Widespread Skeletal Metastatic

@rlpostrp I hope your treatments can keep the cancer at bay.

PSA testing is not done here on a routine basis.

We are in BC and the oncologist overseeing his care is in Kelowna.
The rest of the team is closer to us in Trail and Nelson. All have been wonderful and I feel he is in good hands.

@canadaanne wrote

❝PSA testing is not done here on a routine basis.❞

Unfortunately, that's a global phenomenon. The USPSTF in the U.S. misguidedly declared in 2012 that routine PSA screening was unnecessary, and public health authorities in other countries quickly followed suit (including Canada in 2014, as @colleenyoung mentioned).

Not every doctor or facility is convinced though. My brother (in a different Ontario city) was getting routine PSA screening even before I was diagnosed, and a hospital roommate I had was getting the same through the Canadian military. Some Americans in this list were still getting routine PSA screening despite the USPSTF recommendation, while others weren't.

The number of de-novo advanced prostate cancer cases has skyrocketed since 2012, so health authorities are now under increasing pressure to admit that they were (tragically) wrong and reverse their recommendation.

If it's any cold comfort, the type of aggressive prostate cancer that your husband and I have — the one that hits young and metastasises easily — often spreads so fast that even annual PSA screening can't catch it in time. I've not only read that in a scholarly paper, but had it confirmed by my ex-military hospital roommate, whose annual PSA screening didn't prevent him from ending up with bone-metastatic prostate cancer in his 50s.

So you'll never know for sure if annual PSA screening would have prevented your husband's situation. It might have (and will for many men), but it might not have, so there's no point beating yourselves up about it now. It's an unknowable.

Just keep spreading the word for men you know over 40 to ask for (or *insist on*) annual PSA screening, even if they have to pay the CA $30–40 cost themselves.

@canadaanne wrote

❝PSA testing is not done here on a routine basis.❞

Unfortunately, that's a global phenomenon. The USPSTF in the U.S. misguidedly declared in 2012 that routine PSA screening was unnecessary, and public health authorities in other countries quickly followed suit (including Canada in 2014, as @colleenyoung mentioned).

Not every doctor or facility is convinced though. My brother (in a different Ontario city) was getting routine PSA screening even before I was diagnosed, and a hospital roommate I had was getting the same through the Canadian military. Some Americans in this list were still getting routine PSA screening despite the USPSTF recommendation, while others weren't.

The number of de-novo advanced prostate cancer cases has skyrocketed since 2012, so health authorities are now under increasing pressure to admit that they were (tragically) wrong and reverse their recommendation.

If it's any cold comfort, the type of aggressive prostate cancer that your husband and I have — the one that hits young and metastasises easily — often spreads so fast that even annual PSA screening can't catch it in time. I've not only read that in a scholarly paper, but had it confirmed by my ex-military hospital roommate, whose annual PSA screening didn't prevent him from ending up with bone-metastatic prostate cancer in his 50s.

So you'll never know for sure if annual PSA screening would have prevented your husband's situation. It might have (and will for many men), but it might not have, so there's no point beating yourselves up about it now. It's an unknowable.

Just keep spreading the word for men you know over 40 to ask for (or *insist on*) annual PSA screening, even if they have to pay the CA $30–40 cost themselves.

Thank you so much.
I'm the worrying wife 😉 I guess I should have specified that.
Initial diagnosis was at the beginning of January - within 2 weeks they had started him on Reluglulix.
I'm counting on the treatment working wonders, and hope the chemo won't be too rough.

@canadaanne
Did he have any pains at all?
I’m scared I have in my bones.
Sorry. I see this has been asked and answered.

@asgmiami1 He did have lower back pain that radiated down his leg.
It is gone now with the treatment (Relugolix). He was using a cane and could barely walk. He hasn't used the cane for about a month and is pretty much pain free.

I hope it's not in your bones, but if it is, there are treatments to help as we have found out.

@canadaanne wrote

❝PSA testing is not done here on a routine basis.❞

Unfortunately, that's a global phenomenon. The USPSTF in the U.S. misguidedly declared in 2012 that routine PSA screening was unnecessary, and public health authorities in other countries quickly followed suit (including Canada in 2014, as @colleenyoung mentioned).

Not every doctor or facility is convinced though. My brother (in a different Ontario city) was getting routine PSA screening even before I was diagnosed, and a hospital roommate I had was getting the same through the Canadian military. Some Americans in this list were still getting routine PSA screening despite the USPSTF recommendation, while others weren't.

The number of de-novo advanced prostate cancer cases has skyrocketed since 2012, so health authorities are now under increasing pressure to admit that they were (tragically) wrong and reverse their recommendation.

If it's any cold comfort, the type of aggressive prostate cancer that your husband and I have — the one that hits young and metastasises easily — often spreads so fast that even annual PSA screening can't catch it in time. I've not only read that in a scholarly paper, but had it confirmed by my ex-military hospital roommate, whose annual PSA screening didn't prevent him from ending up with bone-metastatic prostate cancer in his 50s.

So you'll never know for sure if annual PSA screening would have prevented your husband's situation. It might have (and will for many men), but it might not have, so there's no point beating yourselves up about it now. It's an unknowable.

Just keep spreading the word for men you know over 40 to ask for (or *insist on*) annual PSA screening, even if they have to pay the CA $30–40 cost themselves.