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HKdaughter,
I would expect that most of the prostate cancer left the prostate and has taken up residence in the bones. The cancer that is in the prostate would be in the anterior/ventral part of the prostate which is hard to find with a standard rectal biopsy. It is almost a certainty that it is cancer but there is a good chance that it won't kill him. If the treatment they give him gets his PSA down to less than 1.0 and keeps it down for a couple of years then he probably won't die of PC...assuming better treatments come out in the next 5 years.
Your story illustrates yet again the Golden Rule of prostate cance There Are No Rules.
The highest PSA result that I have seen reported which responded to antibiotic was a little over 300 ng/ml. That was not cancer related apparently as the PSA dropped back to a 'normal' level after treatment. When the PSA number gets into the thousands, it is usually associated with an aggressive form of the disease. The highest number I have seen reported is over 12,000. That man survived many years - with a good deal of therapy - to retire as Chief Pilot of a very large US airline. So all is not necessarily lost.
The bone scan may well give you the information that will clarify the position. If, as may be the case, your father has been unfortunate enough to have an aggressive form of the disease, it my not have built up a significant tumour in the gland before progressing to other organs or, more lkely, the bones. As Frank has said, the position of any cells in the gland itself may be such that it is difficult to find them with a 'blind' biopsy procedure.
Please let us know the outcome of the scans. We'll all hope for the best.
