That doubling in 1 year is alarming. With a PSA like that they should have at least been doing blood work quarterly. Don’t give up.
Twenty years ago, just a few days before we walked down the aisle, the love of my life was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His PSA was 29, and his Gleason score was 9/10. We opted for surgery with a 75% chance that they would find it in his lymph nodes and close him back up. They opened him up and after a quick look at the lymph nodes they didn’t find cancer, so they went ahead with the surgery. Within a couple of weeks, they had done further path work on the lymph nodes (still didn’t find any) and there were clear margins.
Immediately after the surgery, his PSA went to undetectable (<0.1). Five years later, his PSA remained undetectable, so I asked his urologist if he could be considered cured. He told me that we *never* say that with prostate cancer. Truth be known, they only expected him to live 3-5 past the surgery.
Thirteen years after his surgery, the PSA was once again detectable at 0.1, so the waiting game began to see how long it would take it to double. It took four years to get to 0.2, but then it doubled again in two years, so picking up speed. We are still at tiny amounts at that point, 0.4. They pass him off to radiology, and that doc wants him to think about radiation. Very confusing to me, because it too small of an amount to located, so how do they know where to aim the radiation?
She wanted to get started right away, but hubby told her he wanted to wait 6 months, which would be last month in October. He went in for and MRI, blood draw, and then the appointment with the radiologist. First the radiologist’s understudy comes in, and goes over the MRI, and says it all looks good. Then he tells us “we don’t have any explanation for this, but your PSA dropped from 0.4 to 0.1.” The radiologist comes in and says “this isn’t the way that prostate cancer works, it doesn’t go down without treatment, we can’t explain this. Have you been doing ANYTHING different?”
We couldn’t come up with anything on the spot, but on the way home I realized that after his April appointment that he had stopped exercising indoors at the gym and instead was walking outdoors with me. He was getting about 6 hours of sunshine a week and making a lot more vitamin D for the last 6 months.
There are lots of studies on the affects of vitamin D and prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is more common and there are more higher grade tumors the farther north you go. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=prostate%20cancer%20vitamin%20d
We did get back in touch with his urologist who said that his improvement could be tied to vitamin D, and that was better than any explanation that he had.
Get some sunshine on your skin or take some vitamin D supplements, it certainly could not hurt. I’m not saying it’s a cure, but there is a lot of evidence that it can slow it down and at least hold it in check.
My prostate cancer is metastatic because it has spread to eight spots on my skeleton.
I’ve been on Lupron therapy for the past year and my PSA has gradually gone down to 0.4. Doctor said it could work for another 3-6 years, but it could be sooner or longer. My latest CT continues to show no spreading to other organs and there was a slight improvement in my bone scan.
I take some supplements, including 10,000 iu of vitamin D, and hve elimintrd almost all sugar. Aso in the process of losing weight. Also taking 1 tsp of baking soda since there are some arguments that cancer needs an acidic environment to survive and grow. Not sure if it works, but my doctor said it wouldn’t hurt.
Ws at a patient-focused semainar at MDA in July, and the researchers are very optimistic that there will be a cure in the foreseeable future. I will still be around for it.