Dad, age 73 newly diagnosed

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User

Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 14:42

Hello. My Dad, age 73 was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer 3 weeks ago. It’s ALOT to take in as all happened suddenly. He has started hormone therapy and feels well.
He has 2nd oncologist consult on Friday - he originally felt certain he’d go for chemotherapy immediately but having read all the information he is now worried about how his quality of life will be affected.
For now he feels so well, walking a couple of miles a day, played golf at the weekend with my husband and son......he’s beginning to think about quality over quantity which I think is right but it’s SO hard dealing with the uncertainty of everything.
I hate seeing him and my mum going through this

From reading these forums I can see that advanced disease doesn’t necessarily mean he will die quickly ....I don’t know. I’m not looking for answers here just helps to write it down I guess.

User

Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 19:00

Hi,

I'm not sure how well briefed he was when he thought he'd have chemo. Now he's on hormones and could remain on them for a long time. Different people react differently as the disease adapts to the hormones. He may then be offered other hormones or go onto chemo and hormones.

There might be other treatments. They've put him on palliative so presumably there is no Radiotherapy except perhaps to ease bone metastasis at some stage maybe.

Without knowing his pre-hormone psa and rate of change and biopsy/MRI information about how far it's spread it's more difficult to focus information but he could still be around in 3, 5, 10 years in some cases.

You're right that writing things down can focus the mind. The initial impact is often a blur but settles especially when it seems things aren't changing. You can't ignore that it's there and things could change at the next blood test though. Let's hope for the best, Peter

User

Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 19:33

Thank you for replying. He hasn’t been given much info so far on chemo as an option, think that is what this Friday is about. He was put on hormone therapy quickly.

This forum is a help to read others experiences and know I can ask questions. Thank you 🙏🏻

User

Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 20:15

The chemo used for prostate cancer treatment has far fewer side-effects than some other forms of chemo. Most reports here suggest that it’s generally tolerated pretty well.

Best wishes,

Chris

User

Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 21:04

Thank you. Lots of questions to ask on Friday.

User

Posted 28 Dec 2020 at 13:59

Hi,
I was diagnosed with locally advanced PC one year ago,had psa of 162 Gleason 4+5=9 and was told it would be hormone treatment followed by chemotherapy.
On seeing the oncologist she suggested having radiotherapy with hormone treatment. I finished 37 sessions of radiotherapy end of September, my latest psa was 3 and feeling fine just a bit tired, I have psa checks every 3 months and need to get PSA down lower.

Good luck

User

Posted 28 Dec 2020 at 17:48

Hi Gemma,
Unable to send message back.
I am 73 but without any other problems so the oncologist thought I could go for radiotherapy rather than chemotherapy. I had 37 sessions and all seems ok.The oncologist said they would not get rid of it but fingers crossed.

User

Posted 28 Dec 2020 at 18:01

Thanks!

Best wishes

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