How long can you live with advanced prostate cancer and bone metastasis?

Patients with prostate cancer will develop complications such as bone metastasis. If this has already occurred, the patient will often experience bone pain, especially in the middle of the night, which will seriously affect the patient's sleep quality. The patient will also lose weight and often feel exhausted. These are all symptoms caused by prostate cancer. Some patients in the late stage must use painkillers to improve their condition.

(1) If the prostate tumor progressively enlarges and compresses the surrounding prostatic urethra, urination problems may occur, manifested as progressive dysuria (thin urine stream, deflected urine stream, bifurcated urine stream or prolonged urination), frequent urination, urgency, pain, and a feeling of incomplete urination. In severe cases, dribbling urine and urinary retention may occur. These symptoms are similar to those of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and are easily misdiagnosed or missed, delaying early diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

(2) For advanced prostate cancer, symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, and body pain may occur. Because the pain seriously affects diet, sleep, and mental state, after long-term torture, the whole body condition gradually weakens, weight loss and fatigue, progressive anemia, and eventually systemic failure and cachexia.

(3) When prostate cancer metastasizes to the bones, it can cause bone pain at the site of metastasis. Common sites of bone metastasis include the spine, hip, ribs, and shoulder blades. About 60% of late-stage patients experience bone pain, which is common in the waist, sacrum, buttocks, hip, and pelvis. Bone pain can manifest in different ways. Some patients may experience persistent pain, while others may experience intermittent pain. Bone pain can be confined to a specific part of the body, or it can manifest as migratory pain in different parts of the body.

Bone pain may vary at different times of the day and respond differently to rest and activity. If the bone becomes significantly brittle due to tumor invasion, pathological fractures are likely to occur. Certain parts of the body are common sites of arthritis, such as the knee and shoulder joints. Pain in these parts is not necessarily caused by prostate cancer metastasis. Further examination is needed to confirm whether prostate cancer metastasis exists.

(4) 1/2 to 2/3 of patients have lymph node metastasis when they first see a doctor, most often in the internal iliac, external iliac, retroperitoneal, inguinal, diaphragmatic, supraclavicular and other parts. If prostate cancer metastasizes to nearby regional lymph nodes, there are usually no symptoms. In rare cases, when lymph nodes are extensively metastatic and enlarged, compressing blood vessels and blocking lymphatic return to the lower limbs, symptoms of swelling of the lower limbs and scrotum may occur.