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Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Sep 10 6:24pm | Replies (648)Comment receiving replies
I have prostate cancer, but living in Wyoming our doctors do not give you any options other than prostatectomy, chemo or radiation. My wife researched and discovered TULSA Pro in Dallas Texas. Long distance is not recommended as I can not get a direct answer from anyone. My PSA is 22, I've had an MRI, PSMA Pet Scan and prostate biopsy. Watchful waiting is where I am at. Now Dallas wants another biopsy, but they will not tell me why. I can not get a local biopsy because Wyoming docs will not help you if you go out of state. My wife and I are scheduled to go to Dallas in a month. Big hurdle though. My wife has chronic PTSD from an incident involving a doctor and hospital and a victim of WAR. She does not want me to get any treatment due to what has happened to her. And what happened to her is unspeakable and unforgivable. I understand her trust issues. I'm not sure I want to put her through anymore anxiety, even if it means I continue to watchful wait. I can not go to a hospital or doctor and leave her behind as the anxiety would be too much. My cancer is still confined to my prostate after 3 years. Just wondering if anyone else has decided to watch and wait. At 72, I have still live a wonderful life with my wife.
Replies to "I have prostate cancer, but living in Wyoming our doctors do not give you any options..."
I live in Illinois, but have spent a fair amount of time in Wyoming and also Colorado. The University of Colorado Medical Center is a center of excellence for cancer treatment, and might be a better option for you than going to Dallas. Here is a link to their website:
https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/colorado-cancer-center/for-patients-families/cancers-we-treat/prostate-cancer
My other question is have you had genomics testing or a decipher score done on your pathology? If you have low risk cancer, you might be able to go longer without treatment than if you have high risk aggressive cancer. My testing came back with very aggressive high-risk cancer so my decision for treatment made itself.
Watchful waiting with a 4+3 makes no sense. The reason they want to do another biopsy is because your Gleason score has probably increased, more cores probably have cancer, and they want to see what’s going on. Watchful waiting with a 4+3 is just asking for a short life. Dying of prostate cancer is extremely painful you don’t wanna go there, that would be harder on your wife than treatment,. You need to get treatment and SBRT radiation is the least invasive procedure with the shortest time of treatment.
You should also have a recent PSMA pet scan done to make sure that it has not spread out of the prostate now. With a PSA of 22 it may have spread.
@wyoming, active surveillance is a treatment choice several members have discussed. See these related discussions:
- Active Surveillance As A Choice?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/active-surveillance-as-a-choice/
- Do I Continue Active Surveillance or Consider Intervention?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/question-continue-active-surveillance-consider-intervention/
See all related discussions: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/prostate-cancer/?search=active%20surveillance&index=discussions
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Wow. My heart goes out to you. I am a two-time prostate cancer patient with aggressive stage three cancer.
What is your Gleason score?