Recently diagnosed with prostate cancer

so happy yours did not spread such a worrying time, my dad is up to date with all flu and covid vaccines, im hoping it’s been caught early, so untill blood pressure comes down they can’t do biopsy so we’re keeping track! GP will send a letter once blood pressure is down an normal he can go right in for biopsy 

I believe Steve's tumour took 4 years to grow to that size as he was on active surveillance - which normally means a PSA test every 3 months and a biopsy every year and possibly an MRI - preferably a Multi parametric MRI every year too, before going for treatment.  Correct me if I am wrong Steve?   Some men are offered that if their PSA and gleason score is low.  As I said Prostate Cancer is generally slow growing so this can avoid treatment if the cancer doesn't grow - which is why my Dad died with but not of prostate cancer.  They knew he had prostate cancer but it was unlikely to grow to such an extent in his 80's that it was likely to need treatment.  So he died at nearly 90 with no problems caused by the prostate cancer.  I was envious because  I was getting up 3 to 5 times a night to urinate where as he could sleep the night through!

At MRI my tumour was seen to be pushing on the back of the prostate into the rectum so the urologist was worried that microscopic early cancer cells could have escaped into the local area so my T score was upped to a possible T3 as there was no way they could have seen such small cancer cells if they had escaped into the local area.  At that stage prostate removal was now not one of the options open to me as it was decided that Hormone Therapy for at least 6 months to weaken the cancer cells and therefore make the radiotherapy at a later date more effective on them, shrink the tumour and bring the PSA down.  This treatment would successfully treat the whole of the area and make sure that all cancer cells wherever they were in the local area would be hit and hopefully eliminated and my urologist was pretty sure I would be "cured" after the treartment.  In the end I had 9 months of Hormone Therapy and 1 month of radiotherapy - which went brilliantly and now to all intents and purposes I am "cured" as my urologist promised, though each annual PSA test brings a little concern just incase - though at 7 years out from treatment I think something would have shown up had the treatment not been successful.  Nearly 7 years on and I am really pleased that I had the treatment I had.  Few and low side effects and back to normal very quickly - I continued going to the gym at least 4 times a week all the way through my treatment and two months after completion of my radiotherapy did a charity bike ride.

it did take 4 years to go from 3mm to 12mm so obviously quite a while, I just wanted to leave treatment until it was really necessary. it is normal to follow a tumour before treatment but not after apart from Psa.

because of what has happened to your dad this should raise a few eyebrows.

good news about the 3mm for your dad, probably gleeson will be 6-8 so easily treatable

steve

that’s good news, yes they won’t operation on my dads as it’s the same attachment to the prostate but only small

my dad is never one to go the doctors, i work with skin so i’m on the ball with skin cancers and i noticed on his ear was a scab that wouldn’t heal so i marched him the doctors, skin cancer - ear reved, we was all worried again this was during lockdown too, but this has come as a total shock to us all! he is in better spirits now with bone scan all clear as this was the scary one! once biopsy all done i will keep you all updated, im trying to educate myself as much as possible, i had a terrible scare with my smears but luckily all bad cin3 cells removed, it’s such a worrying time it has huge impact on me as i have health anxiety so i was to hear about my dads i’ve made him completely change his diet, he does eat healthy sometimes but he drinks a lot of larger 

Yes, you've obviously been through a lot but think u can now take a breather for a while

hope all goes well

thank you so much this group definitely helps so thank you 

have you heard of Immunotherapy for prostate cancer

I have heard about it but not much recently

try cancerresearchuk.org and look under clinical trials to see if there are any trials relating to this treatment