Connect
Pathology report: Gleason increase
I talked with my doctor 11/22 following surgery 11.11. My biopsy in July showed a Gleason of 4+3=7. The post-surgery pathology report showed a Gleason of 9. I'm told the cancer was removed, including removing some lymph nodes. My next appointment is in 3 months with a new PSA. I'm told I'm good to go but it's hard to take a deep breath and relax. Anyone else have a higher Gleason during the surgery than before?
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.
Connect
This is very common. I know a number of people who have had their Gleason score changed from 3+4 to 4+3 or higher. Mine was increased from 3+4 to 4+3 after surgery.
With the 9 Gleeson, you do need top quality treatment. Are you on ADT? It might be advisable with the Gleason nine but I cannot say for sure you need to see an oncologist or go to a center of excellence to get treated. Of course, if your PSA stays undetectable, you could wait until it starts rising to do something.
You might consider getting a PSE test. It can show whether or not the cancer is still active.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
1 ReactionWay to go brother…BTW, love your handle - anosmic - but sorry you got it the hard way. 🥺
BTW, I know a woman who tripped going up a flight of cement steps. She had her baby in her arms and couldn’t break her fall. She struck the step right where the top of the nose meets the forehead.
She fractured her cribriform plate which is a porous bony area through which travel the olfactory nerves (smell). But this area is also notable for another reason: it is the site of an intraocular lobotomy - and old technique where a doctor would insert a thin scalpel blade into the corner of the eye and sever the nerves traveling under the cribriform plate to the frontal lobe of the brain - ie prefrontal lobotomy in today’s jargon.
Anyway, this woman lost her sense of smell AND was lobotomized in the process!! But while her pre- accident personality was extremely quiet and shy and devoutly religious, After the accident she became a total extrovert and sexually permissive - she divorced her husband, abandoned her child and started a series of wild flings with men she met in bars.
Finally she sought help at the urging of her family and discovered that indeed she had suffered a blow so severe it had injured her frontal lobe and lobotomized her.
It had done just the opposite of what the surgical procedure is supposed to do - turn an erratic, impulsive and possibly psychotic personality into a more docile, calm one. Instead she became totally erratic, sexually impulsive and almost uncontrollably gregarious!
She said counseling and medication had helped and
she now had a ‘normal’ life….go figure!