Prostate Cancer Treatment Advice

Hi badger1234,

Welcome to the online community. My name is Anne, and I am one of the nurses on the Support Line. I see you have already joined our prostate cancer forum. I hope you have found it supportive so far.

Making treatment decisions can be challenging. Your team will discuss your treatment options with you following the MDT meeting and you should be fully involved in making the decision. Their guidance will be based upon your own individual situation and risk of the cancer spreading outside the prostate. This involves looking at your Gleason score, PSA and T stage. Your team will also factor into account things like general health, life expectancy and your preferences. You may already have heard of the Cambridge Prognostic Group (CPG). This system helps your team decide which options are suitable to you.

Your team should share with you the benefits and potential harms of each treatment option. They should also be able to discuss the likelihood of cure, recurrence and progression with each treatment option. It’s also important to fully understand the potential side effects along with impact on quality of life, including sexual, urinary and bowel function.

Brachytherapy is a type of internal radiotherapy. External beam therapy (ERBT) is a more common and widely available treatment often given in combination with hormone treatment. Most men will need only one type of radiotherapy usually in addition to hormone therapy, but some men may be recommended to have both types of radiotherapy. Your team will be able to explain their recommendations to you during your consultation.

It is important to note that hormone therapy can become less effective with time and is not given alone with curative intent. It is often given in addition to other treatments or prescribed indefinitely to people who are diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer where cure is no longer possible.

I am glad to hear your friend has remained well on hormone therapy with minimal side effects, but for some men side effects of hormone therapy can be significant and impact negatively on their quality of life.

It might be worth jotting down any questions or concerns you have ahead of your meeting with the consultant. Having a partner or friend present during the consultation can be very helpful.

You may have been given contact details for a Prostate Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS). They would also be good to speak to about your questions and concerns. If you’re unsure who this may be, you can call your consultant’s secretary and ask for their contact details. They are there to help support you and provide you with information.

Perhaps you may wish to consider finding a local support group. Sometimes chatting to others in a similar situation can be helpful. Our Support Line is open every day from 8am until 8pm if you’d like to talk things over with one of my colleagues.

Take care for now,

Anne - Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref/**MD

Many thanks for the information. The CPG group information is very interesting. I fall into the CPG Group 3 with Gleason score of 7 (4 + 3 ), T 0 etc. I suppose my main question is whether to have RT with HRT, or RT and Bracytherapy together with HRT. If RT & HRT will manage and control and keep it in check, I am more than happy with that, even if that isn't a complete cure, the chances are that I would die from something else!! 

Whereas Brachytherapy in addition is quite a significant procedure in itself, with numerous side effects, and then RT on top anyway.