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Devastated by support group meeting: I'm doing everything wrong
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 30 minutes ago | Replies (89)Comment receiving replies
If you are a young man and still have need of a hard on, then you should consider Focal. About 1/2 of all RALP men end up with a limp dick. It is sad to see their posts as they talk about pumps and such. But Focal is not perfect and the PCa will probably return. But if you buy 5 years, it may be worthwhile.
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@ctsenior Yeah, from what I hear, it's seems like it's 90 percent of RALP men end up limp. And, yes, I have been a bit obsessed about that. Thanks for the advice...good to have options for sure.
I'm 63, but I think of myself still as young. I know others look at my gray beard and probably think otherwise. I almost think Focal would be great for old men too...because if you want to kick the can down the road a bit and then do the heavy recurrence treatments, you still can.
If you're old, you probably aren't a candidate for surgery, so Focal might be great and then follow with radiation/ADT when it comes back.
Based on the info shared by @jeffmarc (thank you again!) from the UCSF Prostate conference on this Friday; UCSF finds on recurrence with focal was really staggering. "Overall focal therapy is associated with minor side effects, but high rates of recurrence both in- and out-of-field."
This bullet point from the presentation really seemed like a shocker....the UCSF Result for their first 135 HIFU patients was: "• 54% recurrence (41% in-field)."
Recurrence is higher than 50 percent, so that means you will have to follow with surgery/radiation/ADT or whatever choice you have. So, I'm guessing it does buy you time, but perhaps spread becomes worse. I don't know.
I really do appreciate that reality check. Yeah, dick at half or no mast, coming up. Sucks. But as a long-time buddy of mine told me this week who has complete ED but is cancer free after eight years , his decision was to chose life over cancer Hoping to do the same...
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@ctsenior
The new one incision hole surgery is suppose to dramatically lessen the amount of nerve damage. There are lots of men who have had surgery that have recovered and have a useable member. I would not take the risk on focal therapy because long term data does not support its use. “Need for Retreatment: About 20% of men may require additional treatments (either a repeat focal session or whole-gland treatment) within 5 years. “. (From the Cleveland clinic). Surgery cure is about the 91-95% range. Sad to say there are no guarantees, but more based on a case by case by competent surgeon and oncologists.