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Stage 3a, Group 9, just discovered. Dr. gave options but have question
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 30 10:08am | Replies (42)Comment receiving replies
We must use some information.
The common line from the establishment is that the probability of cure for radiation and radical prostatectomy are exactly identical. This doesn’t seem even faintly plausible to me.
You have to go off of some data, or else you are just blind and you don’t know where you are going.
Each person here must gather information the best he can in this situation and make a line straight for where he thinks safety is. And the waters are very muddy here. Its hard to see. But you have to use something. And the industry has not been very good at providing the information in those charts or providing alternate guiding info.
Replies to "We must use some information. The common line from the establishment is that the probability of..."
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I think the prostate-cancer research and treatment community (not "industry") is reluctant to produce charts like that because they can create a false sense of certainty beyond what the data really supports.
By all means, I agree with you, look the data — I've been doing that almost continually since I was diagnosed in 2021 — but don't try to make decisions based on it by yourself, because it's full of hidden caveats and gotchas.
As I mentioned before, the best way to use any cancer data (from individual studies, meta-studies, or even informal aggregations like the one you shared) is as a way to formulate questions for your care team, not a place to find answers.
And thanks again for sharing the link. As a data guy, I find the visualisation styles interesting.