Prostate cancer diagnosis

  • 4 replies
  • 174 subscribers
  • 773 views

Good evening all, 

my father was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer T3 Gleason 4+3 N0 M1b his PSA at diagnosis was 15, however after 28 days of hormone therapy and one injection of zoladex his PSA dropped to 1.3. His PET, MRI, and bone scan showed that the bone metastasis is just on his right iliac wing and doesn’t seem to be anywhere else. The plan is to treat him with abiraterone for his bone metastasis and then start a course of radiotherapy. 

I was just wondering that it seems to be quite a long time before radiotherapy starts? He was diagnosed in January of this year. 

any help/advise would be greatly appreciated. Other than a slight hip pain my father is relatively fit and healthy, still working 5 days a week and golfing all weekend.

Its still quite a shock to the system to get my head round everything to be honest. Any help/guidance would be really greatly appreciated. 

  • It's normal to wait several months between the start of Hormone Treatment and Radiotherapy. This is to allow the HT to do it's job and reduce the size of the prostate (and hence the tumour) making a better target for the RT.

    I had 20 sessions of RT in Feb/Mar 2019 but started HT in October 2018. My PSA was 15 at the start of HT but had dropped to 0.4 by the time RT started.

    I hope that helps.

    Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.
    Seamus
    (See my profile for more)
  • Hi

    Arbiraterone is a great medication, excellent at controlling the disease, it can be aggressive and may take time to adjust, that’s maybe why the delay in radiotherapy, hope he keeps up the excersize as it can affect the joints a little, still see how things go, if he has problems he needs to speak with the oncologist or specialist nurses, their good people who always put the patient first.

    stay first

    Joe

  • Thanks for the reply and getting in touch. I hope you’re coping well yourself. 

  • Hi, 

    thanks for the reply and I hope you are doing well yourself.