My dad has prostate cancer..?
My dad has cancer, and I dont know what to do. He has prostate cancer, and everyone keeps telling me that its a really cureable cancer, but I think that they just say that. 2 months ago my mom left, and my dad went into depression. && now on top of everything he has cancer. He has 2 choices since he is only 44. radiation, or taking the entire prostate out. I wouldnt know how to help him decide, I am a girl. I just really want to know the statistics of that he will live, because I cant live without him. Thanks for any awnsers you give me.
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Honey one of my best buddies is a fifteen years survivor of it. He had surgery,chemo, and radiation. he's fine now. Only has to have a PSA test done every year.
From your National Cancer Institute;
Men with prostate cancer have many treatment options. The treatment that's best for one man may not be best for another. The options include active surveillance (also called watchful waiting), surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy. You may have a combination of treatments.
The treatment that's right for you depends mainly on your age, the grade of the tumor (the Gleason score), the number of biopsy tissue samples that contain cancer cells, the stage of the cancer, your symptoms, and your general health. Your doctor can describe your treatment choices, the expected results of each, and the possible side effects. You and your doctor can work together to develop a treatment plan that meets your medical and personal needs.
You may want to talk to your doctor about taking part in a clinical trial, a research study of new treatment methods. See the section on Taking Part in Cancer Research.
Your doctor may refer you to a specialist, or you may ask for a referral. You may want to see a urologist, a surgeon who specializes in treating problems in the urinary or male sex organs. Other specialists who treat prostate cancer include urologic oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists. Your health care team may also include an oncology nurse and a registered dietitian.
Before treatment starts, ask your health care team about possible side effects and how treatment may change your normal activities. For example, you may want to discuss with your doctor the possible effects on sexual activity. The NCI booklet Treatment Choices for Men with Early-Stage Prostate Cancer can tell you more about treatments and their side effects.
At any stage of the disease, supportive care is available to relieve the side effects of treatment, to control pain and other symptoms, and to help you cope with the feelings that a diagnosis of cancer can bring. You can get information about coping on the NCI Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping and from NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER or LiveHelp (http://www.cancer.gov/help)
At 44 he's very young for this type of cancer, and has an excellent chance of survival. I have to warn though there will be days he feels like cr@p. Those days he will need a little extra tlc.
Yes everyone does tend to say "don't worry, my dad had that 10 yrs ago and he's fine" and many doctors will say you could "watch and wait" to see if it develops-as most prostate cancer is very slow growing. However, your dad is very young and it tends to be more agressive in younger men. You are right to be concerned.
He has over a 95% (more like 98% I think) chance of living for five years or more-but he is very young to only possibly have 5 years left. However that doesn't mean he will die after 5 years, but those are the 5-year survival statistics the medical industry comes up with.
It's not the worst cancer for him to get, but no cancer's a "good" cancer. Talk his options over with him and his doctor and research as much as you possibly can. My dad had it 7yrs ago and he chose Brachytherapy (radioactive seeds which is possibly one of the options for your dad?) he could have chosen "watch and wait" and his doc said he'd probably live 15yrs. However he was much older than your dad (in his mid-60s) and seven yrs later is living with advanced cancer that has spread and probably has months to live. Also you don't mention how advanced your dads prostate cancer is-did they catch it early? Has it spread outside the prostate? These are all factors that will make a difference to his survival.
So sorry you are going through all you are, and good luck to you and your dad.
About three years ago my dad found some abnormalities too.(Prostate Cancer.) I was scared and worried about him too. But how we all coped with was we looked up info on it, and talked to the doc about it. He had to do some radiation that seemed to help a great deal. It was nothing like you see in the movies were he lost hair or anything, just some uncomforablness, and being tired alot. Within a year he was back to his normal self and the abnormanlities was gone. In most cases it is the same for men...the do the radiation and thats it. Hope things turn out for the best. Have faith and hope, just be there for your dad.
I don’t know who “everyone” is, but they are wrong. Prostate cancer is not often cured and when it is there is nothing easy about it. All the information your dad needs will be provided by his doctors. I don’t know how statistics will help you, but the risk of dying from prostate cancer is 1 in 34. This takes into account everyone with prostate cancer and more often than not men die with the disease not from it. However, you dad is too young for that luxury.
EDIT: It is impossible for someone to live with prostate cancer their entire lifetime and the patient would have to be very ill and it would be obvious to anyone they were dying if someone only had 6 months to live.
Yes it is very treatable and most men live with it for a very long time, but most men are diagnosed with it when they are over 60.
Prostate cancer is curable. I did it, 4 years ago at MD Anderson.
The basic problem is there are many new cases each year.
The Proton Beam is the best but there are not sufficient centers to handle all cases.
Probably the easiest is hormones. That works if the cancer is sensitive to hormone treatment.
The key is early diagnosis and you can;t do that with the PSA test.
In any case it's expensive.
Prostate cancer IS one of the more treatable cancers. If I was in he shoes (knowing what I know), I would go with surgery in a second.
Look up cancer.gov or cancer.org.
Best of luck to your dad.
It is not curable. But it is definitely a cancer you can live with for a LONG time. There are many, many treatments for it.
I know some men who have lived with it their entire life.
Don't worry about it too much, he will be okay. Just be careful it does not spread, and take care of it!
I am happy to say it is very cure able, my father had it about a year ago and is fine now because of seeing a doctor and getting help before it was to late.
You can try the following regimen -
first 2 days
2 glasses of water 1 hour before each meal with a gap of 30 minutes. That makes it 6 glasses of plain water in a day.
No other liquid (no tea, coffee, juices or other liquid things)
Have an early dinner. 7 PM
Do not drink water after 6 PM
Do not go to bed for 3 hours after a meal.
After first 2 days - next 2 days
1 glass of water 1 hour before each meal with a gap of 30 minutes. That makes it 3 glasses of plain water in a day.
No other liquid (no tea, coffee, juices or other liquid things)
Have an early dinner. 7 PM
Do not drink water after 6 PM
Do not go to bed for 3 hours after a meal.
After first 4 days - next 2 days
1 glass of water 1 hour before one meal with a gap of 30 minutes. That makes it just 1 glass of plain water in a day.
No other liquid (no tea, coffee, juices or other liquid things)
Have an early dinner. 7 PM
Do not drink water after 6 PM
Do not go to bed for 3 hours after a meal.
Should be ok in 15 days.a