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DiscussionGleason 8 diagnosis at 51: Likely opting for surgery
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Mar 19 10:45am | Replies (65)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "You pointed to many important facts that I myself discovered in past week of frantic research..."
Yes, you can imagine that I am very angry at how this came about. I was aware of my rosk and brought it up with three different PCPs, but they just followed some outdated guidance.
Now, partially I also blame myself fir not having made an appontment with an urologist. But if a doctor tells you not to worry, you like that advice and you don’t act.
@surftohealth88
we all have experienced you and your husband's frustration. As many of us have heard, doctors are dedicated but not infallible. There are many natural biases that restrict the flow of information to patients from one doctor/institution to another, but not to intentionally hurt anybody.
Capital investments/Return on investment by hospitals/doctors, uninformed doctors that do not have time to look at the most recent technology, slowness in randomized trials, delayed updates to nccn.org recommendations, limited time with doctors, and on and on have a huge impact on a patients' doctor to patient knowledge.
This site provides, thanks to Mayo, something other institutions do not focus on, but absolutely should...the ability to share experiences as patients from a wide variety of specialists and institutions, in almost real time, which is a great way to understand issues and options for treatments. I know so many people that have helped me process all the complicated issues when I was doing my research. Too bad this kind of sharing through centers of excellence is not done more.
I believe this is the ongoing evolution of prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. If we wait three more years then whole new things will exist - maybe TULSA will be the new normal, maybe PSE tests will completely replace PSA tests. But we can't hold on to maybe's, we just focus on the methods today and in today's early detection it's PSA's at 50+.
I can tell you that three days prior to my PSA results that my urologist ordered, he did a digital (rectal) exam and said straight up "I feel no abnormalities other than you have a small prostate", then recall that it wasn't that long ago that a digital exam was the de-facto method to detect prostate cancer and if it still was then I'd be done for.
I think about Dennis Hopper, who died from metastatic prostate cancer in 2010. He likely missed his chance for early detection due to digital exams. Fast forward to 2025 and he would have had a PSA, PSE, biopsy, MRI, CT and more and might still be around. Further in the future, say 2030, it might be detectable in a urine sample and be 100% accurate. In 2035 it might be a simple pill prevents or fixes it.
We have what we have, and maybe the rules will change now that more < 50 folks are testing positive for PC.