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@brianjarvis Thanks for sharing that. It's very true that when you look at _all_ prostate cancer cases together, most are mild and the mortality rate is low.
However, it's worth noting that until a very few years ago, stage-4 prostate cancer was a different kettle of fish: once you were diagnosed with that — as both I and @canadaanne 's husband have been — you had at most 3–5 years to live (often fewer, rarely, a couple more).
There have been *dramatic* changes in treatment, though, and now many of us have a reasonable hope of living much longer, perhaps even as long as we would have without cancer.
These developments are so recent that not all urologists and oncologists are on board yet, so it's (sadly) unsurprising that a family doctor wouldn't know about them, and would still have "the talk" with someone newly-diagnosed with stage-4 PCa. 😕
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@northoftheborder Yes, there has been much advancement in medicine such that Stage 4 prostate cancer may sometimes now be a disease that can be managed rather than a death sentence.
I wouldn’t expect my family doctor to know much about this. My family doctor is a general practitioner; she knows enough about a lot of things, but probably not an expert in one specific field (except for family practice). (I’ve never had “the talk” about this with her. I’ve kept her up-to-date on my status, but she’s not the one that I go to when I have questions on this topic.)
And even with urologists and oncologists - I wouldn’t expect these specialists to be up to speed on the latest of everything. No differently than you or I who were both (probably) very good in our respective career fields, we couldn’t possibly have known everything. (Just like you and me, they have lives to live, spouses, families. and vacations to take, student loans to pay off, and on and on and on……they only know as much as they’ve learned and experienced.)
For me, that’s where this and other support group forums (the 3 virtual support group I attend each week and the 2 in-person support groups I attend each month) come into the picture. I gain insight into what a hundred other guy’s urologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists have told them, and if I hear something that might apply to me that my medical oncologist hasn’t brought up, then I research it and can bring it to her attention.
And yet, even with the great medical advances, it’s still mostly about early and annual screening and early detection. Men still haven’t yet learned that…..