Treatments?

Hi C and welcome 

Simply , T3 just escaped the gland but nowhere else so usual treatment for that would be Radiotherapy, am surprised they haven't told you that.

Any questions please ask.

Best wishes 

Steve 

Sorry , should have said, still potentially curable 

Steve 

Hello Cumbria lady and welcome!! My husband went from MRI to biopsy and then on to a bone scan to see if there were any bone secondaries ( metastases) some people posting here also had CT  or PET scans. We weren’t offered these and were not aware at the time that these could be offered! With no bone secondaries he was declared to be T3a N0 ( no lymph nodes involved) M0 ( no secondaries). He was adamant he did not want surgery and this was not the medical team’s treatment of choice as he was 75 when diagnosed - so surgery more risky. He commenced hormone therapy almost immediately after the full diagnosis. 3 months later he had 20 sessions of external beam radiotherapy ( the newer higher dosage radiotherapy with just 5 sessions was not an option a year ago). He was told at various times that he would need hormone therapy for 6 mts, 12 mts, 18 mts, 2 years or 3 years! The jury remains out! He is due an oncology appointment next week at 18 mts and we are hoping that the HT will stop

For us, the side effects of HT have been much harder to tolerate than the RT but I know that this very much varies between people. I say ‘we’ because I have always maintained that prostate cancer ( perhaps all cancers?) is a couples illness! It affects both of us! I suffer equally when I see my husband struggling!

this is not an easy journey but it is not the end of the world! The treatment controls the cancer and, in suitable cases, cures it. Life does go on - albeit slightly different from how we had planned! The disease has brought us closer together and more appreciative of every day that we have together. We live for NOW and the joy of the moment and try to enjoy the good times more than we used to. We don’t take life so much for granted! It’s proved a good philosophy most of the times but there are some tough patches too but we hang on in there waiting for the next outing, celebration, adventure etc!!

I hope all goes well for you both! Thank you for finding us and I’m sure you will get a very warm welcome from others and take a lot of comfort from the fact that you are not alone in this journey xxx

Hi Cumbrialady .

The most likely treatment is radiotherapy in some form. There are different types and I have attached an information link to give you an Idea. Please be aware that not every type of radiotherapy is offered in each area, so you may need to ask questions about where you can get it, in the same way that you have found access to HIFU can be difficult. The Gleason score will help to determine how aggressively the cancer is treated and whether hormone therapy is added in to the mix. The more information you can supply to the forum then a fuller and more targeted response can be given. Look forward to hearing from you.

https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information-and-support/treatments/external-beam-radiotherapy

Thankyou 

Hello Cumbrialady  Another warm welcome to the online Prostate Community from me.

I see you have already had some cracking advice so all I will say is I hope the biopsy results are good. I am a T3aNoMo with initial PSA of 182 and a Gleason 9 and am on a "Curative Pathway".

You can read my entire journey by clicking on my avatar. I did have a few extra issues but that should give you some hope.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Best wishes - Brian.

Thankyou for your reply. I hope your treatment is successful 

Thankyou so much