This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
I guess I'll add my opinion but remember it's just my opinion and you have to go the way your heart tells you no matter what anyone else says. Having said that I'll post a couple of thoughts that probably go along with what you've already said.
First, since your PSA has been stable at 0.8 for three PSA tests over 9 months things are looking good for you right now so watchful waiting at this point seems like a good choice to me.
Second, I agree that if the Avodart shrinks what's left of your prostate your PSA will go down some but for what reason, a smaller prostate or some cancer cells that were killed by the Avodart. So your concern over being a guinea pig seems reasonable to me.
So I agree with you that the trail may not provide you with much information about yourself and a cautious approach by monitoring your PSA is probably what I'd do. Then if it starts upward seek additional treatment.
But please don't let any of our opinions change what your heart tells you to do, it's your life and you must go your own way. Recently I've been posting a lot of the information I find during my search to better understand this disease, and the more I find out the more I question some of the practices that are so common when the medical community deals with us. I may post some more stuff I just found and ask for opinions from others here too.
I think I would just ask my Doc to add Dutasteride to your treatment. It is a very effective at preventing the conversion of T to DHT. It is also yoxic to PCa cells. Both of these are good things.
There is probably no down side. It does help with urinary symptoms.
