Scan advice please

[Monkeyabc]

My dad has stage 4 prostate metastised to spine and hip. Psa was 140 now 1 which is great. My question, the NHS won't scan him to see what's going on with the metastatic cancer because his psa is low and he is on cbd oil not chemo. He wants to find and pay for a scan but can't find out what kind of scan he needs. Some say CT some say Neuroblastic. He's paying for it so can't afford to have the wrong one. Any ideas

[Chugach]

Has he done other treatments or just CBD? I want to hear more about this. Seems like a bone scan would be the one I’d want if I knew it was on bone.

[FCoffey]

Hard to answer that question without a lot more information, including about what your dad wants.

The purpose of a scan (or any other medical test) is aid a decision about treatment. If his PSA has dropped from 140 to 1, what would you expect to learn from a scan that would change what he is doing now?

Like Chugach, I'd like to learn more about your dad's experiences with CBD oil.

I pay for whole body MRI scans once a year, to check for distant metastases. Bone scans give a whopping great dose of radiation, and that's a dangerous thing to do to cancer cells. My understanding is that MRI scans are much less expensive in the UK than the US, but I have no direct knowledge. In the US my whole body MRI scan costs about $650, including the radiologist's report.

[Chugach in reply to FCoffey]

High does rad as a threat to cancer was not mentioned to me as they slide me through the tube quarterly for a bone scan ..... cha-Ching$, cha-Ching$, cha-Ching$, needed for accurate staging they say. When do we trust the tests from the MO and when is it just the damn money machine?

[FCoffey in reply to Chugach]

When it comes to bone scan, it is 100% the damn money machine.

It might be possible to build a case for the risk of a bone scan AFTER an MRI revealed something suspicious. Might, but not very likely, as the purpose of any scan is to decide on treatment options, and the MRI gives plenty of info for that. If the whole body finds something but can't resolve it, a localized MRI will certainly do the trick.

Hospitals have invested very large sums of money in the facilities required to do bone scans. The fact that MRIs can now do it with better sensitivity, better specificity, and at nearly zero risk to the patient is not why they keep these antique high dose technologies in service.

[Hidden]

You need a specialist to,get real answers...

[Tall_Allen]

I too am astounded that his PSA dropped from 140 to 1 just from CBD oil and no hormone therapy or chemo. Scans are not given "to see what's going on" Scans are given to help make therapeutic decisions. When multiple mets are discovered on a bone scan, hormone therapy is always started and combined with either docetaxel (especially if there were multiple metastases) or Zytiga.

This article explains all the scans and their uses:

pcnrv.blogspot.com/2016/12/...

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He's on ADT (lupron) and supplementing with CBD? With low PSA I wonder how much info a (bone) scan would provide. There is another lab marker people here have talked about which sheds light on activity going on with bones? Anyone?

[softwaremom00]

A bone scan might show something more but it can light up and show things even when the cancer is decreasing or the bone is healing. Remember that although scans are often a needed diagnostic tool they are extra radiation or other toxic material for someone with cancer.

When was his last scan ?

What type of scans has he had so far? It can be helpful for the Drs to have before and after scans to compare..so that might help him decide what kind to get.

How is he feeling overall ?

Generally cancer patients don’t die from bone mets.

Congrats on the good response to treatment! Keep up the good work!