Swapping ftom zoladex to cosadex as a mono therapy

ANY veiws on going onto monotherapy with just cosadex ???

---

psa on dx 144, gleason 4+3 7 12 biopsie cores cancerous
T3a N2 M1.
psa after 3 months zoladex 20
T levels 0.5 after 3 months zoladex.
changing to monotherapy cosadex feb 2011.

Leeanglo:

I am approaching the three month mark on Zoladex, ready for my second injection.  My uro surg had me on casodex two weeks prior to the Zoladex and two weeks after the injection ( as a blockade ) only.  May I ask why you would switch when there is such a drop in your PSA and a very low T after just three months?

Jack

Best to you it may show good results, you have to also worry about breast enlargement especially with 150  mg useage, you can either take another drug(talk to your doc) to help prevent that or you get a radiation protocol to your breasts....usually done in 3-4 sessions, very slight time exposures and could be done with electron rays (less chance for issues). It can also be done in one session with 3.5 minutes exposure to each boob (lol). You may soon see like a sunburn spot (normal) approx. 6" diameter on them, it goes away in maybe 1-2 months and works for many patients to stop any enlargement, however if you already have enlargement there is not reversal in this.

Thought you might wish to know that above and this upfront.  With zometa it does help your bone density, there is also the slight worry or concern if you get jaw necrosis, as weird as that can be for using this on bone issues.

Knowing all you can up front is always worthwhile.

Leeanglo
I don't mean to hi-jack this thread to something else, but since you mentioned Zometa, and Zufus warned about Jaw Necrosis, all readers contemplating taking any Bisphosphonate (Fosamax, Actonel, Aredia, or Zometa) should get a full dental check-up before treatment.  Root canals or tooth extractions open the possibility of infection which can develop into bone cell death which is necrosis.  My oral surgeon stated Fosamax was the least likely to cause problems, but the percentages increase with the others.  Sorry, didn't mean to butt in.

---

PSA at Dx 105 at age 68, 4/04. ADT (Lupron only), RRP, 5/04. Gleason 4+5=9, Staged pT3bc NO MO, 3D rad, 40 treatments, 8/04. PSA 1/05 <0.01. ADT till 7/07. PSA 0.03 12/08, 0.07 4/09, 0.13 8/09, 0.19 12/09, 0.30 4/10, 8/10 0.42, 12/10 0.47. Will start ADT3 after PSA reaches 1.2.

Hi gentlemen,this thread is mainly directed to skates last post about what im upto.I took a 150mg cosadex 2 days ago and to be honest it made me feel dreadfull (zombified all day),this took me back to when i initially had 4 weeks on 50mgs prior to my first zoladex injection and even 50mgs made me feel fuzzy.Ive also had a strang feeling in my spine which i believed was tumor flare syndrome when i first took cosadex.Because it has happened again ive decided to speak to my u doc before continuing as im a little worried that this drug can be doing me more harm than good!! I eventually got to speak to another urologist today and he said i should not be experiencing this as ive had zoladex in my system for over 3 months now.My desicion is to give the tabs another try but im gona take them at night time instead and see how they affect me then.As anyone else experienced this throbbing sensation on taking cosadex with zoladex ?? is it temporary?? Its a little scary at a sight where you know youve got cancerous mets The u doc says hes gona get me back for another scan incase of any spinal compression.Strange thing is i had no signs of any bone incidence untill after i took cosadex, initially, and it went away after i ceased taking it.Now after taking one 150mg tab its back with a vengeance and although it is not what id call pain,it is very anoying and it makes me continually aware of my desease.

Leeanglo sounds strange about the spinal type issues you say you are experiencing. You could call Patient Advocates on Advanced Prostate Cancer (PAACT) and talk to them free and mention your senario...they may have some asap advice: (Michigan) 616-453-1477 Rick Profitt likely to answer. They have decades of experience in various patients using all types of flutamides and casodex, likely seen plenty of cases.

If you can find a psa testing facility nearby I would get tested pretty soon and see if it helps at all and that would be a clue, especially when using HD casodex at 150 mg level. I question how useful is it and is it doing harm???  Because of your overall stats and other variables, mono therapy for someone else in a different scenario could be much different and/or work fine, so that people don't get the wrong impression. PCa can morph and/or have androgen independence and be tricky on the receptors as to what happens on a cellular level. This is why the drugs, timing and useage is very strange, some patients fail psa on casodex perhaps even early on, but later in their PCa journey cycle sometimes can revist it and get a new response....it is that strange.  Protocols are tricky and that is why the specialist rule in knowing the biology of PCa, Dr. Myers, Strum, Scholz, Lam, Leibowitz, Volgezang, Yu and some others are the best in this.

Casodex is normally not associated with any type of flaring, just the opposite. It does have possible back pain, but spinal is little different. One website mentioned this:

Musculoskeletal

Musculoskeletal complaints include bone pain. This may be due to underlying disease.

So if it were in effect doing harm for PCa, then I suppose the spinal pain would be a possible clue and might even get more painful, maybe. Like I said I don't presume to know, only to question. 

Best to you.
(suggested reading:    www.hrpca.org     proven treatments)

Post Edited (zufus) : 2/10/2011 2:49:08 PM (GMT-7)