1st review of MRI

User

Posted 05 Sep 2022 at 12:31

I had my MRI feedback this morning, from a specialist nurse and would value your thoughts. The review stated that I had a bulge on the left side of the prostate, but from the scan it's said that there seemed to be no issues in the pelvic area. The next phase is to have a bone scan and then have a biopsy. The Nurse said that it would be worth doing the bone scan now, as they would still require one after the biopsy anyway and this quickens the process.

She couldn't tell me yet if I have prostate cancer but being realistic, I have to prepare for the worst.

I've probably got a month to wait for all the results to be processed and would value your thoughts on the feedback and any suggestions/advice moving forward.

Thank you for your support

User

Posted 05 Sep 2022 at 14:35

If they let you have the bone scan before biopsy result, and they're reasonably sure you do have prostate cancer, I would go for it. The only downside is that a technetium-99m nuclear bone scan gives you the equivalent to about 3 years background radiation. No one would bat an eye at that risk if you have been diagnosed with cancer, but it wouldn't normally be given until you've been diagnosed, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone along the line refused it before then because you wouldn't normally give that sort of radiation dose without pretty solid evidence for its necessity.

Do you have the PIRADS or Likert score for your MRI scan?

EDIT: another reason they might refuse is if as a result of the biopsy they might instead give you a PSMA PET scan instead of a nuclear bone scan. This tends to depend if the hospital has PSMA PET scan capability. They certainly wouldn't do a PSMA PET scan before diagnosis - too expensive (and equivalent to about 4 years background radiation).

Edited by member 05 Sep 2022 at 14:55 | Reason: Not specified

User

Posted 05 Sep 2022 at 14:38

HI<

Sorry you join us with likely Prostate Cancer(PCa).

One of the depressing things is the wait to get a full diagnosis which usually does not happen until all the tests have been done, so from the anxiety aspect anything that can be done to shorten the wait is good. Medically PCa generally advances slowly so a few weeks are not likely to make much difference. The good thing is that you had your MRI first because it helps show suspicious areas to biopsy and also in cases like mine, where they sometimes did a biopsy before MRI there ideally needs to be a break of perhaps 4-6 weeks between the biopsy and the scan to allow the Prostate to heal in order to get a better MR image. Hopefully, the bone scan will not show any cancer cells have escaped to bone.

Meanwhile, try and keep as fit as you reasonably can and it would be a good idea to start Pelvic Floor exercises as this can help with some kinds of treatment.

Should you indeed have PCa, treatment options will be offered as appropriate for your individual diagnosis. It can be helpful to know more about the PCA and ways it can be treated so would recommend that you order or download the 'Tool Kit' as here https://shop.prostatecanceruk.org//our-publications/all-publications/tool-kit?limit=100

Edited by member 05 Sep 2022 at 14:42 | Reason: To highlight link

Barry

User

Posted 05 Sep 2022 at 18:26

Well before my formal diagnosis and based only on the MRI the nurse said, "we don't know if you have cancer, but if you have it is T3 N0 and we're booking you in for a biopsy and bone scan".

Anyway it was T3 N0 M0. The mere fact you are 57 means you are more likely to have PCa than not to have it. What is your PSA?

For the majority of men PCa will have little impact on their lives and should be left alone. For people on this forum the consequences have been a bit more severe, but that's the reason we are on this forum because we have problems we need to discuss.

If you're lucky you will have nothing, or it will need nothing but keeping an eye on. Even with my moderately aggressive cancer the chances of dying within five years was miniscule, but the odds beyond ten years were looking less favourable so I got treatment.

Dave

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