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Nov 22, 2011 - 5:41 am
Hi. I am a head/neck cancer survivor and lung cancer survivor who has been around for more than five years. Never been here before, because I feel like going into boards that do not relate to you is voyeurism. I am here now because I just discovered my 74 year old dad, strong as an ox and as sharp as a sword, hs been diagnosed. I know absolutely nothing about this, but here is a quote from my dad, if it can be of any help in your opinions, and I know that that is all they are: The doctor said the results showed one of the plugs showed Gleason score of 9(4+5), one showed 7(3+4), and one showed 6(3+3). He said this was on a scale of 2 to 10. Nine out of twelve showed benign. Two of the cancers are "high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (high-grade PIN)." I'm not sure what exactly my questions are, and are hoping that you can help me come up with the proper questions. Thanks in advance. Take care, Joe |
Joined: Mar 2010
Joe, welcome to the forum and I am sorry to read of your father's diagnosis.
Your father's diagnosis of a Gleason 9, a Gleason 7, and a Gleason 6 are indications that while he has various stages of cancer growth within his prostate, the Gleason 9 is the one that is the most cause for worry. Gleason 9 cancers are stages of prostate cancer that are aggressive and very advanced. The areas that are high grade PIN are simply areas where there are lesions evident where the cells are dividing more rapidly than the benign cells. PIN is thought to be a precursor to prostate cancer but in your father's case it doesn't really matter as there is plenty of evidence of cancer present without the PIN.
There is other information you father probably has in his records that would be useful to know such as his PSA history (a record of PSA readings at various times in the past) which can be used to calculate PSA velocity and PSA doubling times which are an indication of how aggressive your father's cancer is behaving. Whether or not the urologist detected anything abnormal during the DRE such as bumps or hard spots on the prostate, how large the prostate is (they should have measured it via ultrasound when they did the biopsy), and the results of the bone scans that they almost always take when a positive cancer diagnosis is obtained from a biopsy sample.
Treatment options are many and varied and there is quite a bit of controversy among prostate cancer professionals about how to address prostate cancer even at low risk stages. At high risk stages there is even more controversy that range from doing nothing to pursuing an aggressive treatment regime. The decision on which course to pursue is pretty much left up to the individual lay patient. Depending upon which part of the country you live in Medicare may allow different treatment options.<