I was diagnosed with gleason 9 prostate cancer in 2011. It was very aggressive. Untreated the PSA would double every every 3 weeks. I had a prostatectomy in Sep-2011. Afterwards I had 39 radiation treatments and 6 months hormone therapy. That put my PSA undetectable until August-2017 when it showed back up in a big way. I went back on hormone therapy, but it only worked for 6 months before PSA continued to increase. Next treatment was Apalutamide (Erleada), which didn't help much. Then Provenge, which was a waste of time and a complete failure. Then a tumor was found next to my left kidney, which grew rapidly and shut down the function of that kidney. Doctors placed a Nephrostomy tube and bag on my left side to keep the kidney working. Next treatment was Zytiga, which also didn't help much. With the aggressiveness of my cancer, doctors didn't think chemo would help much if at all. On Aug-26, 2019 I was told I was out of options and was given about 4 months to live. I went home. The next morning my doctor called me and said he had good news. He had just received a biopsy report of my tumor and to his surprise I was a match for a treatment called Keytruda. The doctor never consider that an option because Keytruda's not really made for prostate cancer and I was the only prostate cancer patient at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville to match. I started the treatment in Sep-2019. My PSA dropped from 16.4 to undetectable. My tumor decreased from the size of a baseball to the size of a grape and I'm still here today, (Oct-30, 2021) to write this comment.. God has blessed me in an amazing way.

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