My father, 69, was diagnosed. I know his levels are high and it has spread to his bones, and that he is on orgovyx. I live 1,300 miles away and feel pretty helpless. He is a kind man, and very willing to do what the doctors tell him, but very oblivious when it comes to anything advanced or scientific, (he doesn’t have a smart phone, computer, or even email address). I’m very uneducated myself on the topic. I panicked when he told me it had spread to his bones but since have heard that there is probably more time left than I assumed with this type of cancer. I’m very blessed that I have two siblings close to him, and my sister is going to a doctors appointment with him this Tuesday and told me to send her any questions she would like me to ask. Is there anything specific that may not be gone over? She’s so much better than I am in situations like this and has the maternal instinct I lack, but also doesn’t know much about prostate cancer. Just looking for suggestions to ask the doctor. TIA
Questions for the doctor?: My father... - Prostate Cancer N...
Questions for the doctor?
This may give you a better background:
nccn.org/patients/guideline...
Very informative and helpfull guidelines!Best I have seen.
If you are interested here are the Finnish🇫🇮 guidelines to "official" treatments for prostate cancer in different stages.In public healhcare and private.It in finnish but you can use google translater..
It is called "Käypä Hoito"
Review Tall_Allen's intro doc and read the boards here which will take the mystery away and give some clarity & comfort. With the limited info you provided here are a couple of potential questions while others can chime in...
- What kind of Doc is she/he and does their a team include an Urologist, and especially a Radiation Oncologist and Medical Oncologist?
- What are the next five steps in detail of their going forward treatment plan?
- How many patients have they treated? Has their facility treated? You want a heavily experienced Doc's and facility that have treated thousands.
- Ask if it is OK to record meeting so you can replay later. Discussions tend to go fast and eliminated note taking.
- Have your siblings also read up and review these boards, it will help tremendously.
Prostate cancer is one of the slowest-growing cancers, so don't worry.
"There is no rush - even men with high-risk prostate cancer did no worse if they waited 3 months between diagnosis and treatment"
Source: prostatecancer.news/search/... (Tall_Allen's blog)
He will need at least doublet therapy (= ADT (in his case Orgovyx) + 2nd-generation-hormone_therapy (= Zytiga(abiraterone), Xtandi(enzalutamide),Erleada(apalutamide) or Nubeqa(darolutamide))).
Maybe a triplet therapy (=ADT + 2nd-gen-HT + chemotherapy (docetaxel)).
But we don't know details - his PSA level, how many bone metastases and where those bone metastases are, if he has also lymph node metastases, if he has also other diseases or if he's otherwise healthy, what kind of imaging he had (PET scan, ...), ...
If there are only small number of bone metastases he can, maybe, have the prostate irradiated, it's called "debulking".
Possible questions for the doctor:
What do you recommend as the best plan?
What kind of 2nd-generation-HT do you recommend for him?
Do you recommend a triplet therapy?
Is it oligometastatic disease?
Can the prostate be "debulked" (meaning irradiated)?
If he's oligometastatic, the best current treatment is radiation to the prostate and at least doublet drug therapy. Put his case details in your bio if you want more informed advice here.
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