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T3b N1 question about the N
I am a bit confused as to where I stand in this prostate cancer I have. The N means they found microscopic evidence in a pathology report of cancer in one lymph node. This technically means that I am in localized spread I guess. This makes me stage 4a or not? I’m unsure where I stand on this.
There’s not a ton of recent info on this stage either. No one will commit to telling me just how screwed I am. Do I have 5 years, 10, less? Who knows. Everyone just shrugs when I ask and says there’s a while to go and lots of therapies left, which I get.
I’m 51 close to 52. Got a 9 year old and a 12 year old. I’m looking forward to a long life still and I just want to know how much of a chance I have to A. Get rid of this B. Deal with this until something else takes me out long from now. I’m going through Lupron and Abiraterone, radiation starting soon. Was told that chemo was not needed but why is that? I was told it’s overkill, but is it? This thing is killing me; I want to attack it with everything early.
Any recent data or studies would be appreciated.
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Yes, you have a somewhat aggressive prostate cancer, but there are many that are so much worse. Did they mention to you that it has spread to the Seminal vesicles? Even with that, radiation can take care of it.
There is no way to tell how long you’re going to live. With proper treatment, you could live decades more. People I know that have had doctors tell them how long they are going to live almost always live two or three times as long. That’s why it’s a mistake for the doctors to suggest a limit.
You didn’t tell us what your Gleason score is, and that is very important to figure out what’s going on and what will happen in the future. I know people that are Gleason eight and nine that are around for 20 or 30 years after just having surgery or radiation.
Did your biopsy find any of these things? intraductal, cribriform, or ECE. Having one of those in your biopsy could be more important than just having A lymph node with cancer. It’s very easy to treat a lymph node with radiation.
Have you had a PSMA PET scan? Is that what found the lymph node but nothing else?
Chemo is used when people have multiple metastasis because they’re not easily treatable by radiation. You are definitely not a normal chemo patient. At this point, it’s overkill.
If you’re not pleased with What you are being told look for a second opinion from a center of excellence.