Avodart and Metformin for recurrent pc

Ksk,

And who is this famous oncologist?

You still have a chance for a cure with radiation and perhaps Radiation and HT, correct?

These are the big guns that you have right now....Avodart and Metformin are much smaller guns...but who says you can't do both...

Not to add confusion, but Avodart and Metformin are the only real drugs I'm taking currently while on my HT break...

Me? I would use all my weapons against the beast...

I have not put the big guns away for ever but to use them at an appropriate time. My stats-age 60.dx 2010 psa 8.37.2of12cores positive Gleason 7(3+4) da Vinci 2010 ,Gleason same,all negative but epe and per inv identified. Post op psa zero for two years then it started increasing. At present psa is .17, doubling time 8 months. Decided to go for imrt and adt when this med oncologist advised to try Avodart and Metformin for 6 months or so to increase the psa doubling time /halt the PC growth. I am also having double mind hence this post and request for advise.

Although I am not ksk, I thought I'd make a brief post here. I like to think that the Avodart is helping me to push off SRT, at least for the immediate future.

I was experiencing a slow PSA rise after my RALP surgery in June 2011. Almost a year ago now, I started taking Avodart daily to see if I could arrest the PSA progression, or at least slow it down.

Click on the link in my signature below and take a look at my PSA history. I'd say I'm doing fairly well.

Ksk54 and HD_Rider: Congrats on PSA reduction and hope they keep going down to undetectable. Have you or perhaps Dr. Mieirs, given some thought to imaging for further assurance?

Having PSA come down from a certain reference point is a lot better than having to calculate doubling time. That is good news.

Are you guys on a statin as well? I've seen a recent study with men using the combination of statin and Metformin.

Viperguy, Perspective is funny. I see you surgery as a complete success. But if you see your surgery as a failure, your system will eventually agree. " as a man thinks "
Well you know the rest.. Good luck



"Be your own hero" Logoslidat, cause the other kind is an " Escape from Freedom " { book by Eric Fromme }

Im sorry Viper guy, I don't see a psa <.05 as a failed surgery.Also you were not treated for ed, but for cancer. From my perspective, surgery worked, until proven otherwise . To bring ED into the equation is like saying My surgery failed for gangrene in my leg and now I don't have that leg anymore. To figure out a doubling time with those minute numbers is silly. I m not here to convince you because I can't .You have convinced yourself and that is the way it is. And the reality in the grand scheme of things, as I alluded to in my bottom note, is that in the last analysis, that is the way it should be. Don't get mad it me, I'm on your side, which is why to my perspective I have posted what I have in this and previous post. Im leaving it there,{ thank you Prato}. Good lord viper you are a GS 6, there is not a lot of drama there, again from my perspective. Heck, check out my stats and There ain't a whole lot of drama there either, again from my perspective. umm shoulda used ditto marks back there. I'll remain clear of this particular thread , I sense the annoyance, at least I accomplished that. An annoyance can be thought provoking, again from er never mind, no matter. or is it never matter, no mind. ah perspective!

Viper Guy, I really think you need to take a couple steps back. SRT is not to be taken lightly. At your PSA level I wouldn't even think about it. I am 9 years out from DaVinci and PSA started rising about 4 years from surgery. Now at 0.13 with a doubling time of over 3 years. When it first stated rising my Uro warned me to get ready for SRT. Now 5 years later he is on board with my watchful waiting. Once my PSA started rising I studied every alternative method for slowing down PSA rise. I take several supplements and have even seen the occasional PSA drop. Previous 6 month PSA was 0.15. I added DIM to my supplements. Last week PSA was 0.13. Look into it: proper diet, curcumin, pomegranite, capsacin, vitamin D, DIM. At your low PSA levels you may get some good results. Good luck.

Viper, I'm frustrated with my surgery too. Check my signature for timing of my psa increase. One year out and I'm above .1. Myers has me on Metformin, Crestor, and Avodart and my psa stopped rising and started heading down. Like you, I'm hoping to avoid radiation as long as possible. There are a bunch of other Myers patients on here with various treatment plans based on their situation. I would think with gleason 6 as slow as your psa is rising you could do a much less aggressive treatment than radiation. Like I said in a different post, when I saw Myers he showed me the recent study showing the benefit of the Metformin/Statin mix. He was very happy about that because he had been treating men this way for "a decade". He is expensive but if you can afford him, I find peace of mind is worth a lot.

Thanks for the encouraging reply Rigby.

Viper,
I don't know if you're an Excel user. I plotted your PSA to compare to mine. If I leave the first post-op reading out, the rest of them sit on a quite linear trend over time (R^2=.96). It looks like if the trend continues you will be "detectable" at .1 in four years, and what my surgeon considers actionable (.2) in ten years. I'm not sure what Myers' trigger point is. Of course I have no idea if this is how a doctor would look at your numbers or if there is any expectation that the trend will stay the same or not. Still, since the Metformin and statin combo appears to have such a strong benefit relative to recurrence as well as benefits for other health issues that actually kill us more often than cancer, I'd ask my doc about it if I were you. I wonder if I had started on these when my psa hit .04 if I'd still be at .04. Maybe it would make you hit .1 in eight years and .2 in 20! I'm also on Avodart which I think is the main reason my psa has slowed (hopefully stopped) for now. Only problem with it I know of is impact on libido in 20% of patients, but so far that hasn't been much problem for me.

Anyway, good luck. I hope you don't feel I'm prying into your data.

Lots of 50 dollar wording in a 10 cent conversation, guys !!
Fun reading, though.....