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honda50 · 11-28-2010, 01:49 AM

I realize that there are a lot of drugs and therapies out there to deal with recurring prostate cancer, but, still....my husband's case has me very concerned. 80% of his prostate was replaced by cancerous tissue and although there is only a unifocal margin involved by the cancer, it seems when it left the capsule, it spread out. That's because the extraprostatic extension is more extensive (nonfocal). Then it went into the seminal vesicles.

This seems so ominous to me...and I know I keep bringing up the same thing in different ways but I just can't sleep over this.

Can all of the radiation and hormone therapies out there now really keep the cancer controlled? And for how long? And what quality of life will he have in trying to control it?

I just want to know that we can have some quality of life in the future without always having to worry about the cancer being there or coming back.

Thanks for putting up with me....I'm rather freaked out at this point.

Regards, Rhonda

IADT3since2000 · 11-29-2010, 02:47 PM

Hi Rhonda,

I'm responding to your first post on this thread - the only one so far.

Not that many years ago it was thought that prostate cancer that spread beyond the capsule would often spread widely - beyond the range of radiation - in just a few years after the initial attempt to cure the cancer. That kind of distant spread would have made it incurable for the vast majority of cases, with only rare exceptions.

However, a study was published in the past few years that really caught people's attention: it showed that patients given pelvic radiation in these circumstances were demonstrating excellent evidence of control or cure of the cancer after an impressive number of years. That study has changed the opinions of some leading experts about how prostate cancer typically spreads and what can be done to counter it. It is now thought that prostate cancer that has spread beyond the capsule often stays within the range of curative radiation.

I don't have ready access to the study, but maybe someone else can identify it.

Take care,

Jim

honda50 · 11-29-2010, 03:35 PM

Then, Jim...bring on the radiation.

I'm feeling a little more positive at this moment..and I'll take that feeling because I woke up feeling so depressed and knew I can't go on like this. After a visit with our wonderful GP who threw some positive light on this, and then, looking back on the book I've just read by Mary Carolyn Cook Gervais, "In Sickness and in Health: Surviving Prostate Cancer Together", I reminded myself that her husband actually had positive margins and extraprostatic extension too...and he came through. My selective memory forgot about that fact.

Now, your message, is the 3rd positive thing today. I need to feel positive, if even just for today to give my emotional state a break. I know there will be many days with tears and fears, but it's the moments in between with positive thoughts and hope which will save me from sinking in this. I hope those positive moments will start to overtake the negative thoughts.

Thanks, Jim, for helping to give me hope. It means so, so much.

Hugs, Rhonda

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