hi folks, i'm 75.severe backpain led to hospitilisation,discovery of enlarged prostate,with mri/niclear scans indicating malignant lesions on spine vertibrae,followed by prostate and hip bone (ileum) biopsies which confirmed prostate cancer metastised to bone. psa below 3.o. cea 10.. gleason 3 plus 4.all this in feb 2008.my oncologist assumed it to be a prostate primary. performed an orchidectomy. psa fell to below .3 in a week. backpain reduced by 60 %. doctor put me on a tab, once a day-bicalutamide 50 mg. he sent me home. said review after a month.
my backache increased. the oncologist had my prostate and hip bone biopsy material compared by pathology lab. they said the two malignant species were different!!! threw us all into some shock. pathology said, look for primary in the lungs. cea was seen to be 100 and psa below 0.2.
lungs were ct screened twice and cleared of adverse pathology.to be on the safe side,we had a colonoscopy done, also twice, and the colon and rectum were cleared. the oncologist said," well, its one of those cancer dilemnas, we are not going on a fishing expedition any more" he had me go through 6 cycles of chemotherapy, once in 21 days with carboplatin, docetaxcel, and zolodronic acid , a mixture, by i.v.
cea came down to 8 for 2 readings two weeks apart, then 7 and then 9. my oncologist then put me on bone strengthening i.v. zolodronic acid. once a mont for 6 months . i am now on this course.
HERE'S MY CONCERN after the first bone treat cyclein august this year, the cea showed 17, up from the 8-9 which was present at the end of the chemo. the doc had me go thro an mri which said no change in status as compared to previous report, no additional cancer growth, some healing has commenced. thereafter i had the second bone treatment cycle in september, last month, and had my cea and psa checked a week ago. cea has GONE UP TO 31, and psa is below 0.2. again, doc says "we'll look for physical symptoms, that is an increase in your backache. if that happens we'll do an mri/ct as needed to see if cancer is progressing again. inthat event alon, i will put you thru a secon chemo cycle. but i think you will come out of this without another chemo."
anyone out there with anything similar that happened, or at least the psa staying low and the cea going up? i believe the cea is specific to rectal and colon cancers mostly.
am i having to deal with two cancers-one at the prostate that's taken care of, and another which is there side by side, causing the cea to go up? i will be grateful for views that may help me to understand where i am ?thanks