Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for Prostate cancer treatment

@themurfs
First which Mayo are you considering. If you are talking about Arizona or Minnesota then those locations offfer proton radiation as well as photon. Mayo Jacksonville only offers photon. If you don't know the difference talk to your urologist but basically photon radiation goes and and out the body. Proton radation has small amounts of radiation going in but realeases the programmed radiation at pre-dertermined prostrate spot and DOES NOT pass out through rest of body but stops at prostrate.

Not knowing your Gleason score or other information hard to give suggestions. But you are considering getting a second opinion from an outstanding medical clinics and hospitals. You are doing the right thing getting second opinions. The second opinion can usually have you authorize your medical records from your other provider and not have to do duplicate tests.

Now having said that always consider and discuss with both providers the Decipher test, PSMA, bone scans.
Good luck. I had all my test, biosies at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville but chose UFPTI for treatements as Jacksonville Mayo did not offer proton treatments only photon.

Hi @themurfs, welcome. As you likely already know, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for cancer and urology by U.S. News & World Report. But it's good to hear from people who have actually been there. 🙂

I'm tagging several members like @kkp10 @rxharleydude @southgeorgia @jibway @joenfl2017 @maverick75, who I believe are prostate cancer patients at Mayo Cliniic in Jacksonville, Florida. They can share their experiences with you along with the helpful post from @jc76

What treatment has been suggested for your husband? Do you know about his stage and Gleason score at this time? And, most of all, how are YOU doing?

I consulted Mayo Jacksonville after first seeing my local urology practice. It was like night and day. My only regret is not having consulted Mayo from the beginning. The patient portal is amazing, I had an MRI on Friday evening around 6:00 pm. My results, hundreds of images, and interpretation were posted by the time I woke up on Saturday morning. Same with lab work except I got same day results. Every dept I had contact with prior to my surgery was amazing. My Dr. explained all of my options and was awesome. Mayo lists the Doctors bio with education and experience on the website and that was very helpful. I had read other accounts that stated the Mayo doctors would even suggest treatment outside of Mayo if they felt it was your best option. I needed a RALP but there is no doubt my surgeon would have steered me to focal therapy or radiation if that would have been the best course of treatment.

Hello Colleen!
To answer your last question first, I am overwhelmed to be honest. Scared and unsure at this point. There is so much information and finding the right place to go for treatment, as well as what treatment to choose, is daunting, to say the least. My husband has a PIRADS 4, clinically significant Gleason 7 (as per his current Doctor) and his PSA is 7.7 (latest one was 6.4). He has had a CT scan, Bone Scan, PSMA Pet scan and an MRI. There is no known spreading outside of the prostate that can be seen, although his Dr told him it is possible he could have microscopic cancer cells in the lymph nodes that are undetectable. Treatment suggestion right now is 5 1/2 weeks of radiation to pelvic lymph’s then 5 day SBRT treatment to the prostate, and 6 to 12 months of hormone therapy (pill form). Sorry, I am not very good at all the technical jargon. He was seen by a urologist here in Oregon, who did the biopsy and diagnosed him originally, then sent him for the CT and Bone scan (we tried to ask for a PSMA and an MRI from this doctor but he didn’t feel they were necessary). We were told either surgery or radiation were the two options so we first researched radiation because my husband is not to keen on the surgery idea. We went to see a radiologist oncologist here in Oregon and we were not impressed. We sought a second opinion from my sister in law’s radiologist oncologist in California and we really like him. He scheduled the PSMA Pet Scan and MRI. He is the one who is recommending the treatment I stated above. My husband still is interested in the MAYO clinic however, which is why I inquired.

Thanks for tagging me, @colleenyoung. I was referred to a local urologist by my primary because my PSA kept bouncing around. The urologist suggested a biopsy after a couple of visits and it came back with a Gleason of 3+3. He discussed possible
treatment plans and suggested I go to either Emory (Atlanta) or Mayo (Jacksonville). I chose Mayo, and could not be happier with my decision. In my 63 years, I have never been to a medical facility as well-run or efficient! My initial meeting was a video conference with Dr. Igel who gave my wife and me great peace of mind. We followed up with a teleconference with Dr. Dora and then an in person appointment where, in one day, I had 3 different tests run (PSA, uriflow, and an MRI, AND had the results available to me via the patient portal within hours (which is amazing like @keywest19 said) AND met with Dr. Dora to review the results! Everyone was helpful, efficient, and took their time with us. To me, they were the epitome of what the medical profession should be.

@thermurfs
I do not see you have the Decipher test. It is a gentic test done on the biopsies already taken and will give a more precise determination of his risk level.

I am unfamiliar with the providers other than Mayo and UFPTI. But my suggestions is to go to Mayo Clinic at the easiest location for you and get second opinion. I would asked about radiation outside of prostrate if nothing showing it is. Also the Decipher test will show a better idea on treatments needed.

I see suggestion from provider was hormone treatments. Again I think a Decipher test would help determine the need for this. I was an intermediate risk and hormone was being recmmended then got Decipher test and came back low risk and then change to my treatment from hormone to no hormones and just radiation treatments.

@heywest19
Agree! Have been a patient at Mayo Jacksonville since 2006. Outstanding doctors and facilities. They do not have proton radiation treatments and do refer cancer patients that need precise radiation treatments to UFPTI (proton radiation facility).

Mayo Jacksonville is building a new cancer center which will have proton radiation. I was told that one of the radiologist/oncologist at UFPTI was hired to set up the proton radiation program when facilities are finished.

If I end up having a recurrence and need further treatment, I will for sure be traveling to Mayo. I'm blessed to only be 2.5 hours away and have access to world class care.

You did a great job explaing everything. I'm just like you; a wife that is extremely concerned about our husband's prostate treatment. My husband Jim, will begin treatment at Mayo in Az. He is going to have a surgery on 2-29-24 to put in Boragel instead of the Spaceor gel that we thought he was going to have. He has no metastasic but the cancer is outside the prostate in the muscle. Has anyone had the Boragel and what was your experiences. I also was wondering if there would be blood in the urine after the marker and Boragel surgery? So, the weather in AZ is quite lovely the next few months. I definately recommending to Phoenix for Proton Beam therapy. If you are retired, use this lovely environment as a second honeymoon with therapy. I'm also recommending the Decipher test which Jim will have on 3-7-24. It helps determine the risk of cancer through the DNA somehow. If someone would like to explain this better, please do.

Marlow2, who is your husband's oncologist at Mayo AZ? What is your impression? Thanks