new Small cell prostate cancer

Also if you type small cell in the search box at the top previous posts should come up and give you something to read in the meantime.

Julie

Hi torehb,the problem with small cell is that normal treatments don't work very well - for example, most prostate cancers need testosterone to survive so hormone treatment to stop testosterone production tends to be quite successful. But small cell PCa doesn't respond to hormones very well. The best line of defence is chemo, if he can cope with it. My father-in-law was a little younger when he had chemo (I think he was 80) but he didn't really have any problems with it apart from a horrible taste in his mouth and not being allowed to go to the pub in case he got a bug. Have they already ruled out radiotherapy? Has it spread outside the prostate? Here is what you should have found through the search function - some specific threads but also all posts where small cell has been mentioned:- http://community.prostatecanceruk.org/search?query=small+cell+cancer&advanced=false#refine-results-panel

Edited by member 02 Mar 2017 at 13:42  | Reason: Not specified

Good lord! I don't think chemo would leave him bedridden ... some men on here have continued working right through it (although they weren't 84). And dying of prostate cancer is probably more painful than the side effects of chemo although both should be made bearable by good use of pain relief.

If he goes for one or two chemo sessions and finds it too difficult, he can presumably stop and who knows, that little bit of chemo might just slow it down a bit.

Have they done scans to see where the spread is? Can you tell us? Small cell sometimes goes to lungs, brain or liver rather than bone or lymph nodes, and that makes a big difference to how he might get on.

Lyn , 

It has spread to bone and lymph nodes last scan showed no liver or brain.