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pT3b - what were your radiation outcomes after radical prostatectomy?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 11 4:08pm | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
Yes...thanks...that was my point: you can have what appears to be a favorable Gleason score that was barely a 3+4=7 with just 6-10% "4" cells - all others being "3" cells, when in fact all of those other things are going on that you and your urologist have no clue about until the post-RP surgical pathology and microscopic report is provided that has all of the ugly things never seen or known from a mere biopsy. My urologist was not "nonchalant", but was very confident that "we caught this early" and you'll be here ("alive") well beyond 15 years from now. Well...he's not talking that way anymore, now that the EPE, Surgical Margins, Cribriform glands, and seminal vesicle invasion with a final category of pT3b was assigned and were all noted in the surgical pathology report. Now he is saying: "you seem to have an aggressive form of cancer despite the Gleason score, and being pT3b, we'll have to talk about radiation at some point,
Replies to "Yes...thanks...that was my point: you can have what appears to be a favorable Gleason score that..."
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Yes, unfortunately it is often the case that only after gland is taken out and full examination is performed one knows exact stage and extent of the cancer. But now that you and your doctor know it, you can as a team make great plan for further successful treatment < 3 .
Many times salvage radiation is curative ! There are so many different available treatments for you - I really hope that some of more experienced members will jump in soon to tell you about them. There is also sooooo much research done and so many new treatments in a pipeline that I personally do not see why your doctor is not mentioning "15" years any more - are you treated in big cancer center of excellence ? We here have members that are living full lives with stage 4 PC for many , many years and will be living probably longer than most people that are not on this forum and have some other health issues and are not even aware of them - just go into "search" field and look for their posts : )))
I completely understand your fears and worry - I came here in March (representing my husband) and was a complete nervous wrack and thought that sky is falling : (((, but with support, help and inspirational personal stories of PC veterans here I picked myself up and am plowing ahead ;).
Just keep posting here and keep learning about PC and you will see, slowly but surely you will again feel in control of things and will see how many options you have for beating this crazy condition. There will be some times in the future when you will have to jump into action and do some additional treatments but after that period there will again be a long period of time when you will be just observing situation and enjoying your life. : ) < 3