Radiation,or not

reagan104
reagan104 Member Posts: 6
edited March 2014 in Prostate Cancer #1
My husband is 73 yrs old and has just been diagnoised with PC ,he goes next week to have a bone scan to see if it has spread.then start a six week,5 days a week radiation, hormone treatment,but at this time is so undecided in what action to take,any feed back would be appreciated.

Comments

  • Benji48
    Benji48 Member Posts: 117
    #2
    Hi, It would be helpful for this board to know more of the specifics, PSA, Gleason score, Biopsy results, etc.
    Prejudjing without any, my guess is the bone scan will not show anything, but it's nice to have one for a "benchmark". It's not a very sensitive test but will be usefull for down stream results!
    Presumably he has received recommendation from his doc but without any other info, can't comment.
    Just remember, it's not an instanty killer.
    Good luck & GOD bless
    Benji
  • reagan104
    reagan104 Member Posts: 6
    #3
    The psa was a nine and I heard nothing about the gleason score,the biopsy did show cancer and radiation was the recommended course of action,he gave 3 options ; surgery,which the dr was against because of my husbands age and health. ,the seeding,and the radiation-hormone treatment.
  • reagan104
    reagan104 Member Posts: 6
    #4
    one more bit of information; Dr said on a scale of 1-10 the cancer is a 7,is this the gleason of which you spoke?
  • Benji48
    Benji48 Member Posts: 117
    #5
    reagan104 said:

    one more bit of information; Dr said on a scale of 1-10 the cancer is a 7,is this the gleason of which you spoke?

    Hi,
    Yes, a value of 7 is the Gleason scale which indicates the "subjective" analysis is slightly towards the moderate side of aggresiveness. I say subjective because it's the physicians opinion of what the cells look like under a microscope. With a PSA of 9,(since it's less than 10) my opinion is that seeding would also probably be a viable option as well as the External Beam-Hormone therapy.
    Keep us informed as to your husbands choice & progress. This board has many good people on it.Just be careful, there are also some snake-oil salesmen.
    Good luck & GOD bless.
    Benji
  • stuart
    stuart Member Posts: 88
    #6
    I had both external beam radiation followed by seeds...That was four years ago...I'm a bit younger but my cancer was aggresive...I also had two years of hormone therapy(Zolodex)from 2001 to 2003...There are side effects to the Zolodex...I hope this helps
  • mydaddy
    mydaddy Member Posts: 4
    #7
    hi, my name is mary and my dad has prostate cancer.. he was diagnosed 6 years ago... he did radiation and was in remissions till now....it has spread into the lungs and is now doing chemo
    my dad is 77 yrs old..
    i think you are doing the right thing
  • reagan104
    reagan104 Member Posts: 6
    #8
    We have decided to go with the radiation-hormone treatment.He got the first "shot" in the hormone therpy,there will be one every three months for two yrs.we will start rad. treatments 10/17 for 8 wks . when I asked the DR "what kind of hormone therpy ?" his ans was "a shot" so,does anyone know the answer??
  • stuart
    stuart Member Posts: 88
    #9
    reagan104 said:

    We have decided to go with the radiation-hormone treatment.He got the first "shot" in the hormone therpy,there will be one every three months for two yrs.we will start rad. treatments 10/17 for 8 wks . when I asked the DR "what kind of hormone therpy ?" his ans was "a shot" so,does anyone know the answer??

    The medications mostly prescribed for " hormone therapy " are Lupron or Zolodex...Did your doctor tell you how this medication works?..Also did he indicate the expected side effects?..

Discussion Boards