Eligard - 1 mo. , 3 mo., 6 months: any difference in side effects?

PSA 5.4 prior Radical prostatectomy Gleason 9
Biopsy shows contained. PSA 90 days post 0.331 started 2 year of Eligard and currently 50% completed with 39 radiation tx.

Let me see if I can summarize what you have said:

You had a radical prostatectomy with a PSA of 5.4 and a Gleason score of 9. Ninety days after the surgery a biopsy confirmed the PCa was contained and your PSA dropped to 0.331.

At that point your doctors started you on a 39 procedure treatment of radiation and two years on Eligard. After 11 weeks of this treatment your PCA is down to .059 and your testosterone is less than 10.

So, the cancer has not metastasized, so far as you know, your numbers are low and trending down. Different people react differently to leuprolide ADT which makes your lack of side effects difficult to evaluate. Ordinarily, things would look positive.

That said, your doctors are treating you aggressively. I am making the assumption that you are being treated in a first class clinic. They are treating it like high-risk cancer.

This is a quote from the conclusion of a 2015 study: " The authors go on to suggest that men initially diagnosed with low PSA levels and Gleason 8 to 10 disease should be evaluated as candidates for clinical trials studying the use of chemotherapy and other novel agents in the management of very high-risk prostate cancers."

I've just been trying to elicit information from you and summarize it so I can understand your question. You are atypical for this group and I believe you should be addressing your question to your care team rather than to this forum.

If you are still uneasy about your care, Dr. Eugene Kwon, Mayo Clinic Rochester, specializes in advanced cases. A conversation with him might be helpful.

From the Mayo Clinic bio.:
Research in the Kwon Lab focuses on methods to evoke a potent immune response to treat relatively advanced forms of malignancy. Specific areas of research pertain to the preclinical and clinical use of novel vaccines and antibodies to activate antitumoral T cells; the use of hormone manipulations to boost or rebuild host immunity; the treatment of patients with immunotherapy in order to induce clinical tumor regression. A special emphasis is placed on developing highly state-of-the-art immunotherapies to be tested in clinical phase I or II trials to treat patients with prostate, kidney or bladder cancer. Research in the Kwon Lab is supported by a DOD NI Award (PC 991568), DOD IDEA Award (PC020574), NCI/NIH R01 (CA82185), a CaPCure Award and a new DOD-sponsored multi-center Phase II Trial Award (DAMD 17-02-1-0245 & DAMD 17-02-1-0245S1) entitled "A phase II immunotherapeutic trial; combined androgen ablative therapy and CTLA-4 blockade as a treatment for advanced prostate cancer".

God bless you, I wish I could be of more assistance.

I got a bad reaction from the 6 mo shot. Down for 2 weeks and a head to toe body rash. no problems with the 3 or 4 month version

Did they give it to you in your stomach? When I had to take Eligard because Lupron was unavailable for about a year, They gave it right near where they gave the shots with Lupron in the hip. I always had six months shots and they never bothered me, Unless I pressed right into the spot where they gave the shot.

Giving a shot in the stomach just doesn’t make sense to me.

I'm doing the 6 month shots for 18 months. My side effects - manapause, some joint issues, a little brain fog but not terrible. I received my shots(2 so far) in the lower ab area. Hope some of this helps out.

Not the stomach. In the flabby skin above my butt. I felt it best because it was out of sight out of mind.

You got it in a spot that should not have bothered you. Ask for the three month shot from now on since you’re having a reaction from the six month.