Expected Longevity

My husband was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer originally in 2002.
At that time he received Brachytherapy, hormone therapy (Lupron + Casodex) and external beam radiation.
His PSA remained barely detectable for 4 years. (below 0.5)
His is a low PSA producing disease which we discovered in 2006 after his PSA started rising rapidly and when it reached 4.73 he turned out to be metastatic. (1 spot in the Iliac bone and two vertebras).
He was treated with chemo from Jan-Jun ’07 (Taxotere  and Sammarium 153) (He wanted to have aggressive treatment.)

He has been on intermittent hormonal therapy (Lupron + Casodex) ever since.

Now, I am afraid that he is approaching the hormone refractory state.

What would be the general life expectancy under the above circumstances?
I know that it varies case by case, but I would like to have a best and worst case scenario.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Ima111

[Ash Tewari, MD, M.Ch.]

Thank you for your question. I understand that this is a challenging time for you. It would be irresponsible for me to give life-expectancy in absolute terms. Likewise, the definition of hormone refractory prostate cancer should not be understood in absolute terms, but rather as a continuum of events related to hormone responses.

I think it is important to continue watching the PSA, getting regular scans, and watching for the symptoms of systematic disease (i.e. bone pain). A clinical resources you can be found here:

http://www.mskcc.org/applications/nomograms/prostate/HormoneRefractory.aspx

Thank you for your question.

Sincerely,

Ashutosh (Ash) Tewari, MD

http://www.cornellroboticprostate.org

This forum is for information only. The contents, such as graphics, images, text, quoted information and all other materials ("Content") are provided for reference only, do not claim to be complete or exhaustive or to be applicable to any particular individual's medical condition. Users should always consult with a qualified and licensed physician or other medical care provider. Users are warned to follow the advice of their physicians without delay regardless of anything read in this forum. The Weill Cornell Prostate Cancer Institute assumes no duty to correct or update the Content nor to resolve or clarify any inconsistent information which may be a part of the Content. Reliance on any Content is solely at the User's risk. This forum may contain health or medically related materials considered sexually explicit. Users are warned that if they may be offended by such Content, an alternate source of information should be found. Publication of information or reference in forum to specific sources such as specific products, procedures, physicians, treatments, or diagnoses are for information only and are not endorsements of the Weill Cornell Prostate Cancer Institute.

[Ima111]

Thank you for your informative response. The clinical resource was also helpful.

Meantime we discovered that although slowly, my husband’s Testosterone started to rise in the intermittent period. To the best of my understanding it is supposed to be good news, as this means that he is not hormone refractory.

As I re-read my post I noticed that I did not mention my husband’s age which is about a month and a half is shy of 70.

If you feel that any of this changes your previous response or that it augments your opinion, please share it.

Thank you again.

Ima111