Hi there and thanks for posting

I am sorry to hear about your dad having cancer and appreciate what a difficult time this must be for all the family.

As you say it may be that your parents are trying to protect you by limiting what they are telling you or it could be that they don't really know the whole picture themselves at the moment so are waiting to find out more before sitting down with you.

I really can understand you wanting to understand more about the situation but I'm afraid I don't think anyone here can shed much more light on things for you. If you can do try and sit down and have a really open and honest conversation with your dad about how this is making you feel and the questions you would like some more answers to, if he knows them that is.

Whilst we have information about the different stages, grades and types of prostate cancer here on the website, what this exactly means in terms of treatment and outlook with vary from patient to patient.

The grade refers to the how different the cancer cells look and how fast they are growing ( in other words how aggressive they are) and the stage setting out the size and location of the cancer and if it has spread to other parts of the body. The higher the number and greater the stage often means a more aggressive and advanced disease however many treatments are available to help control the disease and any symptoms for a long time in many cases.

It sounds like will only ever be the specialist team involved in a patients care who can say what a diagnosis actually means and what they hope treatment to achieve and what the future may look like. Do encourage your dad to ask his team more questions if he is unsure and would like to know more as well as you.

I hope you can find some time to talk to your dad and understand more soon.

Best wishes to you and all your family

Naomi