Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself

Why were you led to believe that? Did you have any inklings prior to the biopsy like high PSA testing over time? Pain?

I had a urologist outside of Mayo that did a biopsy and a CT scan. Afterwards he told me it was contained. He was wrong.

Testosterone is an androgen. There are others in our body also. Lupron and other drugs deprive our bodies of androgen, which feed the cancer.

My husband' s urologist - surgeon in John Hopkins was surprised that biopsy was not done with CT scan instead of MRI where everything is a lot better visible. Sorry to hear about you. My husband had the same - urologist for 10 years said it is nothing and when I took my husband to John Hopkins with PSA 55, then it was stage III

androgen deprivation therapy, things like Lupron. It was described to me in layman's terms as causing the body to stop producing say testosterone, testosterone is a sort of prostate cancer food. There's a lot more technical information on the web.

I highly recommend Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer. He is thorough and lays out options as you proceed with your treatments. His book has also helped me know what questions to ask my care team. I was on ADT for 24 months after my radical proctectomy and throughout my adjuvant radiation. With 29 months into this journey, I still have undetectable PSA, but I live quarter to quarter with the blood tests. My suggestion is to enjoy the gift of each day and keep a positive attitude. My pathology staging was T3b N1, so my focus is being a cancer survivor on a daily basis. Keep the faith as you proceed through your journey.

Lupron was the ADT I was on from Aug-2017 until May-2021.

"Being a cancer survivor on a daily basis." Love that. Thank you

Did Lupron eventually stop working for you? If so, what drug are you taking now. I'm Stage 3 and have been on Lupron since June of 19. Chemo last spring. PSA is 2.0 currently.

Here is my history with Lupron. When I was diagnosed in 2011 I received 39 radiation treatments and 6 months Lupron, which put my PSA to undetectable. From 2012 to 2017 I was on no treatments and my PSA remained undetectable. PSA showed up again in 2017 and I went back on Lupron. PSA went back to undetectable, but only for 6 months. PSA began increasing and I began other treatments. However, I did not stop the Lupron. Doctors said I would stay on it the rest of my life, even after starting the Keytruda treatments in 2019, which took my PSA to undetectable. In June of this year I had a bone density test which showed the Lupron was thinning my bones so I chose to stop taking it. My last Lupron injection was May-4 . PSA still undetectable so far. Next PSA test is scheduled for Nov-11. I'm watching it close.