!!

I'll just add that I have a good friend who was Stage IV when diagnosed six years ago. For various reasons, he opted for Focal therapy , which didn't last long before recurrence. Had RP after that, followed by radiation and ADT treatment to go full throttle against the cancer. It was a long road. Today, he is in full remission...so much so that his doctors are allowing him to do testosterone therapy (!). He is active and has sexual function back. He is one of the most enthusiastic people I know. But, he did go through some very challenging times.

Hang tight-there is light at the end of the tunnel that isn't an oncoming train.