← Return to Newly diagnosed: What influenced your treatment decision?

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@retireditguy

Welcome to the club. I probably sound like a broken record, but my best piece of advice is go to a recognized "cancer center of excellence" if that's an option available to you. Google it and you'll easily find one. I did (Mayo Phoenix) and I was very happy I did. I felt the advice and care was outstanding. Also, I'd recommend Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer Paperback – October 3, 2023. It's on Amazon and it's the best $20 I ever spent. It really helped educate me on some key points in my decision making. It's organized in a way that makes it pretty easy to drill down on things applicable to your specific situation. Also, if you're looking for any suggestions on things I'd suggest sharing more info about your age, overall health, and the specific results on your tests. It'll help the folks on the forum better respond to your posts. One other thought I'd share is that for me (I was diagnosed on 3/30) the more you educate yourself the better you'll be able to discuss treatment with prospective providers and the better you'll be able to make the decisions you'll have to make. It's like drinking from a firehose at first, but it's worth the effort to get knowledgeable as quickly as possible. I guess one thing that surprised me was I'd never really been seriously sick before, so I didn't appreciate that I'd have to ultimately select my course of treatment. Yeah, you'll get recommendations, but the final decision on how you proceed will ultimately come back to you. So it's pretty important to understand your options at each step as thoroughly as possible, especially since selecting an option might eliminate other options going forward. Best wishes.

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Replies to "Welcome to the club. I probably sound like a broken record, but my best piece of..."

Thanks for taking the time for such a comprehensive response. I'll get the book. I'm 66 with an irregular heartbeat (no damage to the heart function). Also never been seriously sick before. The test showed a Gleason of 4+3 (7). I've talked with two doctors in the past week. One described it as an entry level tumor, the other compared it to a dog and said it was not a labrador but not a pit bull.

I'll second @retireditguy on the importance of going to a "centre of excellence" (we just call them "Cancer Centres" in Canada, and they're usually attached to teaching hospitals and universities).

Not every individual urologist or radiation/medical oncologist keeps up with the latest research, and things have been moving forward at breathtaking speed over the past 5–10 years, so you'll have the best outcome at a big, multidisciplinary centre where the doctors are also researchers and teachers.