In reply to The New NickB:
> My Dad has had a Prostate Cancer diagnosis today. Something that has been a possibility for a few weeks following a PSA test and a biopsy.
> Its a Gleason Score of 7 (3:4) which I understand makes it a grade 2 cancer. He is having a bone scan next week, following this recommendations will be made for treatment, likely either surgery or hormone and radiology treatment.
> Just wondering if anyone had any experience of similar.
Well, I have prostate cancer - and, unfortunately, that's *after* both surgery and radiotherapy. I'm in my early 50s.
The Gleason is a marker of how aggressive the cancer is. Mine was 7. The other improtant things are whether the biopsies suggested the cancerous cells have crossed the margins of the prostate (not all biopsy methids show this), and his PSA level. A very high PSA would raise the likelihood of it having escaped the prostate.
If it's contained, and with modest PSA then there is an excellent chance that first line therapy will be completely successful.
In terms of treatment, the first line if bone scans are clear is either surgery to remove the gland, or brachytherapy (radiotherapy from implanted "seeds"). I went with surgery, although it's a fairly horrible operation.
If that doesn't reduce PSA to undetectable, then there are cells that have spread, probably to the pelvic floor as in my case. The treatment is then salvage radiotherapy... unfortunately that has also failed in my case.
If the above fails, or if the cancer has already turned up in the bones, then you are into hormone therapy. This is not curative, and carries side effects. I have elected to delay - I would rather have fewer years overall but higher quality for longer. The cancer eventually becomes unresponsive to the hormone treatment. At that stage there are a couple of chemotherapy agents, but these add a few months at best and carry some poor side effects.
Someone has suggested one of the support websites. Be very careful with the forums on these - there's quite a lot of, at best, well-meaning misinformation and, at worst, snake oil pushing.
If you want more info, by all means pm me.