Dads prostate cancer

Hi Sotu

Sorry to hear about your dad but u have come to the right place for advice and info.

T2, T3, its normally one or the other, T3 would indicate that the cancer has escaped the prostate gland, has there been a recent Mri scan as this would show where the cancer actually is?

Gleeson score would show the aggressiveness of the cancer and how fast it might spread but if he has been on watchful waiting since 2014 it can't have looked aggressive at that point.

So if u can find out what the Gleeson score is (when was the last biopsy by the way?)

also try and get hold of a copy of the mri report.

best wishes

Steve

• Hi Steve,  thanks for replying, he had a bone scan and as far as they can see it hasn't travelled to the bones, but they haven't told us much more i was asking lots of questions and i didn't ask about gleason but i will next time, it was a shock. They advised against a biopsy as there are lots of risks of infection etc and the biopsy will only confirm what they already know. I asked how do they know if it has gone anywhere else eg nodes organs etc and they said they don't know and will order a CT scan but until i brought it up they hadn't mentioned any more scans. They said the gp was monitoring psa and once it reached 50 the gp would tell them and they would start treatment, i got the psa history yesterday and in may this year it had doubled to 68 from 34 the previous year, yet he wasn't contacted and only found out properly when rushed away in september. Its so confusing, he is starting hormone treatment this week. 

Hi. Seems strange that they don't know at this stage where the PC is, that's half the battle really.

Try and push for a Mri scan which could be better for PC than CT scan but any scan would be a start

It is possible that he has never had a biopsy, because of other health issues, therefore there will be no Gleeson.

But without a Gleeson score or a scan I am not sure that u could say with any certainty that it is PC.

Regards

Steve

Hi, they are saying they know its advanced as they have seen it all before and they can tell from his rectal examination , to be honest i think they do not care once you reach a certain age,  before this he was super fit. I did not realise that the gleason score came from the biopsy results so i guess we wont be getting that. Oh gosh it is so hard to get a proper explanation out of them, i will try harder to find more out.  Thanks again for the help. 

Hi

I think that u are correct about the age thing and some hospitals are probably worse than others on this subject.

How u can tell from a rectal exam beats me. there has to be a possibility that it could be something else, u might want to consider getting a second opinion by changing hospitals if that is possible,

good luck

Steve

Hi, thankyou and yes i think that might be a good idea. 

Hi, thankyou and yes i think that might be a good idea. 

Hi., just looking back at this only now as had such a hectic 10 months,  i remained proactive on the prostate cancer my dad was feeling good and never complained, never got the Ct scan regardless of  our efforts, he remained reasonably healthy and active, had some trouble and hospital visits recently due to cathetar etc , kept on top of psa results which after september, each time it decreased, and early this year his psa was down to only 0.89, but due to other health issues, eg, thyroid, kidney trouble, etc he became quite poorly and has just recently passed away. My dad was a fighter, he hed a heart attack that a 30 yr old would not survive, yet fought on, surprising the doctors never complaining for six days and still being his normal nice, brave gentlemanly self.  Xxxxx   So sad, shocked and still in a daze, love my dad so much xx 

Meant he didnt get any other scans after bone scan  x 

SOTU

I remember your post from October. I:m sorry to hear the news must be difficult to comprehend.

Have u thought about bereavement councelling, it could help u thru these difficult times.

I wish you all the best

Steve