Anyone past or present on Xtandi
I am a 17 year prostate cancer patient whose treatment has been deprivation therapy. Until this fall all was going well.
Oncologist has suggested Xtandi after I’ve had a metastatic spread to left lung. (No lymph node involvement or bone. He tells me that I’m a somewhat rare case.)
I’ve just finished 10 sessions of radiation and now moving to next stage of treatment.
When my PSA began to rise last November, my urologist stopped daily Casodex and issued a prostate specific pet scan to be performed. I then was referred to a pulmonologist for biopsy which was positive for prostate cancer. Next I was referred to oncologist who prescribed 10 radiation sessions. Now instead beginning Casodex again, he had prescribed Xtandi which is EXTREMELY expensive!!! I’m a Medicare patient with a drug supplement.
Any insight would be valued….
“One the road, no one wishes to travel.”
Hi
. I want to stress that we are not medical professionals and, for your safety, cannot offer medical advice. I do know that PCa metastatic to only the lungs is pretty rare (lung metastasis is fairly common combined with other metastasis). Also, I did find this small study of patients with lung only metastasis that found "Lung-only metastases may serve as a good prognostic characteristic which will allow the clinician to treat with ADT alone with or without surgery to minimize treatment realted toxicity and still offer the ability to achieve a complete response with prolonged survival:" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1558767322001215. This case study discusses resection and endocrine/hormone therapy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8798257/. This very recent case study of a rare lung metastasis with no lymph node or bone involvement found surgical excision effective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9949549/. Hope this information can give you some conversation points for your discussions with your doctors. Every case is different and may require different approaches, but you are perfectly within your rights to ask for an explanation of why a treatment is recommended and to seek second opinions and ask about alternatives. Wishing you the best and please feel free to keep us posted. Richard (ProstateCancer.net Team) 
I'm somewhat familiar with Xtandi and it's cost. I know prostate cancer patients who are in a situation similar to yours with limited income and potentially expensive drugs. I've heard that Xtandi and/or Pfizer, the manufacturer of Xtandi, have patient resources that may be able to help you with expenses. I'd suggest checking out their websites and if you can't find anything there, giving each of them a call for direction. I hope you're able to find the help you need should you need this more expensive drug. Sue, thank you for the response. I did check into “grant” monies and am happy to say it had worked out in my favor. Now to see if the medicine delivers.
~On the road no one wishes to travel.~
