The consultant called us back today. She went to a meeting after we spoke and there were 4 other clinical oncologists present. She said they went through my husbands case in a detail. The conclusion is that his biggest tumour, 24mm is on the anterior of the prostate, so brachytherapy wouldn’t be a good idea, due to the position and closeness to other organs.
Greg has been now offered 6 months ADT and EBRT, where they would focus on the nodes as well. They said it’s because he is young (he liked that bit)I have held onto a few of you saying that this will be a rear view mirror thing and this time next year it will be behind us. I do feel after todays phone call, that this could be the case.
My husband is happy to go with this recommendation and I think I’m happy with it too. I do worry about damage to his bladder and rectum etc and cancers of these areas further down the road. I do worry about ED and muscle loss. But mainly I am just hoping that we can now just get on with it. It’s been a frightening 6 months. Even when he was told it was only Gleason 6, I just kept thinking they had missed a higher grade in there. It made no sense that the tumour was 24mm in one side and 9mm in the other. How is that possible in an indolent cancer. Then, there’s the part of me that thinks, if it’s Gleason 6, why touch it at all.
my husband is picking up a prescription in a couple of days, then the first 3 month injection, EBRT and then the final ADT injection.
I think it will be ok. I hope so.
It all sounds very positive. I remember at one point he oncologist told us 6 months of ht with RT in the middle. I thought then that to get through it all in 6 months would be brilliant. Then the onologist changed his mind
we were finally let out with questionable ‘good behaviour’ after 18 months. It is tough but life goes on …. Not in the direction you had anticipated but you can still have holidays, days out etc etc. best of luck!
Hello worried wife 78
Great post - you have answers and a plan. Yes a few points:
* Calcium and Vitamin D helps to counter the Hormone Therapy's bone weaken effects.
* Yes Tadalafil will keep the effects of HT down on his "pride and joy". He should try and keep using it and if needed a pump would help - but HT affects us all in different ways.
* Radiotherapy has moved on in recent years - some of the more modern linear accelerators (RT machine to me and you) use laser targeting for accurate treatment. When I had mine in early 2022 it was the old 3 Tattoos!
So in a nutshell (no pun intended) Put the cancer to sleep with HT - kill the cells off with RT.
Sounds like a great plan to me - I hope the anxiety levels are now down to near normal.
Best wishes - Brian.
Macmillan Support Line - 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week between 8am-8pm
Strength, Courage, Faith, Hope, Defiance, VICTORY.
I am a Macmillan volunteer.
