Stage 4 Class D2 Gleason 9

My husband was diagnosed with Advanced prostate Cancer, Mestatic to the bone, pelvic area, lower spine and lyump.  His PSA score was 934.7 when he was dianosed.  He has started the TrelStar LA Hormone thearpy plus casadex on May 1st 09  None of the doctors are really saying how long the thearpy will work, they only give general terms.  His PSA has dropped to 81.6 .  But does anyone have any idea how long the thearpy will work.  They said their is no other treatment at this time due to the advanced stages.

My husband has Stage 4 Prostate Cancer.  The hromone treatments are working; however, they won't for long.  I have him doing the Bill Henderson protocal and it is really helping.

No one can predict how long the hormone treatments will be effective. Along with the hormone therapy, I highly suggest some holistic therapy (there are plenty of suggestions on this board) and a lot of prayers. With so much going on in the scientific world right now, the longer the present therapy is effective, the more chance that something else may be out there to prolong life even more.

Joe

 

I am sorry to hear about your husbands condition. I have advanced prostate cancer and I treat it with holistic medicine. it has been successfull for almost 3 years. As Joe said no one can tell you how long the hormone treatment will work. Traditional medicine has no real treatment once the hormone treatment becomes ineffective. Chemo really doesn't work for prostate cancer. If you would like more information please visit my web site www.alternativeprostatecancer.com

Dan

Have you and your husband thought about trying any clinical trials.  Perhaps Taxotere in combination with prednisone will at least keep his PSA stabilized even though it is still abnormal.  Whatever you do, don't discontinue the hormone.  My husband has advanced prostate cancer at the age of 58 and is now on Taxotere with prednisone and has to have the 3 month Lupron injection for the rest of his life.   Maybe your husband can qualify for abiterone.   Ask his oncologist about ketoconazole but you can't do abiterone if you do ketoconazole.

Sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis.  However there is a lot of good information available on possible treatements. 

 One of the best I've found is a  book by Dr. Charles "Snuffy" Myers on "Beating Prostate Cancer: Hormonal Therapy & Diet"?  He did an impressive amount of research with the NIH before starting his own practice.  He's a prostate cancer survivor himself, and he contends that most "hormone resistant" cancers are not really hormone resistant, they are just responding to other things that are not shut down by Lupron, etc.  He recommends a triple blockade of Lupron/Eligard to shutdown testosterone production, casodex to block effects of any residual testosterone and dihydrotesterone (DHT), and Proscar to stop production of DHT.  He cites case studies of patients he has treated with widespread metastisis and PSA's on the order of 3500!  A couple of these patients now have little or no detectable cancer, so it's worth checking out his web site, http://prostateforum.com, from which you can order his book.

Here's wishing your husband the best of luck with his treatment. Keep us posted on how he's doing!

BlueFish1

Please see the post right above yours...Tina Caregiver mentioned a drug still in trial called Abiterone, which I had never heard of before. This drug is presently beginning its third clinical trial and if successful, the company behind it is hoping it will be marketed as early as 2011.

Abiterone may do exactly what the concoction you had mentioned does and even more. The theory is that prostate cancer cells and tumors eventually produce testosterone that is not attacked by lupron,etc but from which these cells feed and grow upon. Inotherwords, cancer cells don't really become hormone resistant; its more like they evolve and produce their own "food" that is resistant to attack by present therapies.  Abiterone may be the breakthough! 

Joe

Just a thought that I had regarding cancer.....for cells that have no use and mutiply at rates beyond belief, they sure know how to survive.

UGGH!

 BTW: if it is really true/proven that pc cells eventually produce their own testosterone, that is quite a feat. BUT WE ARE SMARTER THAN THEM!

What are the qualifications of trying Abitaterone?  What about Provenge?  Another trial that's out there right now and caregiver Tina's husband tried it is the Halichondrin B trial offered by Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL and I'm sure the other clinics in Phoenix, AZ and Rochester, MN.  It's a chemo trial that you can participate in before a patient begins the standard prostate chemo, Taxotere.  If you begin Taxotere initally, you can't try the Halichondrin at a later time.  It was working on my husband, nodes shrunk and/or disappeared, PSA dropped, tolerated the drug well, but after the 6th treatment (standard protocol) they rescanned him and one "new" node was seen on CT scan.  This node was not on initial CT scan prior to beginning the trial.  His  physician at Mayo tried to get the principal investigator of the trial to let my husband resume the trial for at least 2 more treatments and then do a rescan, but he was not allowed. Said he had a "mixed response".  In other words, progression on one hand and regression on the other.   We are still at this time glad that we pursued the trial in case anyone out there might be interested.  It was a let down of course but.......it was a string that we could pull and try.  Caregiver Tina 

Tina

Thanks for posting about your husband's results in the clinical trial - is he on to the standard taxotere chemo now?  I know what you mean about another string to pull - We almost were in the abiretone trial but it got pushed back and he had to start Chemo.

Check out clinicaltrials.gov and you will find out what trials are happening and what the qualifications are

 3rd Chemo tomorrow -

 Amy - Bob's caregiver.