Hi i'm new here, and would love some advice.
My Dad has Prostate Cancer. He was diagnosed at 51, he is now 63. When he was diagnosed initially, he was informed that the Cancer had probably started in his late 30's - the whole Prostate was cancerous and it had also broken out of the capsule into surrounding areas , but not yet reached the lymph or bones. He received Radiotherapy daily for 6 weeks and was then on Casodex, then Zolodex, then both, then Zolodex only.
On Feb 12th 2015, 11 years after initial diagnosis and after 6 months of problems, he was told the Cancer had spread. There is a 'general uptake' throughout all the bones, with main hotspots being femur, pelvis, shoulders and upper arms. He also has a small spot on the Middle lobe of one lung, retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy and a skull base (brain) tumour.
He has been put on Enzalutamide (Xtandi) which is supposed to stop testosterone production, therefore reducing the PSA levels and halting the cancer where it is. He has been taking this drug for 7 weeks now. From my understanding, this is a wonder drug, and is given to improve quality of life and increase survival time.
My concerns are this, though. There is no improvement in his health, only massive decline. Yes, his PSA has dropped (testosterone has gone up slightly) however he is getting worse by the week, to the point that he is getting a Macmillan referral now, yet when he was diagnosed mid February there was no way he wanted or was ready for this. He barely eats, has no appetite, his weight loss is around 2/3lbs per week. He has no energy, I realise the drug can do this, he's anaemic and no matter how much iron he takes, his blood count keeps dropping, and he is in massive pain - mid February he was taking Ibuprofen and Paracetamol, now he is on Fentanyl patches and Morphine tablets.
As he hasn't been given a prognosis we have no clue what his symptoms mean. To me, it looks like he is slowly dying, and showing all the signs one would expect, yet this drug is doing 'what it says on the box' and dropping the PSA, to give him longer time? It certainly isn't giving him quality of life though.
Can anyone tell me if it's possible to still pass away even when on this drug? Even though the PSA is dropping? Can the existing cancer still cause him to decline? This may sound like an odd question, and maybe it seems strange why I need to know, but I have blood tests results in one hand, and then looking at the man with my own eyes, and what I'm reading and what I'm seeing don't match, and I don't know where we are with this?
Can anyone help shed some light?
