Hi Terence and welcome to this forum, though sorry for the reason that brings you here.
I assume you had a DRE (Digital Rear Examination) colloquially referred to as 'finger up the bum' and together with your highish PSA led to your having an MRI scan. Nevertheless, MRI scans though better than ever now, are not definitive for PCa though it is more likely than not the MRI scan has been correctly interpreted. Even a biopsy can miss cancer but will be largely directed at the suspicious areas noted on the scan. (Sometimes an elevated PSA can be caused by other factors, principally but not always due to an considerably enlarged prostate or to a urinary infection although in your case a PSA figure of 35 it rather high for this).
PCa tends to go to bone, usually in the pelvic area and your bone scan is to check this possibility. When all these tests and scans have been assessed you will be given a diagnosis. In cases where there is a strong suspicion of PCa but it could not be seen in your biopsy, a repeat TRUS biopsy or a wider ranging template one may be given.
Should you be diagnosed with PCa a Gleason score will show how far the cancer cells have mutated from normal cells and your will be given a staging which denotes whether the cancer is contained or how far it is thought to have spread. Treatment at all stages is possible, although the chances of being cured, rather than the disease just slowed down by various treatments is better if it is diagnosed at an early stage.
However, taking the worse case scenario, even men diagnosed with advanced PCa are treatable, albeit with fewer treatment options and on going advances in a range of treatments means men in this group are further extending their lives. However, it has to be said that just about all forms of treatment have adverse side effects which some men find more severe than others. A positive diagnosis will also mean regular PSA tests, the frequency of which will depend on how you respond to treatment(s).
There are a number of men on this forum who have survived more than 10 years following diagnosis, I am one of them with locally advanced PCa, although I have had two major treatments to date.
Barry |
User
Hi Terence
We have had guys here with higher PSA results and the cancer hasn’t spread so there is hope. Also my hubby was diagnosed nearly 7 years ago with cancer spread to bones and lymph and a Gleason score of 10. He has done really well, although times are changing for him. There have been many new treatments available in that 7 years, abiraterone, enzalutimide and Radium 223 are all new. So there’s lots of hope and plenty of treatments available if the worst came to the worst. The waiting is probably worse for many of us than the results, many of us deal better with certainty rather than uncertainty.
Fingers crossed for good results
Devonmaid
User
Thank you so much for these informative and comforting messages.....I am at the worst point in this journey....awaiting a diagnosis...and am trying to keep active and positive. I will take to heart all the support and think through the options put to me. Regards to everyone.
User
Hi, I know exactly what you are going through, I know how you feel deep inside in the pit of your stomach and I can tell you that I also know that it gets better - there are options, you will come to terms with whatever is and whatever needs to be done and you will learn that there is a VERY good chance that you will get through this and come out the other side and look back on it as another chapter in life.
User
Thank you so much,Nomad. Your words have bucked me up for the day.....will know the results in 5 days time. Thank you.