Cheat sheet for hormone therapy/ADT

Posted by melvinw @melvinw, 20 hours ago

I will soon be starting external beam radiation therapy for recurrent prostate cancer. I won’t be doing ADT, but I have been reading a lot about it and am trying to stay on top of it in case the day ever comes that it is on the table.

Anyway, I was getting lost in all the terminology, acronyms, categories and such, so I put together a one-page cheat sheet to use for handy reference and to keep my head from spinning too much. The information comes from the Mayo Clinic (web link included in the pdf). I’ve re-organized and reformatted it a bit, but the content is the same.

Hope you find this useful.

Shared files

Medicinal Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer (Medicinal-Hormone-Therapy-for-Prostate-Cancer.pdf)

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

jeff Marchi | @jeffmarc | 19 hours ago

More to the point, here are many of the side effects people encounter using ADT.

Due to their different mechanisms of action. ADT which includes Orgovyx, Firmagon, Lupron, Eligard, Prostap, Camcevi, Lucrin, Zoladex, Trelstar, Pamorelin, and Decapeptyl can cause numerous side effects. Actually due to a lack of testosterone.
Hot flashes
Fatigue
Muscle deterioration
Bone weakening
Brain fog
Depression
Weight gain
Difficulty in breathing

Not all of these side effects occur to everyone on the drugs. Most of them are just things you have to be aware of and circumvent. I walk on the track twice a day, 1 mile at least, to help prevent bone weakening, fatigue and muscle deterioration. I also go to the gym three days a week (usually) and spend an hour with all different types of weight exercises. One thing that happens is people get a beer belly from the muscle deterioration, I do a lot of sit-ups to offset that.

Some people get depression but it is not common. It is easily treatable, according to people that have reported it on here and on Online Meetings I have participated in. If he has that problem Come back and ask for help, Or see a psychiatrist about doing something to relieve the depression.

Some people get no hot flashes at all. Others only have a few hot flashes and they are very minor. I had severe hot flashes for the first year on Lupron. As a hot flash was hitting I would feel a lot of fatigue. After a year, my oncologist prescribed a depo-provera shot every three months and it really stopped those hot flashes on Lupron. There are other hormones that can do this, speak to your doctor.
I know one person that says eating tofu every day really controlled his hot flashes, another person in this forum said the same thing. Tofu does have properties similar to endocrine hormones but a lot weaker. Can’t hurt to try it. Seems they ate it daily. I use an embrlabs.com Wave2 device to Help manage hot flashes, it really works great at night and prevents you from having the nightly hot flashes, which can make the sheets under you wet.

According to a doctor that spoke to a webinar, all people on ADT should be taking bone straighteners. I took Fosamax for six years and I’m now on Zometa. That along with calcium taken daily helps keep your bones strong. Ask your doctor about this.

I have never gained any weight while on ADT. I get on the scale every morning and base what I eat on what I weigh. Skip lunch at times.

melvinw | @melvinw | 19 hours ago

The Mayo Clinic web page also list many of the risks. But they can’t be listed often enough. With any of the PCa treatments, forward knowledge is part of the path to better decisions and outcomes. I’ve also read several papers published in the medical literature in the last five years that found that ADT is associated with an elevated risk for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). I don’t find this surprising since many of the potential side effects of ADT are risk factors for AD. Thanks for your summary Jeff!