Has anyone done Proton without Hormonal Therapy (ADT)?

I am 74 and 10 more years gets me to 84 and 15 to 89 and I really don't want to wind up in a nursing home and all my friends dead like is happening already. If I was 50 it would be an entirely different story and these cancer doctors don't seem to take age into account. The only thing that made me unfavorable intermediate risk was my two 4-3 Gleason cores. My PSA was 2.9 and the number of positive cores was very low and only confined to one lesion area of my prostate. Good luck. My no longer urologist stopped prescribing my testosterone when I didn't want to do a Urolift for my large prostate, so I went to an endocrinologist, and I am so glad I did.

Hello, At age 68 and having gone 28 radiation treatments in 2022 along with one 6 month injection of Lupron. The Lupron really messed with my entire being. Very depressed, hard to focus, suicidal thoughts on a regular basis. I cant actually see any reason for me to ever consider that course of treatment again. Today about 7 months after the radiation I am beginning to feel more like normal with my last psa being in June at 0.12. I have decided that should the cancer rear its ugly head again I will take my chances without any additional adt. Other that still being very tired and needing a short nap in the afternoon I finally have ambition to get things done again! I hope that other men have has better reactions to the Lupron than I have. Best of luck to everyone fighting this battle.

Thank you very much for sharing and I'm going to stop and ask the Lord to bless you and give you good health and His Peace that surpasses all understanding in Christ Jesus.
I just had my meeting yesterday and I am so thankful that the Doctors are so supportive of my logic and decisions. I'm personally not going to do hormone therapy. We only have a limited number of days and I want to enjoy them all and since my health is great... aside from the obvious, I want to stay healthy, increase my immune system and train and eat as if I were running for the Olympics.
It takes a lot of focus, effort and support but I believe this is my best path.
I have been competing in 50 mile horse and running races and now with a new titanium knee I'm going to train like never before while receiving Mayo's wonderful service.
My life time goal is to ride in the Tevis Cup 100 mile Endurance Race so that's my goal and since my race horse is injured, I'm looking for a new "Tevis Horse" to train.
The Bible says "without a Vision, my people perish"...
Grab your vision and go for it.
May GOD Bless All Of You. 🙂
David

Thank you Mike, good perspective and I also need to lose weight and I hadn't thought of an endocrinologist so I just requested an appt. Much appreciated.

My husband, 71, G8, PSA 8, PSMA PET no spread, has planned surgery for September. He ruled out radiation options because of required 18-24mos ADT. But after extensive reading about less invasive Proton and Cyberknife procedures, I have nagging doubts.

If you chose one of these options w/ G8, did you also need hormone therapy and if so, for how long?

They can also do Tulsa Pro, as long as no spread. But Tulsa Pro is still cash pay, roughly $30K. Otherwise Proton seems good if your insurance covers it over other options, one can also decline ADT.

We met with a Tulsa Pro doc - it would be $45k and there is no data about success with Gleason 8. But it sounds miraculous - could be the future. For those of you on the east coast, we know someone w/ Gleason 7 who had it at Yale in 2021 with great success (and I think insurance might have covered there).

Well the data for a real lot of the treatments is sometimes old, and by the time it is published the protocols change. Such as proton, Mayo does 5 sessions, but data on it is not out there from publications from the way they do it. It is still on my list of possibilities I might select even without publications. There is always risk. Tulsa with G8, all there is is going to be personal accounts such as on YouTube or other discussion boards. $45K sounds a lot more than I was quoted. Medicare will have a code for Tulsa in 1-2 years, I don't think for this coming January medicare changes, but is entirely possible. Much more likely Jan 2025 medicare changes so it would be insurance covered then but unlikely paid by insurance before that though some charges might be covered as standard hospital costs or whatever.

My thinking is Tulsa G8 can be repeated on other areas in a recurrence. Unless you went to some guy that said whole gland which isn't repeated. They can take out exact amounts (usually they mention some clock pattern with Tulsa). However Proton one drawback is it is not repeated for a recurrence as far as I understand, they just give ADT or external beam or some other options on recurrence/mets.

I can't say on cyberknife, I did read a few threads but not sure on that option.

Very helpful, thanks. Tulsa for my husband would involve the entire gland (maybe that's why it's more pricy:). Doc wasn't sure about exact cost so $45k could have been a high guesstimate. The procedure is new here, so he would probably travel to a center with more experience, but it's probably too risky. We're waiting for Decipher and second biopsy opinion from Hopkins, so maybe that will change things.

I’m 74 with two 8 cores and two 9. No spread as per nuclear bone scan, PET, and MRI. I had robotic surgery at Mayo on 7/10. Also removed lymph nodes, sems, and vans. All were clear as were bladder margins. I feel good about my decision and am recovering nicely and improving continence daily. If I have problems down the road, all radiation options are open. Radiating first basically eliminates future surgery, as I understand it. I can live without a prostate as long as I’m also living without cancer but I realize everyone and every case is different. Praying for you as you work through this decision.