Prostate Cancer?

[TheRoyalBee]

Hi! My 78 year old dad was just told that he "probably" has Prostate Cancer due to symptoms (frequent urination) and the dr did a rectal exam and felt that it was "hard and bulbous." He has not had a recent PSA. He will have a biopsy in April.
What is the significance of the "hard and bulbous" finding? Does that mean it is more likely to be bad?
We just lost my mom from Lung cancer and multiple Myeloma in May. We are terrified all over again.
Thankyou

[auntiejessi]

I just want to add that while I know how scary this is, don't get ahead of yourself. I don't know how it was with your mom, but everything with prostate cancer is a big "hurry up and wait".

My dad had an aggressive form of it, and lived for 12 years. He was 70 at the time of his diagnosis, and also had parkinson's. He was given a 15% 5-year survival rate.

I'm really sorry this is happening at all to your dad - even the possibility - and let us know what happens.

[BonzoDog]

Yes, excellent advice, auntiejessi, as always!

[TheRoyalBee]

Oh thank you. I think things for my mom were complicated by two cancers at once, plus MS, plus probably some dementia type issues. Hearing the words again, like "biopsy", "surgery", "radiation" is so hard. UGH. I hate this part of getting older for all of us!

[auntiejessi]

It's so hard when your parents get older.

Remember to take care of yourself, too, during all this. I'm sure a lot of things are going to be triggered for you - how couldn't it be?

Is he going to get the PHI or PSA soon?

[BonzoDog]

Well, it’s not time to panic just yet. I’m a prostate cancer survivor, had radical prostatectomy in Jul 2018, unfortunately still dealing w/ metastatic sirens, I didn’t catch it early enuf. Hard & bulbous does seem suspicious for prostate cancer, but he needs more testing. 1st, obviously, is a PSA test. But if that comes back suspicious, my advice would be, don’t agree to a prostate biopsy right away - there another test called PHI = Prostate Health Index. It’s a simple blood test, like the PSA test, it takes PSA & 2 additional factors, combines them to generate a number. If the # is under 24, that indicates less than 10% chance & tHereford he can prbly avoid the biopsy (which is painful & has risks) & just do the ‘watchful waiting’ protocol, they’ll continue to monitor him & not schedule surgery or radiation until it’s warranted. If the Number generated is around 55, that indicates about a 50/50 chance of cancer, in which case he’d want to go ahead w/ the biopsy. If the biopsy finds cancer, it will depend on how much they find (like only 1 or 2 out of 12 samples, or 6 or more, etc.) & also the Gleason score - if that is 6, most likely nothing needs to be done, if 7 or higher, he’ll need to start investigating various treatment types - radiation, surgery, or radioactive seed implants. If the cancer is more advanced & aggressive, usually surgery is the best option. But don’t panic - if it’s caught early enough, this disease is close to 100% curable. Also, when it’s found later in life (78), it’s less likely to be the very aggressive type, so most likely this won’t kill him, he’ll prbly die of smthg else before the cancer gets him...

[TheRoyalBee]

oh thank you!

[BonzoDog]

Best wishes to your Dad - hopefully, he's gonna be OK...