IRE for biorecurrence of PC confined to prostate—any thoughts?

Posted by billnumber6 @billnumber6, Oct 22 12:51pm

My lesion is right anterior mid-gland, a biorecurrence after Proton therapy at JH 5 years ago. Current biopsy and PSMA/PET showed no spread. My Gleason score was 4 + 4, but my PSA was 2.3, relatively low for most high-risk PC. My urologist at JH favors IRE for this, and I will have a pre-op consult with him late next week. My tentative treatment date is Nov. 12, and I would like to hear from anyone who has any knowledge of, or experience with IRE.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

thmssllvn | @thmssllvn | Oct 23 8:25am

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10890194/
Irreversible electroporation ('IRE') for us ignorant of all the acronyms

surftohealth88 | @surftohealth88 | Oct 23 3:42pm

It seems that nobody knows about IRE : (.

I am sorry to hear that you have BCR after radiation. I am wondering if you had anything else found in your biopsy, such as cribriform glands or IDC etc. Those are very aggressive features and sometimes can be resistant to radiation as per some research papers.

I also wanted to add that my husband's urologist told us that gleason 8 and 9 often produce less PSA than gleason 7 , which was the case for us also.

Wishing you great success with salvage IRE and very fast recovery 🍀🍀🍀 ! 😊 Let us know how it went 👍.

billnumber6 | @billnumber6 | Oct 23 7:47pm

Yes, I did have some cribriform morphology in the index lesion, more bad news. That plus Group Grade 4 is leading me to move faster than I would prefer to get treated. I've researched various focal treatments, and each one has its fans and opponents, among both patients and physicians. Turns out the size of the prostate and the size and location of the lesion can often dictate treatment choice. I should know more after discussion with JH urology next week. If I do wind up with IRE treatment, I will post about the experience. IRE is supposed to be the most tissue-sparing of any of the focal treatments, as it uses neither radiation, high heat, nor freezing. However, the relative newness of IRE precludes having much long-term data. Thanks for the good wishes!

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | 5 days ago

@billnumber6, you may find this related discussion helpful:
- Anyone have info about irreversible electroporation (IRE) treatment? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/ire-treatment/