life expectany for metastatic prostate cancer

My father (69) had his prostate removed in 2004.  He also had a value replacement in 1991 and a liver transplant in 2001 due to Hep. C.  In October, at a check up his PSA was 7.  He underwent radiation treatment and now his PSA is 11.  Bone scan shows hot spots in the hips, 4 ribs and at the base of his skull.  He started LHRH Antagonists treatment yesterday.  Doctors say they expect full remission and are predicting 10 years of good health.  I am not so sure.  He is all ready in pain, some days it interfers with daily activity.  He meets with the transplant doctors in two weeks because his doctor doesn't know if the LHRH will cause any problems with his transplant or rejection drugs.  Does anyone have any advice or experience with something similar to this.  Thanks for your help.

Usually hormone therapy can eaisly extend life for 10 years or more for metastazied PC.  don't how his other medical problems will affect this. Be sure he is on ATD3 and not on a mono therapy (one drug only). The addition of casodex and proscar to Lupron is now the standard treatment. It seems that may doctors still haven't gotten the word and use only Lupron.

JohnT

The medicine my dad is on is a new LHRH anagoinst that has only been available since Dec. 2008. (the name escapes me at the moment).  That alone makes me nervous.  Thank you for your help.  I just don't see how he can live 10 more years hurting the way he is now.

I think your Dr. might be being generous with a 10 year life expectancy - though they really shouldn't quote life expectancy because results vary -

Some good news - once the hormone therapy is underway the bone pain will vanish.

Some bad news - its called hormone refactory prostate cancer - eventually most people quit responding to the therapy - but there are new drugs on the horizon which should help also.

 

Hello Bentonsportsmom..... Your father is lucky to have you advocating for him and I hope the following story and links will not only be helpful for him but will also give him hope for an improvement in his health..................In January 2007 I met and became friends with a patient at the clinic I go to who had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. After seeing with my own eyes how his condition quickly improved I asked him for permission to post his story on this board........ Here's a copy of the message I posted in the spring of 2007................. " I am posting this story because it truly appears to be a miraculous result of a few weeks of non traditional treatments for terminal prostate cancer, a shift in intention and/or perhaps even Divine Intervention. A friend of mine was told in early December 2006 by oncologists that he would not survive to see Christmas. His wife who is a nurse, saw all of his scans and tests and understood she could soon be arranging for palliative care and making funeral arrangements. His cancer had spread throughout his body into most organs and bones and his lungs were so full he could hardly draw a breath. He was given steroids for pain control. After a few days of despair he decided to go ice fishing which is one of his great passions and something happened to change his mind set and he decided to fight. He made arrangements to take natural treatments at a complementary medical clinic nearby. He had about 12 weeks of weekly Intravenous Vitamin C/ Lipoic Acid infusions along with a 21 day course of daily injections of 714X. He did take one injection of Lupron at the beginning of these treatments. Today he has no symptoms of disease. He feels strong and healthy, takes no pain meds, has resumed all daily activities and his scans reflect this amazing change in his health. The oncologists who did his scans for him told him he should just keep up what he is doing. My understanding is that there are no side effects to these treatments other than a possible one to the high dose Vit.C if one has had a previous problem with kidney stones. I hope this message is helpful and hopeful to others and if anyone would like more information please feel free to contact me." .................... _____________________________________________________________ 714X..........http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69108.cfm ............ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_9_31/ai_8 ................ See the video testimonials on this next one..... http://www.1cancertreatment.com/aboutus.html .... ...................http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/altrsuwigomd.html ............................Intravenous Vitamin C.......was part of the alternative protocol that brought me back to good health as well after my diagnosis in 2004. Here are just a few links from my research. Please let me know if you would like more information.......... http://www.aidan-az.com/articles/vitaminc.pdf ................... http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n19.shtml ................http://intravenousvitaminc.blogspot.com/ ............ ______________________________________________________________

On 4/21/2009 Bentonsportsmom wrote:

My father (69) had his prostate removed in 2004.  He also had a value replacement in 1991 and a liver transplant in 2001 due to Hep. C.  In October, at a check up his PSA was 7.  He underwent radiation treatment and now his PSA is 11.  Bone scan shows hot spots in the hips, 4 ribs and at the base of his skull.  He started LHRH Antagonists treatment yesterday.  Doctors say they expect full remission and are predicting 10 years of good health.  I am not so sure.  He is all ready in pain, some days it interfers with daily activity.  He meets with the transplant doctors in two weeks because his doctor doesn't know if the LHRH will cause any problems with his transplant or rejection drugs.  Does anyone have any advice or experience with something similar to this.  Thanks for your help.

Hi you father is a real fighter I’ve read hormone refectory prostate cancer is a sex hormone dependent cancer but once it leaves the prostrate some of the cancer cells change over time and there no longer sex hormone dependent any more. I’ve also read the problem  with hes liver transplant and the Immunosuppressive drugs is not an issue. So his doctors know what there doing    I do think the Dr Budwig  anti-cancer diet will help http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/Budwig.html  here how to make it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoddptWL0s  I think CC member Amy41 might be right I’ve read this about once the hormone therapy is underway the bone pain should vanish. I had it in 2007 but with the alterative treatment I was on like high dose Zinc, vitamin C, and cellula Zeolite,  a year later it was gone.  Cheers Ray  

Thank you

Thank you for responding.  I'm glad to hear that the bone pain may go away.  Right now he is a lot of pain. 

Hello:

Wow, you father is quite a survivor. He may be on Degarelix, a new treatment for Prostate cancer. It operates in the opposite way from LHRH agonists though the end result is the same. Degarelix works faster though, and without the risk of hormone flare up caused by the other treatments. He should definitely be on Triple therapy-His Degarelix, or whatever, plus Bicalutimide (Casodex, soon to be generic) and Avodart (Dutasteride). He should be looking for a top oncologist to manage his care, preferably one who is well experienced with prostate cancer. With all of his treatments and medications he needs the best care manager.