Giving Hope to Others

In June of 2015, when I was 62, I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. My PSA was 3.72, but my Gleason was an 8. A friend who has been previously diagnosed had me promise to contact MD Anderson in Houston for a second opinion. I had a Robotic Prostatectomy at MD Anderson in September 2015 (Gleason was then determined to be a 9). In 2017 my PSA started rising and since they could not pin point the cancer, they recommended me to go to Cedar Sinai in CA for a field trial on a new scan Axumin(??).

They still couldn’t find it but they recommended Radiation and Hormone treatment. After talking to the head of radiology at Eisenhower in Rancho Mirage and telling her my reluctance about the hormone treatment, because of friends that had undergone that, we decided I would do the radiation. But also keep the Hormone treatments in our back pocket.

After 8 weeks of radiation, I once again was under 0.02 until April of 2019. A scan showed it in one of my lymph nodes, and so it’s now Stage 4. My PSA started slowly rising again and by December of 2021 was at 14.2. I finally agreed to do a hormone injection. Since the one injection, my PSA is still under 0.064 as of 11/2025. I have never had pain associated with my cancer (except for recuperating from the original surgery). I know my case is abnormal, but I thought it might give people hope for their future.