can I survive PC (Gleason score 7) with just external beam radiation?

thank you. everything i read about the injections appear to be bad news and i will go down fighting to avoid it. good on you that your docs aligned on a course of treatment that didn't involve ADT

Age 73 completed 4 mos of Orgovyx with radiation as post op salvage treatment.
Side effects real, but manageable for me.
I have continued my almost daily walking and 2/3 weekly sessions of light upper body weight lifting. It takes some effort to "push thru" the feeling of fatigue; however many men are able to continue serious exercise.
Focus on what is important to you.
Note: One benefit of Orgovyx is that you can stop it if side effects are not manageable; as opposed to a multi month injection.
Best wishes on your choices and for a good result.

I had biopsy and highest cancer found was 3+4=7. I was classified as intermediate. Originally oncologist/radiologist recommended hormone and radiation UNTIL I told them I had heart failure. Then no hormone recommendation. My biggest complaint was and still is the attitudes of some medical professionals on the benefits of proton versus photon. Just make sure you get more than one opinion!

I then had the Decipher test done and came back low risk. Original Oncologist then changed that no hormone was needed just curative radiation.

I would really check in why your 7 was rated as high risk. Did your type cancer come back as different than the Andio which is not aggressive? I would strongly recommend having your urologist or oncologist do the Decipher test. It can really help determine the risk level you are in and the appropriate treatment. To much subjective opinions happen with biopsies. The Decipher test is more objective.

I am in my 4th week or Proton radiation treatment (M-F for 6 weeks) and other than some mild tiredness a couple of times and discomfort from Space/Oar all have very little side affects. I was an avid exerciser prior to cancer and did Sprint Triathlons even though I am 76. I could not bike or jog with Space/Oar but I kept up my exercising with 1-2 hours daily of either walking, water aerobics, swimming. I think exercising during treatment is very important and can make going through this a lot easier.

i have had similar experience,,,76 years old, went through radiation ( 39 visits) only missed one day at my gym. You got that right about subjective opinions. I have been doing the lupron for a year now. PSA .01 for about 10 months. I can tolerate the lupron, however my oncology clinic insist I go for one of the high end . dangerous ' treatments' called apalutamide it almost killed me with side effects, seriously . There were things that were never mentioned .Then they wanted me to go to xtandi .Upon doing some research I discovered xtandi is just as dangerous the warning was referring to Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy . This happens to be the exact ' side affect' I experienced w erleada. The oncologist did not even know that !!!!!My point to everyone is do your homework before taking their word for it.I live in Fairbanks Alaska ,kind of a third world country with marginal medical resources.

I am 73 and 10 months old with three cores of 3-4 and two cores 4-3 which is the only thing that classified me as unfavorable intermediate risk PC. I am a T1C with a PSA of 2.9 and the lesion was 7mm. The five cores were all taken from the area of the lesion by a MRI fusion guided transperineal 30 core biopsy of my 120 gm prostate. It is a big one and that is why so many cores and all the rest of the prostate was clean and a PSMA Pet Scan showed it was confined to the prostate and had not spread. The reason I stated my age is important for those considering or being forced into ADT by your oncologist. Read "Radiotherapy with or without androgen deprivation therapy in intermediate risk prostate cancer". The study shows that if you are over 70 it makes no difference in biochemical reoccurrence or overall survival. From Urology Times "Adding short term ADT to dose-escalated RT does not improve survival in Prostate cancer" article dated May 6,2023. Since I had the 5 proton radiation treatments at Mayo Phoenix this is another article you need to read. "The role of proton beam therapy for patients with intermediate- and high risk prostate cancer". Now if you really want to scare yourselves about weather all these doctor know what they are doing read "Correlation of the primary Gleason pattern on prostate needle biopsy with clinicopathological factors in Gleason 7 tumors". This article shows that of the 4-3= 7 Gleason pattern from biopsies after a radical prostatectomy the primary Gleason grade 4 in 51%of patients stayed a 4, while 49% of patients had their tumors down graded to a primary 3 pattern. You can get that accuracy by flipping a dam coin!!! Yet we are to trust the pathologists who are grading the biopsy samples in determinig our course of treatment?

After 40 rad in 2018 then Zolodex then rad to L2 lumbar pit back on Zolodex and added Xtandt and Xgeva No side effects but tired some days 78 1/2 as they say

Hi Mikeo! We're pretty similar in diagnosis. I just turned 70, had a single 4+3 core, prostate smaller, PSA max was 3.4. I'm being treated at Mayo Jax by SBRT. We were debating adding any ADT and my RO wanted to see my genetic prostate score before making a recommendation. Unfortunately, it came back at .69 putting me in the high risk group. Given that, I'm adding 6 month of Orgovyx. Had Orgovyx not been an option, I don't think I would have done any ADT due to the higher risk profile of the other drugs. Given Orgovyx is a daily oral and recovery is much quicker than previous drugs, I was more comfortable giving it a go. My RO believes it will reduce my risk of distant metastasis in the next 10 years by half. I did read the articles you mentioned. Although the study showed no significant improvement in overall survival with the addition of short-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) to dose-escalated radiotherapy in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Benefits were observed in rates of metastases, prostate cancer–specific mortality, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure. Hopefully I'll have a chance to chat with you in 10 years and we can better assess our decision making (-: Best wishes!

If you have seen some of my other posts, you will know that I am self-castrated. I was on Androgel since 2008 for low testosterone so when I stop applying it within 60 hours my T level drops to castrate levels. My radiation oncologist didn't believe me and had me tested and it came back as 12 ng/dl which is lower than the six-month Lupron shot claims in their literature. I went off it till I get my three month post radiation PSA level because off it I feel like crap and tired even though I walk almost every day for over an hour. I only stopped it to hedge my bets and I would not have taken the shot either. I will be very interested to see what my bloodwork says my level is when I have it tested on July 5. I wonder if the boys are still sleeping as one of the urologists told me it could be a year for them to recover after being asleep for so long. Well tomorrow is cataract surgery and from what I hear from people who have had it I will be able to see like and eagle.

how did the xtandi work for you,I was on the clone called apalutimide and it took me for a ride I will never forget,,,,,,almost killed myself and other people in two directly related driving incidents . other freaks out also , I only made it to six weeks on the Erleada ADT terrible experiences,,,, sounds like you fared better

Except for tired one ( maybe my sleep apna machine ) i had zero affects PSA down in 2 mos