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Anyone had prostate cancer spread to the lungs?

Posted by tom99 @tom99, Oct 1 1:11pm

My prostate cancer was in remission for 5 years after initial treatment. It then came roaring back and spread to my lungs, which is unusual but not unheard of. Last September I had lung surgery and a section of my left lung was removed to get rid of the biggest nodules. I was then placed on Lupron, Prednisone, and Abiraterone, which I have been on for a year.

My question is this: is there anyone else out that has had their prostate cancer spread to their lungs? I'm on a couple of other forums and haven't yet found anyone in this condition. I'd be interested in what your doctor has told you, what meds you're on, and anything else specific to treating this.

Thanks to any info anyone can provide.

Tom

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

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mjp0512 | @mjp0512 | Oct 2 6:00am
In reply to @tom99 "I don't think that a very small nodule showing up on a CAT scan is cause..." + (show)
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I don't think that a very small nodule showing up on a CAT scan is cause for alarm. I had them for years and PET scans showed nothing...until they did. I believe a PSMA PET scan is necessary to check for cancer, but one small nodule is doubtful based on my experience and what my doctors have told me..

Good luck! I sincerely hope the small nodule is benign. I'm sorry to hear your bone mets are uncontrollable by ADT and hope your chemo goes well.

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@tom99 - Thank you very much for the well wishes. I'm really not worried about the lung nodule at all. At this point, it's just another one of those, "Hey look at that" things that pop up every now and then on this PCa journey.

Wishing you much success with your treatment plan! 👍

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brianjarvis | @brianjarvis | Oct 2 6:31am

The only other time I’ve heard about prostate cancer spread to the lung was in this presentation by Dr. Johnson (of Mayo Clinic) where he’s talking about PSMA PET scans and Pluvicto: https://youtu.be/JoJomACA5UM

At about the 24:55-minute mark, he talks briefly about a patient with prostate cancer in his lung and how it was treated.

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heavyphil | @heavyphil | Oct 2 6:32am
In reply to @tom99 "After I was diagnosed that it potentially spread to the lungs (with a PET scan), I..." + (show)
Profile picture for tom99 @tom99

After I was diagnosed that it potentially spread to the lungs (with a PET scan), I went in for a biopsy and they said there was chance that if it came up malignant, they might have to remove some of the nodules while they were in there. Turns out there were a lot of malignant nodules, so they removed part of my left lung as that had the most nodules. My right lung was basically clear. They did 5 incisions into the lung to get it all.

It's curious that none of the three cases you know about resulted in surgery. Makes me a bit suspicious now of my surgery, although the thoracic surgeon was reputed to be the top one in the Northwest. I'm guessing it was due to the large number of nodules and the fact that I'm a Gleason score of 9.

It doesn't surprise me that you haven't heard of any other cases after 5 years of meetings. I'm having trouble finding anyone that had it spread to the lungs, even on the prostatecacer.net forum.

For now, the Abiraterone and Lupron is keeping the nodules in check and some have actually shrunk, but this is a temporary solution. The cancer will eventually become resistant to the drugs and I'll then be faced with more life altering treatments such as chemo, Pluvicto, or who knows what else. On the plus side, my oncologist has patients that have made it 5 years on these drugs and even has one that is going on 10 years (but I'll bet they weren't a Gleason score of 9).

I still hoping to find a few in my situation in this community.

Thank you much for your reply.

Tom

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@tom99 Did they test these nodules for any genetic markers (mutations) which might be useful in treatment?
Phil

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jsemmerhoff | @jsemmerhoff | Oct 2 8:10am
In reply to @tom99 "Great video, thank you! It went into some good detail about both liver and lung metastisis...." + (show)
Profile picture for tom99 @tom99

Great video, thank you! It went into some good detail about both liver and lung metastisis. The outlook for liver metastasis is considerable worse than lung metastasis and in fact he was pretty positive about the outlook for lung versus liver.

My original diagnosis was cancer confined to the prostate with a Gleason score of 9 and I opted for radiation, hormone treatment, and radiation seed implants, rather than surgery. This got me by for 5 years until it came back and spread to my lungs. For now, the drugs are keeping the nodules from growing or spreading, but I'll eventually have to go more advanced treatments, so I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone for whom the cancer spread to the lungs and is in advance treatment.

So far, it's been nearly impossible to find people with lung metastasis.

Thanks for the video, it gave me a lot of encouragement.

For now,

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@tom99
Hi Tom.
I was diagnosed in October 2022 whit Tb3 gleason 9 PC. After surgery I was doing well for 1 year. After PSMA PET ct in September 2023 I was diagnosed with stage 4 PC. 20 spots in my lungs, one in my left hip bone and a few in pelvic lymph nodes. I started Zoladex, Abiraterone and chemo theraphy. After 6 cycles of chemo I had 13 rounds of radiation to my left hip. I also continued with Zoladex and Abiraterone. In July 2025 I shifted from Abiraterone to Xtandi as the nodes in my lungs started to grow. In October 2025 I had Cyber Knife treatment of the 5 biggest nodes in my lungs (19 - 25 mm). Then again in June 2026 I commenced Pluvicto treatment and did 2 cycles. Unfortunately it did not work for me. At the moment I am doing Jevtana chemo theraphy and the cancer has also spread to my liver. My strategy is to nock out the 5 biggest tumors with cyber knife after completion of the 6 cycles with Jevtana. I have now stopped Xtandi but I am still on Zoladex. I am 61, have very few side effects and as I have an office job I am able to maintain a 66% workload.
Jakob Severin Emmerhoff

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tom99 | @tom99 | Oct 2 12:20pm

Wow! What I've been through is nothing compared to you! So far, my prostate cancer hasn't spread beyond my lungs. When I had my lung surgery, they removed about 40% of my left lung to get the worst nodules. The remaining ones have so far been stopped by the abiraterone and Lupron.

You've had an extremely hard journey and I wish you the best going forward.

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tom99 | @tom99 | Oct 2 12:23pm
In reply to @heavyphil "@tom99 Did they test these nodules for any genetic markers (mutations) which might be useful in..." + (show)
Profile picture for heavyphil @heavyphil

@tom99 Did they test these nodules for any genetic markers (mutations) which might be useful in treatment?
Phil

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They did and I had no genetic markers, so that exit is closed.

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2 replies
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mjp0512 | @mjp0512 | Oct 2 1:17pm
In reply to @tom99 "They did and I had no genetic markers, so that exit is closed." + (show)
Profile picture for tom99 @tom99

They did and I had no genetic markers, so that exit is closed.

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@tom99 - No muts is not necessarily a bad thing. I have a few, including TP53 which basically removes Pluvicto as a tool in the box.

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heavyphil | @heavyphil | Oct 3 8:03am
In reply to @tom99 "They did and I had no genetic markers, so that exit is closed." + (show)
Profile picture for tom99 @tom99

They did and I had no genetic markers, so that exit is closed.

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@tom99 Well at least you know it’s not something totally untreatable or destined to get worse despite treatment.
As Mike points out, finding a mutation does not necessarily mean they have a treatment for it, but they’ll know which treatment(s)
do NOT work….which could leave you with few options.
Phil

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1 reply
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florida11 | @florida11 | Oct 3 8:49am

I had two lung nodules surgically removed six weeks ago. Pathology report confirmed prostate cancer. I was diagnosed 9 years ago and have had several reoccurrences. I was 4+3=7 with a tertiary score of five and intraductal. When my PET scan lit up and showed the growth of the two nodules, my PSA was still undetectable.

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Jeff Marchi | @jeffmarc | Oct 3 10:48am
In reply to @tom99 "After I was diagnosed that it potentially spread to the lungs (with a PET scan), I..." + (show)
Profile picture for tom99 @tom99

After I was diagnosed that it potentially spread to the lungs (with a PET scan), I went in for a biopsy and they said there was chance that if it came up malignant, they might have to remove some of the nodules while they were in there. Turns out there were a lot of malignant nodules, so they removed part of my left lung as that had the most nodules. My right lung was basically clear. They did 5 incisions into the lung to get it all.

It's curious that none of the three cases you know about resulted in surgery. Makes me a bit suspicious now of my surgery, although the thoracic surgeon was reputed to be the top one in the Northwest. I'm guessing it was due to the large number of nodules and the fact that I'm a Gleason score of 9.

It doesn't surprise me that you haven't heard of any other cases after 5 years of meetings. I'm having trouble finding anyone that had it spread to the lungs, even on the prostatecacer.net forum.

For now, the Abiraterone and Lupron is keeping the nodules in check and some have actually shrunk, but this is a temporary solution. The cancer will eventually become resistant to the drugs and I'll then be faced with more life altering treatments such as chemo, Pluvicto, or who knows what else. On the plus side, my oncologist has patients that have made it 5 years on these drugs and even has one that is going on 10 years (but I'll bet they weren't a Gleason score of 9).

I still hoping to find a few in my situation in this community.

Thank you much for your reply.

Tom

Jump to this post

@tom99
I think surgery was a good decision for you. They were able to isolate the tumors and the people I know had to live with the fact that they were there, and they had to be treated until they died. Removing them and not really affecting your luong capacity that much is definitely a good solution.

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