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Prostate size/measurement confusion
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 7 minutes ago | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
I'm 72. After my initial diagnose (18 months ago) I've gone from wanting it removed, to calming down and doing Active Surveillance. My thought is that my local urologist told me after a biopsy and testing that it doesn't appear to be real aggressive, but although I didn't need treatment right away, it would likely spread in the next ten years. I figured proven advancements in treatment will be coming in the near future, or I might die of something else first. Then I started looking at life expectancy Actuarial Studies. Basically they said a 72 year old average man will live to be 87. Then I read Dr. Walsh's book and the Outlive book by Dr. Attia and started to understand that cancer becomes very difficult to control or cure once it starts spreading, multiplying and mutating. That has led me back to leaning heavily towards a Prostatectomy. I expect I will be making my decision in January once the Mayo doctor gets additional test results. Travel becomes a bit of an issue with extended radiation treatment.
Replies to "I'm 72. After my initial diagnose (18 months ago) I've gone from wanting it removed, to..."
I'm 71 and had proton therapy at Jacksonville's UFHPTI in March/April of this year. I had 29 sessions over 6 weeks. My PSA is dropping steadily and is below 1 now. I'm confident the therapy is ending the cancer in my prostate and I have little to no side effects. Certainly nothing serious as I'm reading about by those having the prostate removed or other therapies that radiate more healthy tissue than does proton therapy. If you haven't sent for their free info package from UFHPTI by filling out their contact form, you should. Everyone reading this should. What can it hurt? You don't have to choose that therapy, but you should know your options. My brother had his prostate removed at 47 and was dead at 65 when cancer had developed in his urethra and bladder. I don't know if he had radiation on top of the surgery, but a lot of men posting here end up having that as well. When I was having the therapy a few men dropped by at UFHPTI for their 10 year checkups and were still ecstatic about having chosen proton therapy over the alternatives. Some here on the forum are saying there is no difference in the outcome between photon therapy and proton therapy, but they are mistaken. The outcome includes, in my opinion, how much healthy tissue has been radiated. Simply said, less healthy tissue is radiated during proton therapy. Protons release their energy differently from photons too. And I might add that a lot of men are choosing SBRT or fewer sessions at a higher dose of radiation per session because of the convenience of the fewer sessions. My thinking is that the lower dose per session gives your healthy tissue more time to recover in between sessions and thus, fewer side effects. But that's what I think. Time will tell and advances are being made in these different therapies almost daily. One other thought - my brother's wife always had the feeling that the surgery may have caused the cancer to spread outside the prostate. I Googled, "Can prostate removal therapy spread microscopic cancer cells?" You might want to do that too.
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What is your Gleason score? That is what makes the first treatment decision. Did you get A decipher score? Have you had a recent biopsy?
Whether or not you stay on active for surveillance depends on those answers and a PSMA pet scan? What’s your latest PSA?
All Important factors in making a decision about what to do.