searching for good news, good success with treatments for stage III prostate cancer, anyone?

HolyCross
HolyCross Member Posts: 7
edited December 2022 in Prostate Cancer
I have just been diagnosed, this has me worried. I am looking for inspiration from others that have beaten a stage III diagnosis. Are there any here?

Comments

  • po18guy
    po18guy Member Posts: 329
    edited July 2020
    There is always hope. Always. What might help is the Gleason score, the number of cores which were positive and the degree of spread. It is worth noting that 95% of men survive to the 5 year point with stage III and that we are in a dynamic field of clinical progress against the disease. Have not had PC, but did have a lot of contact with those who did on a recently and sadly defunct cancer forum.
  • GregP_WN
    GregP_WN Member Posts: 742
    edited July 2020
    We have a good group of Prostate cancer survivors here. To find those with prostate cancer look to the right of your home screen and you will see a box that says "who to follow" these will be some fellow prostate cancer members. Take a look there while you wait for them to see this.
  • Whitey61
    Whitey61 Member Posts: 26
    edited July 2020
    Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer..6 yrs and NED currently near completion of 50 infusions of Pembrolizimab Keytruda..a rare exception but hope for others.
  • HolyCross
    HolyCross Member Posts: 7
    edited July 2020
    Thank you Whitey61, you are what I needed! 50 infusions! Wow! Are those weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or what? I believe keytruda is an immunotherapy drug. Is that right? Is it only for stage IV patients? I will have to ask my doctor about that.
  • Whitey61
    Whitey61 Member Posts: 26
    edited July 2020
    4 years on Keytruda after 1.5 yrs of conventional treatment didn't respond. You have to have tumor tissue Genomic Sequencing done to determine what Mutational load it is carrying?, And results will determine if your a candidate for clinical trial or precision targeted therapies?...I have scNEPC..a rare form of PC with a high Mutational load that has had a complete response....I started out infused every 3 weeks, currently every 12 weeks....I was given 3-6 months to live 6 yrs ago...Cured?, Not by any means...but under control and prolonging my life.
  • GregP_WN
    GregP_WN Member Posts: 742
    edited July 2020
    Whitey61, I recently started keytruda, I've only had one infusion, 3 weeks ago. I am on a clinical trial with Keytruda and a drug now called ADU-S100. I was out of options at the end of last year for traditional 1st line treatments. I will be every 3 weeks to start and through this trial. For now, the trial is set for 2 years. I've had no side effects that I can blame on the Keytruda so this point, I hope it continues.
  • Whitey61
    Whitey61 Member Posts: 26
    edited July 2020
    Greg, if you were to get side effects from Keytruda with immune response it would be fairly quick and usually after first infusion...look for signs, Fever, Rash, bowels are 3 I was told after my first infusion 4 yrs ago and 50 treatments later....I do have Adrenal Insufficiency controlled with low dose Prednisone which in turn has caused me eyesight problems...can't win!..but saving my life...Best of luck with your Keytruda Journey.
  • LiveWithCancer
    LiveWithCancer Member Posts: 470
    edited July 2020
    @GregP_WN, Another side effect that occurs fairly quickly is that your thyroid will quit working quite right. If you experience a lot of unexplained weight gain, it could be an underactive thyroid caused by the immunotherapy. Easy enough to fix with a daily thyroid pill. It is a fairly common side effect so I suspect the doctor will be watching for it. When it happened to me, they didn't know it was a common side effect so it took me several visits to convince my doctor to take a look at it.
  • BobsProstate
    BobsProstate Member Posts: 56
    edited July 2020
    I have just started during this last year, but I'm still here so far so I consider myself a success story!

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