Prostate cancer, finisteride and dementia

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User

Posted 11 Jan 2020 at 00:28

Hi my 85 year old father in law has just been told he needs to see a urologist as he has a PSA of 8 and Is on Finisteride (means his PSA is actually 16?). To complicate things further he has early stage dimentia and interestingly his GP has been blaming his sudden weight loss on the dementia.

Interestingly since googling Finisteride it seems to have associations with confusion and certainly has a reputation for masking advanced PCA.

Anyone on here got any thoughts about the likelyhood of his weight loss actually being down to advanced PCA and his confusion being due to the Finisteride??

User

Posted 11 Jan 2020 at 08:44

He has been on Finisteride for 10 years for a "large prostate". The GP who examined him this time said he has a "hard prostate" and the reason he went was he is having retention issues.

User

Posted 11 Jan 2020 at 14:38

Sudden weight loss and mild confusion / dementia can both be caused by getting old, as can BPH. As Heenan says, the concern for Finasteride is that it halves the PSA so important for doctors to keep that in mind when monitoring a man's PSA levels as part of routine health checks or where there is a concern about possible PCa. But on the basis that 80% of men in their 80s have some prostate cancer but most will never even know or need treatment, it could simply be that having achieved a good age, your f-i-l is showing unsurprising signs of aging.

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

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