First hospital assessment and tests after GP urgent referral - 2 week wait normal?

Firstly stay calm.

You will have all the tests and biopsy in time but try to be patient. It all seems like everything should happen all at once but it doesn’t.

Your PSA is not massive and will shoot down as soon as you get some lovely hormone therapy inside you. Usually it drops like a stone to next to nothing and the HT will put your cancer to sleep.

Better advice will be on our way soon by Millibob and others, but I can say that we are here with you and you have our support and trust so ask away but try to take time to relax and wait for the data. It’s not untill you get the data from the other tests that you can start to understand your pathway.

Good luck and rest assured that we will help you in any way we can, especially your worries.

Thank you so much. That's much appreciated. It's not knowing what is normal in this new normal so the perspective of those of you who do know is most welcome!

Hello Rocket4e316f 

So the cancer pathway is 14 days from GP referral to Consultants meeting and 62 days to start of treatment. All health Authorities in the UK are different and very few meet the pathway guidelines so self advocacy is the name of the game and you have to help yourself.

Keep a list of everyone you meet on your journey - name, job, telephone number and e-mail - you never know when you will need them.

With your initial PSA you can expect to be booked in for a prostate Biopsy, MRI and bone scan. (there may be additional tests too). Once you have had these your results will go before an MDT meeting and they will then give you a diagnosis and treatment plan. sounds simple - but the time frame (and anxiety) will be normally longer than 62 days.

I hope this helps - sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear - let's hope you are somewhere where they do things on time!!

Best wishes - Brian.

Many thanks Brian. It's good to have that confirmed. I'm in West Wales and while I don't think their track record has been the best, there have been initiatives of late to improve the efficiency of processes. I will follow your advice and that of Mr U.

This is the most difficult time. 

As Brian says, there is a process to follow, a process adopted because it works.

Even aggressive prostate cancer is slow growing by comparison with other cancers. You can think in teens of weeks and months rather than hours and days.

In my area it seems to be a conveyor line. You get on it, tests are run, decisions are reached, treatment agreed, started, and then you are on a path that will keep you going.

You will adopt, adapt, and improve.

It is very likely that it will not be as bad as you think. 

Learn about your illness, keep records as Brian has said, and you will find it relatively easy to deal with.

Here's to keeping on! 

Hi Rocket4e316f I agree with the others, there is no rush, but I do remember being at your stage and wanting things to happen much faster.  The next stage needs to be a biopsy (to confirm what and where the cancer is) and an MRI to check anything outside the prostate.  Prostate cancer (PCa) can be wholly contained within the gland, spread to surrounding tissue, into lymph nodes or widely spread and the treatments range from curable to treatable.  It is horrible not knowing where you are, but once you have a chat with the team, hopefully you will start to relax.  Please feel free to ask any questions as your journey goes on, this is a great forum for getting real life experience, which I wish I had known about when I was at the beginning. 

Many thanks David. 

Many thanks Steve. That’s very reassuring. 

Good evening all. I had my meeting with the urologist last week and, as suspected, he confirmed it was prostate cancer. This was not a surprise. He has begun to arrange MRI, bone scan, biopsy, in the first instance. I get a sense that opinion is divided on this issue but, having asked him about starting HT straight away because of my high initial psa (179), he was quite dismissive of that as an idea at this stage. I guess he’s waiting for the test results, but I see that some people on here have HT from the off. I’m unsure whether to push on this or whether to accept this? I suspect there’s not much I can do about it in any case but would be grateful for any views.

Hi R

How can he say Def cancer without MRI or biopsy although I realise with high PSA it probably is but is that the only one you've had.

MRI needs to be done pronto obviously biopsy as well but MRI to see where tumour is

Steve