Advanced Prostate Cancer and life expectancy (rant + sharing our approach)

Thanks for the update Mal CG .

What a good reduction in PSA at this stage. As the others have said, it is possibly Abiraterone which is given with a steroid to reduce side effects but there is also Apalutamide which can also cause a rash. There are several on the forum who are taking either and will be able to give you first hand information on them once you know which one it is. Even more have been down the radiotherapy route with good results. Celebration time.

Hi Brian thanks for info .

There seems to be a lot of possible side effects .

I hope to dodge these 

Lost a stone in weight ,hope to keep that off 

Hello Mal CG 

Your PSA is down, your oncologist is doing great, it's in your court now. Try and keep as fit as possible and remember we are all here for you.

Have a read on the other threads how it's affected other people, but remember we are all different and react in different ways.

You can do this - .

Best wishes - Brian.

That is a great summary. It really annoyed me to see that Chris Hoy had been give 3 years to live.  I'll bet he is still kicking around long after 3 years.

I was first diagnosed 10 years ago but was recently found to have a metastasis on the spine and advance prostate cancer.

My oncologist, when asked following the advanced diagnosis, gave me, with a bit of a shrug,  a life expectancy of 5 years. To put this into perspective a normal male at age 78 has a life expectancy of 10 years but these are just statistics.  Who is normal or average?

Terminal sounds so definitive and even the insurance companies don't seem to use it for PC.

I have never really got on with gym but I now have a strong motivator

About 15 years ago I was working with one of the big life assurance companies (the bank that was my actual employer owned it), and at that time there was much discussion about a number of cancers.

The was an insurance product, used to protect mortgages, called critical illness insurance, which paid out if you had an illness critical to life. Although I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention I noted that there was considerable amount of talk about whether breast cancer or prostate cancer should be covered under that type of policy.

Reading this post has just brightened my day and given me some food for thought. When my husband who is 62 and diagnosed with advanced PC with " low level " spread to pelvis and a couple of lymph nodes back in February this year I was so devastated but also angry that something like this dare disrupt our lovely life . I took the attitude that this is NOT going to rule our life and most of the time it doesn't prevent us from doing all the things we did before diagnosis but I have this constant niggle " like toothache" that just won't go away and some days ( not many ) I struggle . Try my hardest not to think what the future holds but have days where I overthink things and think the worst.  Husband is coping well with HT daily and every 3 month injections and has just completed radiotherapy  to prostate but for last 4 or 5 weeks of having radiotherapy has been complaining of rib pain which he didn't have before . I am thinking the worst , or could it be due to the radiotherapy ? Any thoughts ? Thank you 

Hello Drifter 

I am pleased you and your husband are "doing well".

The rib pain is a new one on me. 

I think it's something you should bring up with his oncology team and if it's nothing to do with the Radiotherapy of the Prostate Cancer they will suggest that you contact your GP.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi Millibob

If you read my profile, extreme pain in the ribs was the only reason I went to my GP, I had no other symptoms whatsoever other than a very slight niggle in my right shoulder which I put down to needing a new 3 piece suite. Chris Hoy apparently also only had shoulder pain

Hello Sprinter 

It's a standard instruction, any new pain arising check with your oncology team and if it's nothing to do with Prostate Cancer then to your GP. My reply was worded the way it was as Drifter said:

Drifter said:

has been complaining of rib pain which he didn't have before

so the inference was that it had been caused by the Radiotherapy.

I have had the same issues myself, at one of my 3 monthly meetings with oncology I mentioned a change to my shoulder as it was giving me some pain - a rotator cuff injury diagnosed there and then!.

I trust you are doing OK yourself.

Best wishes - Brian.

Apologies I read it differently ( I blame the augustiner helles as I'm in Germany). However yes I agree about any new pain needs investigating, I had hip pain a couple of months ago and they sent me for x-rays which showed nothing, it eventually cleared after about 6 weeks