Bad news, but good news. So much for PC being the "good cancer"

Like everyone else here, I truly hate it when someone says, oh, well at least if you had to get cancer, you got the good cancer.

Here's an article that proves otherwise. But it also may have a silver lining,....

www.bbc.com/news/health-42890405

"The number of men dying from prostate cancer has overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK, figures show.

Although deaths from prostate cancer have been rising over the past 10 years or so, the mortality rate or the proportion of men dying from the disease has fallen - by 6% - between 2010 and 2015.

Post Edited (Pratoman) : 2/2/2018 8:24:47 AM (GMT-7)

A very good friend of ours (who also has Parkinsons) was just diagnosed with testicular cancer. Because I've done so much research with PC, I've started researching that cancer as well. They should call that one the "good" cancer rather than PC. Yes it spreads faster, but it doesn't spread to the bones and it doesn't even have a stage IV. And even if it spreads to the soft tissues it has a high cure rate as it's very sensitive to chemo. Stage I and II have a 99% 5 year survival rate and 76% at stage III. It's devistating for our friends of course, but from our prospective, the Parkinsons diagnosis is worse than the cancer.

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Husband: Initial PSA 74.6 11/2016
12/2016 - MRI guided biopsy, CT lymph biopsy, NM bone. Path: Metasiatic prostatic adenocarcinoma,lymphadenopathy Gleason 4+3=7 (90% 4) 33mm of tumor 100% (3 of 3 cores) Perineural invasion 3 bone mets. Treatments: Lupron. Casodex 2 months. Docetaxel 2/2/17 6 doses. Casodex added 8/17; switched to Zytiga/predisone 12/17 bone mets greatly diminished.

reachout said...
... said that at my early stage of recurrence and what appears to be slow progression I will still probably due of something else before the prostate cancer gets me. ...

Sadly, "something else" (heart attacks, strokes) may well be caused or worsened by the treatments for PCa, making them, in my opinion, death by PCa.

Please don't make that "good cancer" comment in front of me in person. The results would be at least uncomfortable.

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NOTE _ MY EMAIL HAS CHANGED!
Moderator - Prostate Cancer
(Not a medical professional)
DaVinci 10/09
IGRT journey (2010) -
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1756808
HT (Lupron) 9/12-3/13, 6/14 to present
Prolia 6-mo inj 12/12 to present
Casodex started 12/14, end 3/15 after psa 30% rise
Zytiga 04-07/15 Xtandi 04/16-8/17
Taxotere 10/17-?

John_TX said...
... that remain undiscovered until it's too late to mitigate. At least we have PSA and a DRE that can screen for the disease.

Which is both good news and bad news... the USPSTF took away our reliance on PSA for a while, and hence I went untreated for several years because all my DRE's were "normal" to the very end... until someone got the idea to finally give me an MRI. Penny wise and pound foolish.

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2014-15: PSA's 9, 12, 20, 25... Neg DRE's, false neg TRUS biopsy
6/16: MRI Fusion biopsy, Right Base, 2x40%+2x100% all G8 (4+4)
8/16: DaVinci RP, PNI, 6mm EPE, 11 LN-, 53g 25% involved Grp 4, BL SVI, T3B N0M0
1/17: started 18 months Lupron ADT, PSA's ~.03
5/17: AMS800 AUS implanted, revised 5/30
8/17: RapidArc IMRT 39 tx (70 Gy) Aug-Oct 2017
1/18: PSA 0.00, Now test every 3 months to find a trend

Cancer is cancer. Nothing “good” about any cancer.

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RALP 08/08/17 Gleason 4+3 with TP 5 less than 5%. Grade Group: 3 pT3b pNO/pMX PIN and PNI present. EPE focal left posterior. SVI present left. Bladder neck-neg. Margins uninvolved. Decipher: Intermediate Risk.
PSA: 04/30/15- 2.83 06/26/17- 7.24
6 week post-op - <.010 (Sep 19th)
12 week post-op - <.010 (Nov 1st)

Zzarth said...
Hey Pratoman -- the link is a little funky in your post ... here is the article I believe you were trying to link to

Also -- about your argument.

Even though the overall # of prostate cancer deaths have gone up -- the progression of the disease is a lot slower, so the claim that "at least you got a good cancer" is still true, no? ...

Thnks for the fix, Zzarth. Weird, I tested the link when I posted, as I always do, and it worked. I just fixed my link.

Re the "good" cancer, no, at best I'd call it one of the less bad cancers.

Post Edited (Pratoman) : 2/2/2018 8:29:39 AM (GMT-7)

142 said...

reachout said...
Sadly, "something else" (heart attacks, strokes) may well be caused or worsened by the treatments for PCa, making them, in my opinion, death by PCa.

Ditto what 142 said. I've been luckier than many, never cured but years-long pauses between surgery and SRT and then from SRT to the present. Now, with a doubling time of under 6 months I'm looking at starting Lupron by summer unless I'm able to get into a Prostvac trial. I'm working out an hour every day to lose fat and build muscle because once I'm on Lupron I know my risk of heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis will accelerate.

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Age 71
-2002-PSA 9.4, 5 of 10 cores positive - 30-50%.
-RP April 2002. PT3B N0 MX Gleason=7 (3+4), 75% left lobe; small focus rt lobe.
-PSA low of 0.01; slow rise to 0.4 (Aug 2009).
-SRT Jan/Feb 2010. One lymph node targeted. Casodex 3 months during SRT -PSA 0.00 through Apr 2014;
-0.02 Oct 2014; 0.04 Apr 2016; 0.23 Oct 2016; 0.51 Jan 2017; 0.64 Mar 2017, 0.92 Jun 2017, 1.54 Oct 2017, 2.46 Jan

Post Edited (Bohemond) : 2/2/2018 8:48:07 AM (GMT-7)

There are no good cancers. There are only more treatable ones and ones that are slower growing.

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11/13 psa 240
DX 10/2013 PSA 187.5
PSA HIST 07/11,3.31;3/10,1.87,3/06,.87
Biopsy 10/28/13; 11/12 cores positive gs 9 (4+5)
BNSCN 12/09/2013 2 hot spots in spine
ADT 12/17/2013 22mg lupr, 50 mg Cas
BN biopsy 01/09/2013 neg
RALP 2/19/14 NN,LVI,Path T3BNX,MX, pros size 4.2 X 4 X 3 cm, 31 grm.Post Op PSA 3/14 .6, 6/14<.1;9/8,;.6;12/8, 1.2;3/9/15 3.9;6/2/15 23
12/14 CT SCAN; 1/15 BNSC

Michael_T said...
My wife and I spend a lot of our time volunteering for a pancreatic cancer non-profit. While I would never say that I got the "good" cancer, I will say that I'm sure glad I didn't get pancreatic cancer (and I obviously hope that I never do). 75% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within one year. Five-year survival rate is 9%.

Within a few months of my RP, my 40 year old D-I-Law, mother of 10 and 13 year old boys, was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. She had just- at her employer's(hospital's) pushing- recently finished a couple of years of night classes (45 minute commute 1 way) to get her masters degree in Social work. She had also had bariactric (sp?) surgery for weight loss about a year prior. Turned out that was the last thing she needed, as she was dead within 6 months, at maybe 75 Lbs. The chemo was pretty horrible, and as far as we could tell, totally useless.

Even with my aggressive PC and not great pathology, 4 years later I am still a surgery only guy, though I have been rising a bit, so my luck may run out soon. So, compared to what hit her, my PC has certainly been comparatively good. Let's face it, many of us have treatment and thus get many years of life with loved ones before it gets us, if indeed it ever gets us. Some of us can pull that off even without treatment. So compared to something like several of the other cancers, often referred to or thought of as a death sentence, I can see why some people call it the good cancer. Certainly in many ways my aggressive PC with poor pathology has been very good compared to the horror show happened to my DIL.

OTOH, the treatment for PC can absolutely drastically reduce one quality of life, destroying many pleasurable aspects of life forever. So on that basis, hard to actually call it good. But if some other cancers are considered, I guess I will have to say that it certainly could be worse.

Bohemond said...
As many of us here know prostate cancer isn't one disease. My wife's cousin was diagnosed just three years ago and died last month. Most of us do way better than that, but he drew the short straw.

That is the thing that is different about PC: They can tell you you have PC, and if you have one kind- and even if you escape or refuse treatment- you almost certainly will not ever die of it and there is a good chance you will never even never have serious problems. Not before you die of something else.

OTOH, if you have the opposite kind, you might be dead within a few years, even with treatment.

But in either case, if you have treatment, you might have some really life changing problems. Maybe even if you are in the group that will never have problems.

I don't think we see that kind of wide variety in outcome among most of the other cancers. And even with biopsy results in hand(or maybe just PSA results), we all must ask which group are we in? And can we know for sure.

Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 2/3/2018 8:18:17 AM (GMT-7)