Re: Ignoring small prostate cancer to zap large bone cancer on hip!

[Guest guest]

B wrote:

> When my small prostate cancer was diagnosed in July, 2008,

> every indication was that watchful waiting was appropriate to

> manage the date when it would be removed or zapped. My

> urologists ordered regular P.S.A. blood tests, which always ran

> about 3.3. By March of 2009, I had some mysterious falls and

> was beginning to have severe pain in the right hip, knee, and

> leg. Tonight I'm sitting here all marked up for my first

> radiation treatment, which is scheduled for Tuesday. How did I

> jump from watchful waiting with a still-small prostate cancer

> to a stage 2 bone cancer on my hip and pubic bone? Everyone

> was shocked to find a huge tumor on my right hip. Several

> biopsies were performed, but the expert in Boston was certain:

> " Histologically, much of the specimem shows firbrofatty tissue

> with fibrovascular granulation tissue. Scattered throughout is

> a malignant neoplasm consisiting of mildly hyperchromatic

> spindle cells distributed in a copious myxocondroid mattix,

> which findings are consistent with a myxoid chrondrosarcoma. "

> If any one else has been here and done that, I'd sure like to

> chat with you!

> Meanwhile, stay tuned.

> , now 72 yrs old

That's terrible news . I'm very sorry to hear it.

Do the doctors think this is a metastasis of prostate cancer, or

is it some entirely different type of cancer? It sounds like

something different.

Are there treatments for it?

I looked up " myxoid chondrosarcoma " on the net. The first thing

I saw didn't mention anything about the prostate. It said the

cancer was rare and the treatment for it is surgery and

chemotherapy.

I also looked it up on http://www.cancer.gov, the National Cancer

Institute website. I found a document on survival rates for bone

cancers here:

http://seer.cancer.gov/publications/survival/surv_bone_joint.pdf

I'm not sure that what I'm seeing is what you've got, but there

are charts of survival rates showing chondrosarcoma is that most

survivable of all of the bone cancers. If I'm reading it right,

78.5% of the 944 cases reported were still alive after 10 years.

More specific information is available in the report based on

grade, stage, etc.

Since this is a rare cancer it may be very hard to find a

specialist. If you haven't already found one, you might want to

contact one of the NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers.

You can find a list of them here:

http://cancercenters.cancer.gov/cancer_centers/cancer-centers-names.html

If you search the cancer.gov website you'll find other documents

regarding chondrosarcoma.

I wish you the best of luck.

Alan