Ward Carson’s appearance makes it impossible to tell that he is ill.
For the past 19 years, the 79-year-old Halifax resident has battled metastatic prostate cancer.
It hasn’t significantly changed how I spend my life, he claimed. “I can barely believe you’re unwell,” my wife has commented to me on occasion.
However, he is ill, and his PSA level, a sign of prostate cancer, is rising, per the results of his most recent prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
“I believe that it has only recently jumped a little, and now it’s jumping again,” Carson added.
When his enlarged prostate was discovered for the first time in 2003, he underwent a prostatectomy, which is a treatment to remove all or part of the prostate gland. However, cancer cells lingered and multiplied, or metastasized. He has received radiation, hormone therapy, and most recently medication therapy to halt the spread of the cancer.
He told Global News, “And (those measures) have been effective for the past number of years, but they seem to have tapered off in their impact.”
Unfortunately, there is no way to operate and remove a portion of my spine because my cancer has spread to my spine.
Dr. Ricardo Rendon, a urologic oncologist and professor in the department of urology at Dalhousie University, stated that cancer cells eventually learn to survive under the impact of those treatments and begin to proliferate again.
Usually, he said, doctors aren’t able to do much more once prostate cancer has advanced through all treatments.
So far, at least.
We have a brand-new medicine that is accessible to our patients who had no other options as their disease advanced, he said.
Just last month, Pluvicto received approval in Canada; this will be the first time that doctors will be able to target and treat particular cancer cells.
Therefore, Rendon explained, “it’s a missile directly to the prostate cancer cells, as opposed to having a shotgun method to treating cancer.”
According to him, this focused strategy will reduce the negative effects that come with traditional treatments while also extending patients’ lives and improving their quality of life.
“It is exceedingly challenging to explain to a patient that there is no other treatment for the disease… Therefore, it is incredible to be able to provide this for these individuals, added Rendon.
According to established risk factors, just 4% of instances of advanced prostate cancer may be avoided, hence breakthroughs in prostate cancer treatment are essential, according to Rendon.
Thanks to hundreds of clinical trials and thousands of patients who participated, “we have roughly six to eight new medications licenced since 2004,” he noted. We have been able to nearly triple patients’ life expectancies with advanced prostate cancer in these 15 years.
Carson is aware of the ongoing study and is aware that this new medication might be his only remaining choice for treatment.
Dr.
I’m not sure what more is available to me because Rendon hasn’t said, “We can either put you in the trial or try medication B,” said Carson.
It sounds wonderful to me, and hopefully it will work, that this radioactive medicine will seek out prostate cancer cells, connect to them, and radiate only those cells.
New advanced prostate cancer medicine now available in Canada is a “really intriguing treatment.”
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