Stopped treatment - how long time until death?

NKinney said...

smurfine78 said...

Thanks, but on the other answers here psa still seems to have a connection to the development of the disease? I don't know what's correct here but his history is quite unusual. A normal person would probably not have lived as long as he has. Now his psa is over 4000, but I don't think they will measure it anymore

All I can say, again, is that I'm sorry.

It is correct that PSA has a "connection to the development of the disease," although it is meaningless to compare absolute values of PSA for various reasons, and meaningless to end-stage PC.

But you asked a different question. You asked: "Anyone with experience of how long time it took from they stopped treatment until they died?", and it seems that you were incorrectly given an impression (by only one poster, although it was repeated, only by him, several times) that PSA can be used as a leading indicator for pending death. I'll simply repeat that this is not correct...and I'm sorry that it seems you've been misled. This poster has given misleading, shoot-from-the-hip information—and been called-out for it—many times at this website.

It sounds, now, that you've gotten a very good list of indicators for how to gauge the final-stage decline...from my initial post and others who have added on. I hope that helps.

The pattern of your dad's case appears quite common; death from PC can often be very, very slow, but with good palliative care it does not have to be painful (it typically would be without morphine). In very different (less frequent) case circumstances, PC death can also come quickly; the indicators, BTW, are the same, they just come more rapidly. The book Being Mortal, and in particular the 2nd half of the book, gives outstanding guidance on how to improve the atmosphere for everyone involved and help enable a dignified passing...it won't change the fact that he is dying, but it can open his eyes, and in a different way open your eyes, to his remaining days.

When you say that death from Pc can be very slow, I guess you mean from the day you get the diagnos and not from the day you stop cancer treatment? If so, yes, he's had pc for 13 years, and that's a long time. Or did you mean from the day you stop treatment?

smurfine78 said...

When you say that death from Pc can be very slow, I guess you mean from the day you get the diagnos and not from the day you stop cancer treatment? If so, yes, he's had pc for 13 years, and that's a long time. Or did you mean from the day you stop treatment?

Both can be true of prostate cancer...especially when compared to many other other cancers.

I know that you are hungry for something concrete, some statistics, or something. It's just unknowable; you just have remain vigilant for the signs which have been described here...additionally, as mentioned, you will undoubtedly get good guidance from the hospice support team. In my wife's cancer case, it became ODTAA. Read THIS short article about PC+hospice; it's got some statistics in it, and so rather than me just giving you the numbers they report, it's important that you read and absorb the full context, and understand it's just an average value with lots of variation.

What you told us was that: "Today the doctors told us that he Will not get anymore cancer treatment. From now on the palliative team will take care of him."



What it possibly sounds like you may or may not know is that there ARE inpatient hospice facilities, but most patients under hospice treatment make this selection so that they can go home from medical facilities...and die in their beds, surrounded by loved ones rather than nurses under hospital room fluorescent lights hooked up to pumps and and monitors. This was the case with my wife. It's a choice made by the patient.

Once under hospice care, focus shifts—as you described—from treatment to palliative care (pain and symptom control). Focus shifts from curing to caring.

When one is under hospice care at home, a team of professionals—nurses and/or home health aides—will make home visits with the patient and a regular schedule (usually not daily) to attend to needs which the family may have difficulty handling. They may also coach the family about the process of dying so that they are better prepared.

Post Edited (NKinney) : 6/1/2018 2:04:20 PM (GMT-6)