1. < Prostate Cancer

PSMA Scan

Posted by stew80 @stew80, 3 days ago

I have a long wait for a biopsy (9 weeks). My MRI shows 2 lesions and I'm wondering if paying for a PSMA Pet scan now might help to get answers and if the scan can replace the biopsy (or help) in terms of information about staging.

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northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | 1 day ago
In reply to @jeffmarc "Well, I live in the USA and at Kaiser in Northern California. It takes 6 to..." + (show)
@jeffmarc

Well, I live in the USA and at Kaiser in Northern California. It takes 6 to 7 months to get a knee replaced same thing with hip replacement. I was able to get my knee replaced in three months in March because people had canceled and I was able to get into their spot. Last year, hip replacement took six months to get it done. If I wasn’t at Kaiser, I could get it done quicker, But they have much better free treatment after that surgery. A PT shows up at your house within Two days and you get biweekly visits. Something you don’t get, if you get treatment outside of Kaiser

I needed to have surgery on a cyst on my face and it was a 2.5 month wait. It started getting bigger, so I finally decided to get it removed, not so fast dude!!!!

One major difference Is that there are many more treatments for cancer than in Canada? There are also tests that are approved here that are not approved in Canada.

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Yes, Canada also lags in drug approvals, but that's unrelated to universal vs private healthcare.

Pharma companies put all their resources into pursuing approvals in the big markets first (especially the U.S. and European Union), then they go for the mid-sized markets like Canada a couple of years later. We'd be in the same situation if we had a private healthcare system; it's just global economics at work.

For example, Orgovyx wasn't approved in Canada until fall 2023, and didn't become widely available until early 2024 (I was one of the first patients on it; my pharmacy hadn't even heard of it yet when I brought in my prescription). Likewise, I needed special authorisation from the Ontario Ministry of Health to start on Apalutamide in fall 2021 — it was already approved by Health Canada, but didn't make it into the Ontario formulary until early 2022.

To make up for that, the drug manufacturers generally offer "patient-access programmes" that provide critical, life-saving cancer drugs for free during the gap between Health Canada approval and when they show up in the provincial formularies.

REPLY
stew80 | @stew80 | 6 hours ago
In reply to @gently "stew80, 9 weeks of anxiety: cruel. Maybe you could get in on a cancellation. Ask to..." + (show)
@gently

stew80, 9 weeks of anxiety: cruel. Maybe you could get in on a cancellation. Ask to be put on a cancellation list. Or MRI in hand you could find another specialist for the biopsy. The new contrast agent is making the PSMA /PET very expensive for a cash payer. Close to $5000.

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Got a call today that there was a biopsy cancellation, so my date moved up a month! Its now 21 Jan instead of 20 Feb. May not make much difference in the long term but it sure helps to ease the waiting anxiety.

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gently | @gently | 4 hours ago

stew80, sometimes people cancel around the holidays. You might even have more luck. Thanks for letting me know. A month sooner is a lot better.

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