Bobby, a 72-year-old retired male went to his doctor,complaining of leg pain that started in his lower back, ran acrossthe side of his thigh and over the front of his knee. Next, hedeveloped pain that radiated from his back to his front at thechest through the level of his nipples and also at theumbilicus.
A physical and laboratory tests showed hard nodule on hisprostate and an elevation in several of the blood tests. His PSA(prostate specific antigen), an enzyme secreted by normal prostatetissue was very high. Alkaline phosphatase was also elevated, anindication of bone involvement.
A bone scan was ordered to visualize the bone involvement.
Usually prostate cancer's growth is initially influenced by thepresence of testosterone. If testosterone is removed by castration,the cancer will often shrink for some period of time before theremaining fraction of testosterone-independent cancer cellsgrow.
Bobby was not interested in castration and asked if there wasanother form of treatment. He was treated was a single shot of adrug which is slowly released into the body over a three month timeperiod. Within that time the patient noticed marked relief in hispain.
Why would the scan show bone abnormalities? What would causeit?
