Treatment timescales help please?

Hi,Gillb,

The wait for treatment can vary depending where treatment is to be administered. Hormone Therapy is most usually started several months prior to RT being given so treatment commenced quite soon after diagnosis. However, with delays due to Covid 19 in some areas a number of patients opting for surgery have been started on HT as a holding regime. The wait for surgery, may also be delayed to allow priority for more urgent cases. Your husband could contact his appointed special nurse at the hospital or if he has not been allotted one the Oncology Department who should be able to advise about time scales.

You don't say whether hubby has decided which treatment he has decided to have. If he has not yet decided he could send for a copy of the 'Tool Kit' or download it. Among other information it details various treatments which may help him with his decision. https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information/our-publications/publications/tool-kit?_ga=2.206109653.795867346.1564408880-1013787081.1564408880

It would help us if you posted his diagnosis in his Profile when this is obtained. We can then have a better idea of where he stands. The sort of details are PSA at diagnosis, Gleason Score, results of scans and number of cores affected by PCa and percentage found within each core if shown. As the surgery option has been offered it looks the disease has been found at an early stage.

Edited by member 25 Mar 2021 at 05:01  | Reason: to highlight link

The NHS Trusts have timescales to comply with but these are targets rather than absolute rules. On the day that your husband tells them which treatment he is opting for, the clock starts ticking and the hospital should start his treatment within 31 days. If he starts on HT in case of delays with surgery, the clock stops. If he asks for a second opinion, the clock stops. If he opts for radiotherapy or brachytherapy with hormones, as soon as he takes the first hormone tablet, the clock stops. The onco decides how long the patient should have HT before doing the RT or brachy and many will say 3 months but quite a lot of oncos would prefer to wait 6 months anyway so if your OH opts for RT/HT he could just tell the onco that he would prefer not to start the RT/brachy until at least August or September and see how the onco feels about that.

Make sure you discuss his case with both a surgeon and an oncologist. I and two mates of mine (not a scientific sample) all had surgery and the other two had to have RT afterwards for slight recurrence. We are all fine now.

Click on my profile and you can see all my notes since diagnosis about three years ago.

Best of luck.

Cheers, John.

Thank you Barry. Can I ask how old you are and why you chose to go with RT instead of surgery? 

Sorry Typo in previous mail I had surgery not RT all these initials are sometimes confusing . I I had Radical Robotic operation.