Anyone with similar stats?

I'm not the same diagnosis or treatment as you, so I can't directly compare.

All the treatments, HT, CT, and RT have an impact on the PSA, and it's difficult to see which is contributing how much.

The HT is usually the predominant contributor initially, and might even mask the effect of the others. A PSA reduction of 10x in 3 months is quite typical. This reduction will bottom out at some point.

I'm not so familiar with chemo. PSA should be lower at the end, but it can cause PSA to rise during the first few sessions. I would not be surprised if the HT completely masks this with up-front chemo.

RT usually halves or quarters PSA soon after the treatment finishes, but continues to have a reducing effect for up to 3 years, although again this will be masked by the HT. RT doesn't immediately kill all the cancer cells, but you hope it damages them enough that they can no longer reproduce, so the cancer is no longer malignant. Those remaining cancer cells then die of old age over about 3 years (and the HT helps keep them dormant during that time). During this time while the cells are dying, PSA drops slowly, but you can get PSA bounces which we think are periods of high activity by the immune system mopping up the cancer cells. However, this isn't usually visible if you are on HT at that time as HT masks it. The RT reduction is the long term effect you hope to see after the HT wears off.

When the HT wears off and your Testosterone returns, your PSA will rise, because you still have a prostate and it will still have non-cancer cells in it which produce PSA. (The RT aims to only kill the cancer cells, not the whole prostate.) You are considered OK if the PSA doesn't rise more than 2.0 above your lowest reading (i.e. if 0.1 is your lowest reading, you're OK unless it rises above 2.1).

The RT and CT also help to mop up micro-mets - any mets which were too small to show on scans including any which were out of the RT treatment field. Exactly how this works isn't known for sure, but if you take out the mothership cancer, and you do systemic treatment (HT and/or CT), the stats would suggest micro-mets are likely to die too, as they may have been relying on signalling/chemicals from the large tumours which they were too small to make themselves.

Wishing you all the best.

Edited by member 15 Mar 2024 at 22:38  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Roger,

There is always ‘hope’ but I know it’s difficult at times.

Your PSA results are good so try and concentrate on that and get on with enjoying your life as best you can.

All of us(including me!) worry about what happens when we come off the ‘poison’. What keeps me going is having as much fun as possible and being good to myself and those closest to me. Maggies has also been an immense support to me in giving me a reason to live my life.

All the best,

Derek

I’m on Decapeptyl and I’m in good shape if you exclude the fact that I may be dying.

I’ve been weight training since I was 13 and I still manage to do a bit once a week, in the hope that it slows down the inevitable muscle atrophy.

Thanks for that Peter,I will put a little more detail in my profile.Its great to hear of other peoples experiences.