Best news this year! (Update, go to latest post for latest SITREP)

Wise words. A good friend of mine did not get his prostate cancer checked in time due to COVID. No appointments available, and he did not want to burden the health service. By the time he was checked, it was too late for him. He was given between one and three years.
That was 18 months ago. He has just turned 51 and is now in palliative care. He was told last week that he probably won't last another three months. It is truly heartbreaking to know that he will soon leave this world. His biggest dream is watch Wales play in the world cup, he is hoping he can hang on until then.
Life is precious.

Sound advice Jim, and it bears repeating, and repeating.

Went for my battery of blood and poo tests last week. Thankfully nothing of concern except my cholesterol is above the level they like. I could've told them that.

I am grateful.

Thanks for bringing up men’s health again Jim.

serious question: is the annual finger test enough, or is additional screening recommended?

I completely missed this thread and I am about to tell my own story for the benefit of any men who may read it.

If the doctor does not feel a nodule while probing around - DRE, it does not necessarily rule out cancer on its own. One should take into account such things as age, family history, symptoms of BPH, if any, and PSA.

Less invasive and a reasonably good predictor of risk is this fairly new test, if available:

https://www.4kscore.com/

The 4K score will help determine how much further you should go.

Mine looked like this about a year ago:



I thought perhaps the above was enough?

But not in my case, as my grandfather had prostate cancer in his early 60s that spread to his bones. He died at the age of 71. My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer at mid 60s., but was treated with radioactive seed implants and he lived until the age of 82 when something else got him.

So, in my case, I was sent to get a bladder and kidney ultrasound and also an MRI. If anything had been detected in the ultrasounds, it may have meant metastasis, but all was OK. It turns out that I have a kidney stone in my right kidney that hasn't given me any trouble (yet.)

Then . . .

It was off to have an MRI which turned out like this:



The important stuff as far as I am aware is that there was no sign of suspicious lesions and no sign of vesicle invasion and my PIRADS score was 2. If you are interested at this point - and you should be if you are a candidate for testing, read up on PIRAD scores. The chart below is suggests that cancer is unlikely. I'd have been satisfied, but my urologist was not.



I thought that I was done at this point, but a PIRADS score of 2 is of some concern given family history.

How accurate is a PI-RADS score?


So in a study of men with lesions, almost a third of them had prostate cancer even with a PIRADS score of 2. I hadn't had a biopsy yet and though I did not know it at the time I read my "glowing report," I was about to have one.

A biopsy of the prostate is not fun, but living is fun - or should be - and it is for me. I'm over 70 now and I'd like to be around as long as possible.

You're naked from the waist down; you've been shaved; you are on your back and in the stirrups, you've been injected with a local anesthesia and the doctor comes in and goes through a Q&A checklist and you happen to mention you'd taken baby aspirin a day ago. Oh no!

I had to come back a month later to get prepped again. Do not take anything that could be a blood thinner for this procedure!

The procedure itself is not painful beyond the challenge to one's dignity. I got lucky so far.

The twelve core samples taken during the needle biopsy came up negative for all 12 cores. This time.

My PSA is now just a little above 4, and if it continues to climb, I will choose to go through the diagnostic process a second time if there is any doubt expressed by my urologist.

Something else will get me at some point but I'm determined it won't be prostate cancer.

Cheers,

Joe

Good luck on the newer test, JimInOz. Keep us posted. In the meantime an anecdote:

So I go get checked out reasonably often for a 50 year old. A couple of hundred euro for the works every couple of years (which recently included a CT scan of dye running thru the ticker). I'm in good shape according to the most recent set of results. But anyway...

I'm at the doctor. And he has a habit of asking me if it's ok he is going to check this or ok to check that. So he takes my bloods and is filling out the required forms all the while asking:

"So, dedalus05, I'm going to check your cholesterol. Is that ok?"

"Fine", says I.

"And I'm going to screen for STIs. Is that ok?"

"Not a bother", I says.

"And il going to check for prostrate cancer. Is that ok?"

"Eh...", I get caught off-guard by this one. "Actually doctor, I've not showered this morning".

"IN YOUR BLOODS DEDALUS05!! In your bloods".

I'd assumed the works meant the finger probe. It didn't. Bit of a waste of €200 😉

EDIT - apologies if this is a touch flippant given the subject matter.

Hoping for the best outcome results in your current testing Jim.

I was hyper-vigilant because of my family history, but perhaps a number of men reading this thread will heed the call.

Last night in speaking with the Missus, she mentioned that the husband of her friend Linda was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had gone to the chiropractor for lower back pain and somehow the Chiropractor sensed something was not quite right and sent him off to the doc who, after tests which were unspecified to us, determined he'd had cancer for some time and now it was in his spine.

Hopefully he'll have some good years ahead, but I could not help thinking that the cancer could have been caught earlier. I've no idea what symptoms he may have had as I don't know the fellow very well.

In my own case, I felt a certain stoicism about this illness and began to take the matter seriously in my later 40s. I began tracking my PSA test results!



You should have seen the expression on the urologist's face when I handed him the chart!

I never actually obsessed about the possibility. I felt I was taking the proper care of myself and I was able to put it out of mind between check-ups.

Sounds good, mate.
Best wishes.
Carpe diem!