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Weighing my surgery options (aka lost in the weeds)

Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Apr 19 7:33am | Replies (10)

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@5galloncan

I'm not second guessing your team at MD Anderson, but did you speak to anyone there who does radiation therapy? MD Anderson offers proton beam therapy, so I am curious to know if their proton beam and photon treatment oncologist(s) reviewed your case too. When I went to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, the oncologist surgeon had me meet with their brachytherapy specialist and their radiation specialist to discuss these treatments too. I eventually sent for UFHPTI's free packet to research proton beam therapy and ended up going with that. Moffitt won't offer proton beam until 2026. So I understand clearly, did your MD Anderson team include radiation specialists who also recommended surgery instead of their particular treatments (photon or proton)? Being over 65 years old, I have traditional Medicare, and was able to obtain many other opinions and recommendations. Best of luck here. Thank you.

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Replies to "I'm not second guessing your team at MD Anderson, but did you speak to anyone there..."

Yes, the multi-care team at MD Anderson included ROs - they all recommended surgery. In fact, the ROs said they would not even perform RT on me, although local ROs recommended 25 or 39 treatments (but not CyberKnife/SBRT). The surgeon I met with, Dr. John Ward is possibly more of an expert on focal treatment but also a renowned surgeon. I asked them all about brachytherapy, including an RO at another center locally, and nobody recommended that.