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← Return to prostatectomy vs radiation?
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Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 17 7:48pm | Replies (52)
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If the cancer is inside of the Prostate and they did a scan to confirm it, They could take it out but you will still have the urinary issues. if you choose Radiation those issues may come on later. if it’s outside of the Prostate in the lymph nodes, then Radiation will be done to the lymph nodes and the Prostate. If you remove the prostate the lymph nodes on the outside may still need Radiation very soon. If not your may be on hormone treatment for a while
Replies to "If the cancer is inside of the Prostate and they did a scan to confirm it,..."
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Good info. And also bear in mind that small micrometastases and individual circulating tumour cells won't show up on any radiology scan (even PSMA-PET), so the oncologists never actually know for sure that the cancer is still confined to the prostate; instead, they take a highly-educated guess at probabilities based on things like Gleason score, Decipher score, germline genetic testing, location and type of known cancer cells (as @surftohealth88 mentioned), etc.
When the cancer "recurs" after a prostatectomy or full dose of radiation, that often actually just means that their educated guess was wrong (despite best efforts), and the cancer *was* already outside the prostate but not yet detectable.