Query regarding treatment options

Hi there,

Firstly, I have read the FAQ and stickied post of this subforum before posting. Apologies in advance if I've misunderstood anything within.

My father has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is not a terribly good communicator so I don't have PSA but I know his Gleason score was 8. My father is mid 60s, ethnically mostly british gene pool with a healthy dose of red irish/red scottish/black welshs and a little slavic jew. Not sure if all that helps anyone reading answer my question but on the off-chance, there you go.

This is the third time he has had a form of cancer, the previous two were lymphomas - Hodgkins' Disease, diagnosed in 1999 and treated with both Radiotherapy and Chemo and an aggressive variety of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2013 that was stage 4b when diagnosed. He received some kind of new pharmaceutical treatment for that one with some very carefully targeted radiotherapy after the fact and came back from it. His health has been poor since the Hodgkins'. The radiotherapy at the time was not terribly easy to target well and because of the location of the cancers his respiration was badly affected.

The above means the only kind of treatment available will be hormonal and he will not start on that for at least 6 months. He is in poor health, 170cm (5'7") tall, 120kg (264lb), exercise is non-existent, diet is poor to middling.

I am the oldest of his kids and the only one still living in the same city/country as my parents, who are still married. I don't have a terribly good relationship with my father for historical reasons but want to make sure my mother is taken care of. My father is not great with money so this means I need to plan for the worst in that regard when it comes to any future care of my mother who is retiring in 1 year.

Does anyone here have any advice around my fathers life expectancy in this situation. I realise it's hard to know without the PSA and the situation is different for every person. I feel I need to ask and I have no way of getting a straight answer from either my father or his doctor.

kind regards

The American Cancer Society statistics show that less than two percent of the men diagnosed today with any stage of prostate cancer will die from prostate cancer within the next ten years. So, if he has treatment, and has other serious health problems, those will be more likely to kill him than prostate cancer.

Now, those medicines are not a walk in the park, and living longer may not mean a high quality of life, but this cancer can be successfully fought for many years.

Hi,

Saipan said...
Also, why are you so sure hormone therapy is the only possibility given your father's past reaction to lymphoma treatments? Is that what your father's doctor is telling you? Hormone therapy is usually combined with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. There are many chemo drugs that are extending, sometimes for 10+ years, the lives of men with advanced PCa.

Regarding the treatment availability (i.e. only hormone) this is the advice he has been given by his doctor. He has had radiotherapy previously for both previous cancers, I believe the radiotherapy was extensive for the Hodgkins' disease. At that time I was caring for him, driving him round etc. so I remember it quite well.

Have found out that his PSA is currently 16 and that the cancer is showing signs of having spread. He has been advised that the hormone treatment will begin when he reaches a PSA of 20 or 24 (the grapevine turned that to chinese whispers sorry...) which is expected to be in around 6 months.

Thank you for the information, it's given me an idea of the time frames around the investments I need to make. It sounds like he could be around for a while so I'll advise my mother to take control of the finances to limit any further damage and assist her in doing so.

Post Edited (chrispspace) : 1/16/2018 7:05:35 PM (GMT-7)

I don't understand the delay in the hormone therapy, especially considering the high PSA and the Gleason 8 score.

In which country do you live?

I've read articles about waiting lists and other problems with health care in New Zealand. No chance of going to Australia or elsewhere for at least a consult? Would your dad's insurance pay for treatment abroad?

Thanks, am aware of support and treatment options. Was trying to gauge life expectancy so I can sort things out for my mother.