For many men, a diagnosis of prostate cancer of any stage or grade ? even of the lowest level of risk ? is hard to deal with. If they have progressive disease after first-line therapy, it may appear to be an overwhelming issue.
This morning, on Ask Arthur, we received a pleasant surprise, which may offer great hope and a ?real life? perspective for the many men who do, indeed, find that first-line therapy has failed to eliminate their cancer, and that they have a rising PSA ?
We will let you read the actual tale for itself. However, for those of you who haven?t been dealing with prostate cancer since the mid to late 1990s, there was an earlier time ? and an earlier version of this web service. About the only thing in common between the two was ?Ask Arthur.? Then, as today, Arthur sought to help individual men with questions about their diagnosis and treatment. Today we also provide a much wider service too ? through the use of our social network, and the calls on Arthur?s time and expertise are far fewer than they were back in 1995 to early 1998, when the original InfoLink site was one of few places you could get to if you entered ?prostate cancer? into the relatively primitive search engines of that time.
The point to all this, however, is that progressive prostate cancer is far from being the end of life. The gentleman who left the message for Arthur last night was initially diagnosed in his mid to late 40s. By 1997 he had a rising PSA, had been told he had Stage IV disease, and that he had 2 to 3 years left to live. But not at all.
Prostate cancer is an unusual disease, and we still know little about the biological drivers of prostate cancer in specific individuals. What we do know, however, is that most men diagnosed with prostate cancer today are not going to die from this disease if it is appropriately managed; that many men diagnosed even with late-stage, progressive disease, may live for a decade or more after their diagnosis; and that we are at the beginnings of a revolution in the management of progressive and advanced forms of prostate cancer, as may be discovered through innovative trials like this one, that has just started to recruit men with relatively early stage metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer to bone only.
It is also worth noting part of Arthur?s response to his correspondent:
Arthur believes that the cultural and social biases that kick in (among patients themselves, among family members, and among the professional community) when any diagnosis of cancer is given often still reflect the mindsets of the 1950s as opposed to the 21st Century.
?Cancer? is a loaded word. We do indeed often respond to it in ways that demonstrate our misconceptions about the implications of such a diagnosis. Arthur wasn?t a young man even back in the mid-1990s, but his brain still seems to be working pretty well today!
Of course this is hardly a unique tale. There are many other men today who have been living well with advanced forms of prostate cancer for a decade and more. We need to keep building on that realization ? whether we are patients, healthcare professionals, family members of patients, or just educated consumers. Reacting with fear to an initial diagnosis of prostate cancer is still very ?normal? today. Hopefully, by about 2020, maybe we will have managed to demonstrate that such a reaction is no longer sensible because the management options are so much better than they were back in 1995-7 when Arthur first started to offer men his on-line assistance.
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Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Uncategorized Tagged: | advanced, hope, outcome, survival
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