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Is hormone therapy necessary with radiation?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 19 8:36pm | Replies (104)Comment receiving replies
@cbball Though the “gold standard” for prostate cancer has always been a prostatectomy - because for 150 years that was the medical go to - data show that with modern radiotherapy, success rates comparing surgery and external radiation are statistically equivalent - the choice of therapy involves weighing trade-offs between benefits and harms associated with treatments. (Basically the choice comes down to what side-effects one is willing to deal with.)
When I was initially diagnosed with PCa in 2012, my first comments to my urologist were, “I don’t know anything about prostate cancer so, I’ve got a zillion questions to ask before you cut anything out of me, or bombard me with radiation, or inject toxic chemicals into me……” That set the foundation for our future discussions and decisions.
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@brianjarvis
Brian, you’re correct. Medicine advancements happen daily. A quick example: I went to a symposium at Stanford in the early 90’s where Dr Schatz was discussing his new invention, the heart catheter stent. I sat next to Dr Norman Shumway. Dr Shumway was a world renowned thoracic/heart surgeon. Dr Shumway was in total denial that stents were a good option. I think everyone knows how that went. The “gold standard” was open heart surgery and a very long recovery process. Cath labs were being built all over the US. I wouldn’t call radical prostatectomy a gold standard today. It’s certainly a focused mindset for urologists. I commend you on asking all the questions back in 2012. It would take too long to list all the new tech for prostate cancer over the last 14 years. Unfortunately, doctors need 5, 10, 15 survival rates before making decisions.