Scared of the Unknown

Hi,

I'm sure this is a common thing to be worrying about but i'm really scared at the moment of a lack of information about a family members cancer. 

 

My Granddad was diognosed with prostate caner at the start of the week and all we know is it's grade 7. I have looked into it and I know we need to know the stage and PSA results before I can be scared of anything really but I can't help panicking.

 

Can anyone give an idea of what a grade 7 means and if that shows it'll be bad or if there's still a bit of hope?

 

I'm 21 and not lost anyone in my family before so this idea is hitting me hard :(

  • Hi

    Just wanted to offer a welcome to the forum though sorry for the reason that brings you here.  My Dad had prostate cancer many years ago and can appreciate the worries that are hitting you just now.  I cannot help you with your particular question as regarding grading (my Dad chose not to share this information with me at the time) but there is a lovely gentleman on the forum (Woodworm aka Brian) who has received treatment for prostate cancer and I know he will be able to give you some information  so hope by 'bumping up' your post he may pick up on it sooner. Another idea would be for you to mentiion 'Help with Prostate Cancer grading' as a title for your post as those with knowledge in this particular field will be quick to pick up on it.  Hope this helps a little and do come and post if you need to offload as the forum is a friendly place (been a help to me for a couple of years now) and many know the stress behind waiting for full results. Best regards to you and your Grandad. Jules54

  • Hi Hannah,

    Have just read your post and the lovely Jules reply to you and I am the Brian she mentioned.

    The Grade of 7 you mention is more likely to be a gleeson score. It is likely to be written like this. 3+4=7 which would show his medical team there is slightly more cancer on one side of the prostate than the other. As you have allready mentioned the other imprtant reading is his PSA. which is used as a rough guide to show see how bad the cancer is. When I was diagnosed, My gleeson was 3+3=7 and my PSA was 70. I was lucky that the cancer was still contained within the prostate capsule

    However after two years on hormone therapy and 37 radiotherapy treatments, I have made a very good recovery. What I am saying is, prostate cancer is easily treatable so please dont worry. If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask. I would just mention, Please dont do what I did when I was diagnosed. I went on the internet and found there are a lot of sites that have out of date information while other were at best downright missleading. I know we all want to find out as much as we can but if you do google, Please ony use reliable site like Cancer Resaerch, Macmillan or Prostate Cancer UK.

    Wishing you and your Granddad all the best and please keep in contact, Brian.