Worried

[MyDad76]

History: my dad was diagnosed with PC after TURP procedure in September 2016. Gleason 4 + 3= 7. PSA 5.2. Tumor present in 10% of analized tissue.

Theraphy: Casodex monotheraphy 150 mg for 5 months. PSA dropped to 0.17. Doctor decided to reduce Casodex to 50mg. Even though PSA in January 2018 was 0.53 he decided that we should stay with this theraphy for another year.

I was not happy about he choosen theraphy, but we continued. There are several reasons for it: my father was happy with it, we live in a country with public only health system where patients have little saying and doctors are to be obeyed (cultural thing). Patients are not refered to oncologist till cancer is considered contained and patients over 74 years old are usually not referred to surgery.

Last month my father lost 4kg, his voice is becoming weaker for months. His PSA is now 0.6. Finally I had enough and we drove 4 hours to a privat clinic where they did a full body MRI. We got results today showing "suspicious hyperintensive signal on T6 in a lenght of 10mm." Other than that it seams ok, but I know this is not the most sensitive test. They suggested focused MR of spine to investigate further.

I can not ful myself that this is a benign finding as my dad is visually diclining. Obviously we will go to doctor and ask for immediate action.

I'm so hurt. I feel the system and myself have left my father down. I keept saying that treatment was not aggressive enough. With Gleason 4+3 we should have attacked more. I'm affraid what more detailed tests will show and how will my father tolerate more aggressive treatments. He is 76. I'm the only caregiver - only child and lost my mom due to pancreatic cancer. You can tell I hate PC word (PC is also used often as abbreviation for pancreatic cancer)! I think I will go nuts

Thank you for listening.

[Tall_Allen]

What country? The standard of care in the US would be Lupron + Zytiga + Prednisone. If that shrinks the lesion at T6, then it was prostate cancer, and he can continue this therapy for a long time. If it doesn't shrink, he may still be cured by radical therapy of the prostate - either prostatectomy or radiation.

[MyDad76 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Slovenia (small country in Europe, used to be part of Yugoslavia). And thanks for replying. I will calm down. Just my nervous got the better of me today. I will take a couple of days off work.

[Tall_Allen in reply to MyDad76]

Can he get Zytiga in Slovenia? Otherwise, he may be able to get ketoconozole with Leuprolide. Ketoconazole works in a similar way to Zytiga.

[MyDad76 in reply to Tall_Allen]

I know that at least last year you had to fail on cheaper drugs before Zytiga was approved. I don't know if things changed. Given the cost I'm not to optimistic. I will for sure fight. Thank you for suggestion on ketoconazole.

Perhaps I will also try to convince my dad we travell to Munich Germany. It is just around 5 to 6 hours drive. If I can not afford 4 treatments, but if they would see favourable response is expected, I could take him for up to 3 treatments. I would have to take a loan, but I would manage it.

[leo2634]

Hi My Dad ,first of all thank you for caring about your Dad the way you do. I don't know if your country has Cancer advocate groups like here in the U.S. but you may want to look into it. I'm on Zytiga as my first line of treatment and I know I couldn't afford it without the Advocate groups help.

Best of luck. Leo

[j-o-h-n]

Naj bo Bog vzel tebe in svojega Očeta pod njegovo krilo in vam pomagal pri svoji težavi.

My attempt in translating English to Slovenian using Goggle Translate.

Good Luck and Good Health.

j-o-h-n Friday 07/06/2018 5:14 PM EDT