Scott Goodwin who periodically has been writing about his journey taking chemotherapy has given us a very moving update. Sadly, Scott is not doing well physically, but he is continuing his valiant fight against this insipid disease. – JTN
I thought I would send a much overdue update on my progress with chemo, etc. I have had 15 chemo treatments with Taxotere. Now my psa is rising, slowly at first and then more rapidly. Chemotherapy is no longer effective.
As I am sure some of my fellow brothers in the fight can attest, chemo has a cumulative effect. During the initial few treatments I felt great, but as time went on it took a bigger toll on my body. When my psa doubled and my quality of life became an issue for me, I had a very frank talk with my Oncologist. In the end, I decided to halt treatment.
So, where do I go from here? For the last two years, I have been seeing an Oncologist at Duke University because I knew I would find my self in this situation at some point in the future. My decision was to go into a clinical trial when I reached this point.
My PSA is currently 7.7 with a doubling time of about six weeks. This doubling time is scary stuff.
My wife and I met with our Oncologist at Duke about two weeks ago. The news is to be eligible for the clinical trial I need to show signs of disease progression on either a bone scan or a CT scan. I had both scans done yesterday at Duke and frankly; I do not expect to see anything on these scans. The next scans that I have may tell a different story.
I do not know if some of you feel this way, but as long as I was being treated, somehow I felt like I had control over the cancer. Now, as I am only on Hormone therapy, I feel that the cancer has been set free to grow.
Clinical trials are my last defense. I feel helpless just having to wait for disease progression. We need earlier and better treatments. To qualify for a clinical trial is really the last thing I wanted. My wife and I also face the reality of knowing what is coming.
I will participate in clinical trials not as a martyr but just a man trying to slow down this disease. I also have an 11 year old son that I pray never has to go through any of this himself. Therefore, for my son and yours we all must try every option available to us.
I will continue to chronicle my journey on this blog. We are all in this together. Not just as men but as families as well. We all feel the highs and the lows.
I continue to surround myself with family and friends and appreciate what I have. My journey will most likely get rough this year and I will depend more and more on those that I love.
Keep fighting every day,
Scott Goodwin
Bless you my brother. I have been walking the same path with Stage IV prostate cancer, diagnosed in June, 2007.
I have gone through hormone therapy, chemo (taxotere), and most recently a clinical chemo trial using a combo of one old drug and one new.
I have watched the cancer invade my bones during the past 2 years. Now spots are showing up in my liver. I am not currently in pain, but my PSA is doubling every month, currently in the 20’s. My feet are numb from neuropathy; I lose my balance daily.
I’m hopeful that I can get into another clinical trial, perhaps one that won’t require killing the goods cells with the bad. It’s been 2 months since my last treatment. I understand your concerns about disease progression.
I join you in my concern for my children, now grown, as well as my new grandson. My sons are quickly reaching the age where prostate cancer is becoming not just a possibility, but a likelihood.
I look at clinical trials all the time and am alarmed that many have been going on for as long as a decade. More successful trials have led the drug manufacturers to expect approval in 2 years.
Too late for me. I need it today.
Scott..
I became hormone refractory in February of this year. Removing Casodex didn’t lower my PSA, in fact it caused it to rise. I added Flutamide roughly 6 weeks ago (along with continuing Lupron) and my PSA went down by from 3.82 to 2.46. This is great. I see my oncologist November 4, and am curious if he’ll add HDK/HC or recommend continuing with Flutamide for another 6 weeks. In either case, I’ll a little behind you, but know I’ll be there sooner than I like. So far my bone and ct scans are stable. I have two MRI’s on my spine, which revealed a spinal tumor on near L2/L3. The neurologist said he’s confident it’s not malignant and not related to my PCa. However, they’ve scheduled a third MRI for this coming March.
Thought your condition is serious and I wished it was better, I greatly appreciate you sharing your expierences and thoughts. Plus your writing is entertaining and enjoyable to read.
…Don
Scott, have you considered getting an opinion from an expert prostate oncologist such as Scholz, Strum, Myers, etc.? There are many other protocols for you to try, eg, estrogen patches or DES, ketoconazole and cortisone, abiraterone and more. It sounds as if you’re giving up. Please don’t.
hi Scott reading your post I want to say dont give up just yet. Im sending you a copy of a cancer fighting diet
In 2008 I found I to have stage 111 avanced prostate cancer with prostate bone bone mets to my ribs and my lower back. I have had been fighting prostrate cancer for 17 years ever since the PSA test first come out. but in 2007 my PSA went up to 13.8 after my one and only Prostate biopsy. It found I had a gleasion score of 8 Im now on a no sugary food no breead no beer cancer fighting diet done by my naturopath, it design to rebild the immune system and to starve the Adenocarcinoma (glandular tissue cancer.) I been useing it to fight my prostate cancer for the last 10 months my PSA now down to 8. Scott this works as long as you stay away from high carbs foods and sugar I know it will help you. Randall
This is only one, of the many Holistic Anti- Cancer diets, that can be found around the internet this days, This one been deigned to fight Advance Prostate Cancer.
1/ The Budwig diet once a day three table spoons of flack seed oil and 6 table spoons of cottage cheese. I use natural Yoghurt in stead of the cottage cheese for breakfast on this you can have a small amount fruit with this I have one full table spoons of Blue berry’s and or raspberry or both mixed in with a blender with it. I was told I will need to be on it for at lease a year so it can change the trans fatty acids for the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids in all my cells
2/ Saw palmetto two tablets a day
3/ Trinovin One 40mg capsule in the morning and one at night
4/ Vitamin C Three 1000mg tablets twice a day
5/ Vitamin D3 Five 1000UI a day but you can have as much as you can afford
6/ Vitamin E 1000UI a day be careful not to have to much of this
7/ Selenium I use the selenium oral concentrate the one use by farmers to drench live stock I take 15 drops once a day be very careful not to go be on the 15 drops as it will make you very sick and will damage your heart if your not sure don’t go on it. or go get a bottle of Selenium from your local chemist or drug store.
8/ Apricot pits no more then 30 a day I grind them up and put them in the Yoghurt these you may have to order off the net
9/ Raw Flack seeds three table spoons I grind them up in a coffee grinder and put them in the Yoghurt
10/ The Pineapple Enzyme Bromelain. One 500mg a day
11/ Zinc I have 4 tablets that’s 100mg a day but you can have as much as you can afford
12/ Glucosamine HCL one 1000mg a day you need this if you have or had any type of bone mets
13/ Asparagus storks I grind up two storks a day you can have this in the tin any way you want grate cancer fighter
14/ Zeolitte If you have prostrate bone metastasis I advise to go on to a three month cause of liquid cellular Zeolitte 15 drops 4 times a day as this help me I had a few patients say it help them and I had a few patient say it did help them and a few say it did not all I do know is it helped me it ranges in cost from $450 to $600 depends where you live.
( this next one for some is the hardest one to do.
15/ No Sugary foods or drinks. (and if you can No Bread as bread gets turned into sugar in the GI track ) limited fruit to just one full table spoon a day. As just one Apple has a tea spoon of sugar in it. The other two meals (lunch and diner ) are normal meals as long as you do the No Sugar.
Guys thanks for all of the replies to my blog I appreciate the support. Just to be clear I will never give up.
Scott
Hello Scott, I’m awfully sorry to hear of your dilemma.
Apart from the indisputable fact that conventional medicine invariably does more harm than good to prostate cancer sufferers – thereby creating victims not just sufferers – it also gives men hope.
Unfortunately, that hope produces in most men INACTIVITY whereby they stop fighting, relying instead on modern medicine to get them through their illness.
So I ask “Since when did our bodies ever need chemicals, radiation and other toxins for maximum efficiency or to ward off disease?”.
I was diagnosed with with an aggressive, Gleason grade 9 prostate cancer three and a half years ago, having already lost my right kidney to cancer and experienced two skin Melanoma.
I decided to fight my cancer using alternative therapy and a recent battery of tests show that I still have no spread or metastasis. On top of that I have no outward sign of having cancer and the only internal sign is one of increased tiredness. But at 71 years perhaps I should expect that too.
As a part of my psychological battle plan I regularly record my experiences on my blog: http://www.prostateruminate.com/ together with information I think may be useful to other men.
Please have a browse and you will see that you don’t have to succumb to this disease, that you may have a far better chance of beating it doing it the natural way (perhaps in concert with your current treatment) and that once you take up this challenge it will not only boost your self-confidence but give you that zest for living again.
You are obviously a fighter, Scott. So fight!
To your good health
David
Scott and all,
My husband is getting ready to begin the Texatore/Dexamethasone regiment on Monday (November 30). He’s already had 2 hormone injections, 2 months of Casodex and 42 radiation treatments. He’s in clinical trials after a PSA of 47 and 10/10 Gleason scores of 8. Both his bone scan and MRI were negative for mets but the oncologist feels certain that cells have traveled.
I know he’s had PSA’s done since the original but they haven’t told us what they are and my husband doesn’t ask. I will find out on Monday what it is.
I thank you for sharing your journeys. It’s not easy, it’s a very private journey but you’re helping others who are going through it too.
Thank you,
Barbara
Barbara,
It is impossible to give you any specific feedback without having all the numbers, including PSA scores etc. In my opinion, you should insist that all the scores be given to you and carefully explained so that you and your husband understand what they mean.
I am an advocate for finding a support group where you can also discuss the numbers and the implications of them with other people “who have been there.”
Scott and all
l am in the process of starting chemo, as all the hormone therapy l have been having is not working anymore l have had a really bad week this week where l dont want to eat and l keep being sick on the pain killers my doctor has given me for back hip pain,l have tried eating a healthy diet for the last few years when l first knew l had this disease but l cannot think any food can make any difference l am trying to be positive and am looking for any information that can help me all the stories l have read are similar to mine and its nice to know we are all sharing our experiences
tony
Tony,
Join us and become a member of the Malecare Advanced Prostate Cancer on-line support group. Join by going to: http://healthunlocked.com
I now have advanced Prostate Cancer. I initially had the shock of finding that my PSA was 130 but it had not spread beyond the nodes in my groin. After hormone treatment for a couple of months it was reduced to PSA 13. Six months later it had jumped up to PSA 68 and had spread to my bones left side of my groin. My now Oncologist has put me on a much stronger hormone tablet that so far has reduced the PSA TO 24. however the pain down my left side is terrible . My GP has put me on pain killers but do not last long enough. The side effects of the pain killer, has made me terribly constipated, I am feeling sick, lost my appetite and very tired all the time.
Would coming off the hormone tablet (which I know I will have to eventually) and having chemo now be a better option.
Ken – I have written an earlier blog post about this topic. Basically, it might be worth trying this, but only if your disease is well advanced. Read the post and share it with your doctor.
EARLY CHEMOTHERAPY FOR MEN WHO ARE STILL HORMONE RESPONSIVE – FOR SOME IT MIGHT OFFER EXTRA SURVIVAL
http://advancedprostatecancer.net/?p=4246
Joel