Six years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Gleeson 3+3=6 and a psa of 70. Luckily for me the cancer was still contained withing the prostate. I was put on hormone therapy for two years. After six months which reduced the psa to about 5, I also had 37 radiotherapy treatments and a few weeks later my psa was only just measurable at 0.01 which was a pretty good result.
Sure there have been some side effects from the hormone therapy but I look at it as a price worth paying. If you have any question you would like to ask, I will do my best to answer them.
Sending best wishes and kind thoughts your way, Brian.
Sorry to read you too are suffering from prostate cancer. If it has been recomended you have two years of hormone therapy, I would go along with that. I finished my hormone therapy (Zoladex) about four years ago. I was told it takes about a year for it to fully flush out of our system after treatment has finnished but I still suffer from the hot flushes, although now mainly at night and a loss less severe than before and it is slowing improving. The hieghtened emotions took about a couple of years to pass. I found this the most difficult to deal with as it only needed a small trigger and the tears would appear without any warning. I tried to hide this from my wife as I found it embarassing to talk about by feinging a big yawn. Dont think it fooled her but she never mentioned it.
I never suffered from depression but found I put on about 1 1/2 stone in weight and just cant seem to lose it. I also suffer from E.D. but as I am also diabetic now and this can also cause E.D. iI have just had to accept it.
There are medications/ aids the doctors can give for most of these side effects but I have looked at it as a small price to pay for the fact that the hormone/ radiotherapy treatment has probably saved my life.
With regard to your radiotherapy, some treatment centres now like yours only give 20 treatment sessions but you may find you recieve an increased dose each treatment. It has been found to be just as effective and sometimes there have been less side effects. It also means far less disruption to you life.
There are a couple of suggestions I can give. One is to try and keep some semblance of normality in your life. The other is, if you have family you can talk to, try and be as open and honest as you can with them about your feelings, for talking does help. Even using a bit of humour when talking about it helps. I know a lot of the side effects can be embarrassing for a man to talk about and can effect his self esteem.
I hope this helps. I have tried to be honest with you but just remember, we all react differently so you may find you get over the side effects much quicker. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Wishing you all the best and please keep in contact and let us know how your getting on.
Best wishes and kind regards being sent your way, Brian.
Hi Normski. Sorry to hear you've joined our exclusive club!
Prostate cancer is usually characterised by three diagnostic results:
1. Your PSA value;
2. Your Gleeson score;
3. Your cancer stage (T1 - T4) (Ignore any additional letters after the number).
You say your Gleeson score is 7. Has this been broken down for you? If so, then it will have been written as either 3+4, or 4+3. The order of the numbers matters: 3+4 is usually a little better than 4+3. The lowest (best) score for any PCa is 3+3, whilst the highest (worst) score is 5+5.
Have you been given your cancer stage? This will either be T1 or T2 (Early stage), T3 (Locally advanced) or T4 (Advanced). Early stage (T1 or T2) is usually curable by surgery or radiotherapy. T3 and T4 are more difficult to cure, but there are treatments now that can control advanced PCa for many years so the situation isn't hopeless.
My cancer was diagnosed 5 years ago. Its Gleeson score was 3+4, staged at T2 and my PSA was 5.8. I had a robotic radical prostatectomy in December 2010 at Bristol Southmead and so far I haven't needed any further treatment. I have regular blood tests to make sure that there are no recurrences. After the operation, the prostate was examined by the pathologists and the cancer was downgraded from 3+4 down to 3+3, which was welcome news.
