They need to biopsy the chest tumor. That will help determine what type of cancer it is. They can't perform the biopsy until next week because Dad has to go off his blood thinners. When they have determined what type of cancer it is, we will actually know what our treatment options are.
IF (key word is IF) it is his prostate cancer coming back, it is a cancer mostly driven by hormones so they can use radiation and starve the body of hormones to treat the big tumor on his collarbone. If it is prostate cancer, it is also good news that it has been almost 8 years since his prostate cancer was discovered; that would qualify as a slow growing cancer.
Stage 4 means that it is still treatable; they are grouped Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and Terminal. So he isn't ready for a marathon, but they do have some treatment options. Once there are no other treatment options, the cancer is terminal and out-of-control. We aren't at that stage yet, thankfully.
We have no idea what type of time frame we are looking at but that will be determined on the type of cancer, the treatment options and how Phil responds to treatment.
Surgery still isn't an option, that would be too hard on Phil.
Anyway, that is the latest...whew...
Not great, but some good news.
Here is Dad in front of his favorite place - Whataburger
1 comment:
Hopefully good news keep coming-At least it is treatable and there are options. I think my dad's cancer was stage 4-but it wasn't the cancer that was so bad on him it was the surgeries that he couldn't recover from. We love you Uncle Phil!
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