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← Return to Prostatectomy or Radiation? Lot of stress over which to choose
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Prostatectomy or Radiation? Lot of stress over which to choose
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (53)Comment receiving replies
@climateguy hello... you've gone through much of what I'm going through now. I've had all the tests..starting with psa... ultrasounds... biopsies..my doctor told me I've got stage 2b prostate cancer. In his opinion surgery was my best choice. However I've been researching all of the treatment options... including proton .. photon..brachy seeds....but now I'm going for 2nd opinion at Vanderbilt hospital...my biggest concern about radiation is the possibility of damage to other tissue and organs. My biggest concern about surgery is the pain,the catheter...so as I said, I'm going to see another urologist soon to weigh the options.. i just don't know... I've also heard that if I choose radiation first and it doesn't work or cancer comes back that the risks for surgery becomes a lot higher. But if surgery fails I would still have options for radiation therapy.... I'm just going crazy stressing about this. I had 12 biopsies .... Gleason scores of 6and 7s... Grade group 1 and 2s...so anyways...thanks for your input....
Replies to "@climateguy hello... you've gone through much of what I'm going through now. I've had all the..."
@bobby1313 I had surgery . It appeared contained in the prostate. Post op confirmed containment. 6 yrs now zero PSA. No medications no treatments. Surgery was a piece of cake except maybe coming out of anesthesia. catheter was cumbersome to sleep in but that was a piece of cake. Told me to wait 6 weeks to do any lifting but I felt great at 2 weeks. my issue was incontinence and ED. ED was probably fixable but I waited 5 years to work on it. 5ml of trimix fixes it now. I keep my testosterone at 600. Incontinence is my scary spot. Thinking of AUS. But either way I think there are some fixes to normalcy. Not ideal but life can go on.
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@bobby1313 My stage is Grade Group III, Gleason 4+3 =7, c3Tb. "b", because seminal vesicles are involved.
I wasn't that worried about the side effects of surgery. But my case is more advanced than yours. My preference was to do nothing, i.e. active surveillance, but that wasn't an option.
I had to pick something. Surgery seemed preferable to radiation to me. I don't really know why.
I didn't understand much about radiation when I thought I had picked surgery. After I tuned in to what radiation oncologists are doing I felt a lot more optimistic about my chances. The main reason I hated the idea of radiation was the ADT, and I still hate the idea of ADT. But I don't regret forgetting about surgery.
Your case almost sounds like your choice is between active surveillance and surgery or radiation.