writing on behalf on my father who was recently diagnosed with Prostate cancer...

[yahya81]

Hello everyone,

my father is 63 yrs old and was recently diagnosed with Prostate cancer, his PSA level was 57, he went under surgery and removed part of the Prostate "not all of it", the biopsy of the removed part showed the cancer in his prostate of Gleason score 4+3, which is probably intermediate level, now he is recommended by his doctor to take Hormone therapy for 6 months,,,he is very depressed and feels very down....

we are wondering if any one has had some the same experience or knows someone with the same experience; or if anyone can provide us with any information on what might happen next; does that mean there is a possibility that the cancer might spread to other parts of the body, will the Prostate grow large again...any information on similar cases might help...

recently we found that his PSA level has fell to 46 after the operation, is that a good sign?

thank you so much

[dobbin]

Hi, I had prostate surgery back in 2009 and joined the West Wales Prostate Cancer group which has about 100 members who have experienced problems with their prostate. The leader is Phil Burr who has also had prostate surgery. Here is the link for the group. Do hope you find it useful and don't hesitate to either email or phone Phil even if you don't live in the West Wales area. westwalesprostatecancer.org.uk

[idlebystander]

Hello yahya. Sorry to hear about your father. With a PSA of 57 and a Gleason score of 4+3 there is a 75% likelihood that his cancer will have spread beyond the prostate gland. I'm quite surprised that surgery was considered at all, as it is not normal for such a high PSA reading. Further, it it most unusual to prescribe hormone therapy after surgery except in combination with radio therapy. HT on its own cannot cure this disease. Be reassured; this is not a death sentence, but his condition is probably beyond the skill of a surgeon. He should see an oncologist as soon as possible, who will, I am sure, prescribe a course of RT.

[yahya81 in reply to idlebystander]

Thank you for your reply, further to his (my father) case, his prostate was already larger than usual before he was diagnosed with cancer, and it was causing him problems thats why the surgeon suggested to remove it, he took an MRI to the area after the surgery and it didn't show that the cancer has spread any further, but it the PSA is already falling down so I guessed that should be a good sign!!

[RachelPappas]

I too suggest seeing an oncologist ASAP. My father only saw a urologist after his surgery for prostate cancer. The cancer showed up again about two years later and radiation was first prescribed then (not sure why it wasn't done initially).

But big mistake was he continued to see only a urologist as that was advised to him. The doc was not ordering scans and when my dad went to ER for an unrelated problem years later, he learned from an X-ray that it had spread to both lungs. The urologist had missed it for what the oncologist estimated about six years. Good news is he lived a long time even with these mistakes and even with other major health problems. This cancer is often slow growing and very manageable with the right care.

BTW, to anyone interested: I have a website with a tab for prostate cancer survivors (Click on drop down menu next to Cancer Types tab.) But there are other pages for folks of all cancer types.

Best to all of you.

Rachel