Metastasis to perirectal lymph nodes

Hello ansteynomad 

I am a very much fact based person and "likelys" are not for me. If you don't understand the letter from the Consultant or it's vague - i would go back and ask for an explanation! I know medical terms are not always easy to understand but your team should tell you in simple terms what your issues are.

So (and don't forget I am not medically trained and this was 3 years ago) I had a meeting with my Oncoligist and my MRI showed a "shadow" on my pelvis. She said she didn't think it was cancer but the area was where the Pelvic Lymph Nodes are, and to be sure to get all the cancer she was going to "zap" them when she did my Prostate.

Me being a thick Lancashire Lad (my wife is a nurse) asked what "Lymph Nodes" were. The answer was they are filters on the lymphatic system and this is like a motorway in your body that removes harmful stuff. There are hundreds of them in your body, the issue is if cancer gets into the system, it can help to spread it around the body. The peri"rectal" ones are in your rectum. 

I did a search but was unable to find any matching posts in our group.

I hope the above is of some help.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi ansteynomad I don’t think this is very common but just means lymph nodes slightly further away from the prostate.  The key question is how is it going to be treated.  

Thanks everyone. 

I understand what a lymph node is and what perirectal means. This last letter just comes over as if they are not entirely sure about anything.

As for treatment,  we are not up to the point of having a treatment plan offered yet. My husband has at least one more scan, of his lungs this time, before we are finally passed to Oncology.

I guess with Gleason 7 there is no immediate rush, but I don’t understand why you are not already with Oncology with a PCa diagnosis.  Have you had M1 confirmed or are they still checking?

M1 now confirmed as of last Monday, although they first gave us the heads up in mid June.  Mets to iliac bone and these pesky perirectal lymph nodes. They're now trying to make their minds up about the lung nodule that showed up on August's PET PSMA scan. 

The chap we saw last week seemed to suggest that would be done by Oncology,  but seemingly we are not there yet.

Doesn't three lots of mets (I have a bad feeling about the lung) trump Gleason 4+3?

Hi again ansteynomad , I am starting to get out of my depth.  As far as I know, bone mets are not great and moves you from curable to treatable.  I am 8 years since treatable  diagnosis.

We have already been told face to face that he is incurable. What this means in practice remains to be seen as he is already very unwell with symptoms that are apparently unrelated to the cancer.

Sorry to hear about co-morbidities which obviously don’t help.  If any mets are accessible to RT then these can often be targeted with precision (SBRT or SABR) with the intent to kill the cancer, otherwise less targeted therapies like chemo can be used.  Many of us have been around a long time as ‘incurable’, treatments are improving all the time.  I hope he responds to treatment and starts to feel better. Quality of life is so important.  Try and keep as positive as you can as this aids recovery (I appreciate that is easier said than done).