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I want to learn more about side effects of robotic prostatectomy
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Feb 24 5:17pm | Replies (46)Comment receiving replies
@lyricw
Radiation’s side effects do occur a year or two after treatment while surgery side effects occur right after with incontinence and ED issues. And in some cases, neither of these treatments cause either of these problems. It’s a real crap shoot.
I think people get Surgery because they want to get it out and figure that’s the best way to eliminate the problem completely. Unfortunately, there are side effects and it doesn’t always get it out completely. In my case, my father had radiation and died from prostate cancer so I had surgery. He died when Lupron was the last drug. I have had many other drugs available, So I will live many more years than my father did with prostate cancer.
Researchers have found that radiation or surgery causes the exact same result in the long run. There are cases where aggressive cancer issues make one option or the other preferable.
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@jeffmarc
This is a good discussion with a lot of good information; I thought I would add one more data point on why I chose surgery.
As stated, the odds of long-term survival and recurrence are roughly similar with either surgery or radiation/ADT. So it comes down to how do you want to live your life and which side effects you want to live with. Of course, it's a crap shoot and you never know for sure what will happen.
Based on my specific situation, I think there is a very good chance I will have BCR within the next few years, at which point I will probably have to start radiation/ADT.
Starting about 6 weeks after surgery, I felt relatively "normal" and began biking, going to the gym and traveling domestically and internationally. I had incontinence, but it wasn't a big deal and it didn't really slow me down (and it has dramatically improved now that I am 6 months out from surgery). I still have ED, but I am hopeful that will improve with time, too. Had I not chosen surgery, I was looking at a year or likely more of ADT after radiation, and I thought it unlikely I would feel "normal" and have the energy to live my life the way I wanted during that time. So hopefully surgery has bought me a few years to live normally before I have to deal with the side effects of radiation, while choosing radiation/ADT would have forced me to face those side effects immediately.