New here, looking like my Dad has prostate cancer

Hi Millie,

I would have thought the next steps would be a scan and a biopsy. How many PSA tests has your Dad had? For myself the order of tests was:-

DRE (examination) - showed enlarged prostate

PSA test - showed raised PSA of 7 sent for another PSA test to confirm

PSA test - showed the same raised PSA of 7

MRI scan - didn't show anything

TRUS biopsy - showed I had Prostate cancer, was then referred to consult to discuss treatment.

Dates and more details are in my profile. Compared to other cancers PC is generally slow moving (there are exceptions of course).

Hope that helps

Good luck

Hello Millie and welcome to the site

PSA is only indicative of something being wrong which usually results in follow through appointments with urologist, scans, biopsy etc.

PSA does not say you have prostate cancer. A DRE showing enlargement or being knobbly would also show that something is wrong. An enlarged prostate on it's own would not show that he is "likely" to have cancer, merely that the DRE, together with the PSA result, means it's a good idea to investigate it

Obviously we don't have all the facts here but I do wonder whether his GP is putting together the tiredness, weight loss, PSA and DRE and jumping the gun a bit.

IF you could find out what the PSA was it might help members to advise you.

An enlarged prostate can be caused by infection so I hope his GP ruled that out?

Anyway, you are here now and I'm sure that you'll get others to comment for you, but do try not to worry.

If indeed dad does have cancer then if it's been caught early enough there will be a range of treatments available to him.

Perhaps suggest to him and your mum that when he goes for appointments one of them takes paper and pen and writes down the answers. It is really hard to take in the information when you are in shock.

Please get back to us with whatever information you can glean. IF dad doesn't remember the PSA result he can ring the surgery and ask for it. Don't let him accept anything other than an answer containing the numbers. Sometimes receptionists will just give it as "in a high range or a normal range etc"

Best Wishes

Sandra

Edited by member 20 Sep 2017 at 13:36  | Reason: Not specified

Yes Millie, PSA is high, my husband's for instance went UP to 6.3 before he opted for treatment.

Unlikely that if dad has cancer that all options will be open to him but many will. We have members on here with PSA in the hundreds and occasionally thousands and they have received treatment in various forms and a number of them have been treated for many years so as you can see, all is not lost.

It would depend on the results of the scans and biopsy,whether cancer (if present) has breached the capsule in which case some of the treatments will not be for him.

A smooth prostate is , I understand , a good thing since knobbly and/or hard are signs to be aware of, so a smooth prostate is something in his favour.

As for it beng a horrible waiting game, it most certainly is. At the moment none of you will be able to think that once the results are in and a treatment plan in place, that life will settle down a bit for all of you.

It's this waiting around for scan etc and then the results, that can be so debilitating.

I can fully understand that your dad (and the rest of you) are feeling the stress and that he is now feeling depressed. He's probably telling himself that he has cancer and his time is limited. That isn't generally the case and i hope it isn't in your dad's case.

Hang in there. Just be as supportive as you can be (very hard I know at the moment) but it's all you can do,.

Once you have the results of those scans etc please come back and let us know and I am sure you'll get a lot of advice from those who will have already been down whichever treatment path your dad and his consultant decide to take.

Best Wishes
Sandra

*****

Edited by member 26 Sep 2017 at 15:30  | Reason: Not specified

Hello Cola and welcome to the site

I do understand that GPs need to protect their funds but it really annoys me when a man presents at surgery with worries that need addressing and the GP refuses or tries the let's not bother route.

PSA and DRE are indicative and you are at least proactive so things should speed up a bit now.

Having said that, any waiting at all can be very stressful. As I said to Millie,once you have a firm diagnosis life does get a little "easier" because you can at least take some control.

Just be glad that a) you persuaded your husband to get his symtoms investigated and b) you didn't allow the GP to railroad you .

Just think how much worse it could have been several months down the line when the symptoms worsened

Come back to us if you want information for your husband, but please do it separately so that you don't get lost in somebody else's posts.

Good luck with the results for both of you

Ah that's lovely news on the prostate front - fingers crossed the biopsy also finds no cancer and they can stop the hormones and put him on meds to reduce the size of his prostate instead. Sometimes, enlarged prostate can cause very high PSA with no cancer - we have had at least one member here whose PSA was over 50 but got the all clear.