Scans. I cancelled the scan

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User

Posted 25 May 2018 at 18:50

diagnosed through a nuclear bone scan with advanced prostate cancer with metastasis in Oct 2017 With a psa reading of 124. Was offered chemotherapy and hormone treatment, declined chemotherapy but accepted hormone therapy. I decided to pursue alternative treatment of cannabis oil in suppositories. In February 2018 my psa was down to 3.2. I requested a further scan to establish what had happened inside my body but consultant said he could not justify a scan on the nhs. Since then I have continued with hormone therapy and cannabis oil and have never felt better.

It still bothered me as too what was happening in my body and I asked consultant to tell me what type of scan I should have. He told me to get a ct scan but it must be read by a consultant uro radioligist, as I was prepared to pay privately. I booked the scan on a Saturday and was telephoned by the radiology consultant the same day. He asked me what I wanted, which was to know if the cancer was= gone, unchanged or worse. He said that was fine. However on Monday a retired doctors husband, a professor in medicine suggested that the ct scan may not show what I wanted to know.

I cancelled the scan, mainly because my consultant would not see me to explain the scan result and also over doubts that it was the right type of scan to have. Can anyone help me regarding scans

User

Posted 25 May 2018 at 22:00

Well it depends where your mets are - bone? lymph nodes? organs?

Your cancer won't have gone because metastatic cancer is incurable.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User

Posted 25 May 2018 at 22:15

Mets in the spine and pelvis, just trying to find which is the best scan. Thanks

User

Posted 25 May 2018 at 23:47

CT scan seems sensible to me - it would show the prostate tumours and bone mets whereas a bone scan would not pick up any changes in the pelvic area. There are newer scans such as choline PET and its spawn but your PSA is high enough for CT to be enough plus the newer scans are many thousands of £££s and quite difficult to get reliable appointments for, because the tracers are so difficult to produce.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User

Posted 25 May 2018 at 23:56

Good evening Cbdrules,

allow for the fact that I am no expert and have no superior knowledge, but I am thinking that any scan is better than no scan, surely?

If you have scan results, any one may be able to interpret them? Without a scan, no-one can interpret.

atb

dave

All we can do - is do all that we can.

So, do all you can to help yourself, then make the best of your time. :-)

I am the statistic.

User

Posted 26 May 2018 at 02:07

I cannot comment on the effectiveness of cannabis as I have not seen this has been evaluated in a proper trial and am skeptical of what effect it may have on your PSA or mets. However, Hormone Therapy often causes a dramatic drop in PSA so I think it highly likely that this is why your PSA has dropped which is perhaps the reason you mention the possibility of the cancer having gone and which scan to have this verified. However, as well as reducing PSA, HT can shrink many tumours but because of the great drop in PSA can mislead one into thinking the tumours have gone. What frequently happens is that HT restrains the cancer and masks it's extent. Most usually, sooner or later the cancer circumvents the HT and in most cases the PSA readings begin to rise again. So for the present a scan may not show anything more of any significance which could be why your consultant is refusing you.

You have already rejected Chemotherapy and I wonder whether you would reconsider this at some point? You will be aware that there are not many options for somebody in your position and you need to learn how this can be best determined in your case. You need to ask the consultant who has all your histology what he thinks would be the best scan for you personally, and at what point to have it, which may not be for awhile yet. This could vary depending on whether you are just concerned with changes that may have occurred in previously identified areas or are looking for cancer elsewhere. But although it could almost certainly be established by different scans the question is whether this would change your treatment which it may not.

Edited by member 26 May 2018 at 02:40 | Reason: Not specified

Barry

User

Posted 26 May 2018 at 09:09

Just to sound a cautionary note, do bear in mind that a CT scan exposes your body to a pretty high dose of radiation (perhaps as much as 1000x that of a simple X-ray) and that can increase risks of other cancers in the long term. Of course it’s a valuable diagnostic tool, but I’d be wary of having a CT scan unless your consultant specifically advises that it would be of benefit to you.

Chris

Edited by member 26 May 2018 at 10:25 | Reason: Not specified

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