How much time should I expect to be able to plan treatment?

I forgot to mention the presence of cribriform positive.

I don't know the specific answer to your question. But my experience has been that every step, every appointment takes time, more time than it should. I would recommend that you go ahead and schedule your appointments as soon as possible, then cancel them if your plans change. I did this and I was up front with all doctors as I was making the appointments ("Is it okay if I schedule this now, knowing I might cancel it later on?") and they all were supportive. I'd say you will want to talk to a Urologist about surgery, you will want to talk to a RO about radiation therapy, maybe others. Go ahead and schedule those appointments now.

For a 2nd reading of your biopsy, Dr Zhou is one of the best in the world. There is a fee (maybe about $500). He responded to my email ASAP.
Dr. Ming Zhou
Mount Sinai Health System
Email: Ming.zhou@mountsinai.org

Hope this helps some.

A current rule of thumb backed up by studies, is six months from diagnosis to time of treatment. It is clear it does take quickest usually four months getting through the process of scheduling things and second opinions and even surgery calendars in the case of surgery. Six months was shown not to have any impact on treatment results

Seems like you need treatment ASAP? How many cores biopsy were 4+5? You might also want a decipher test and genetic testing. I still learning a lot, but as I already said it sounds like you need to discuss treatment options. Hopefully you get a plan and all goes well for you.

We live in Germany. During my husband's first treatment(2021), it took about 2 months from first appointment with the urologist to surgery date. That included getting MP MRT, biopsy, PET-CT scan, second opinions, and getting a medical review report. For his second treatment(2026), it took about 2 months from getting PSMA scan to the first day of radiation therapy. This included PSMA scan, the result appointment, one extra second opinion from urologist, 3 appointments with three different radiation oncologists, and getting a medical review report. It took a lot of my time and patient to get all appointments schedules and get him to all appointments.

@prettypass2000

I can only say - lucky you 🙂💗 !

@pjm4416
I would not wait with treatment - your gleason can perhaps change to 4+4 but with cribriform and PIRADIS 5 that will not change the need for treatment. If I were you I would concentrate on treatment choice and not spend time and money on gleason. The better test would be Decipher and of course you need PSMA scan ASAP !

Certainly your results mean moving forward with treatment, it doesn’t mean that you purposely spread out all your appointments over six months having wine and cheese. Many people have alot of anxiety and fear and no reason to fuel that by saying they need treatment immediately, within two months, and then they learn they can’t get it that quickly when the end results will be the same.

@surftohealth88 I had to go in-person several times to schedule appointments or pick up paperwork just to get things move along faster. Often I just made sure that they knew they could call us to come in for any cancelled appointments by other patients. It worked quite well that way.

Just for reference/comparison, my biopsy came back PIRADS-5, with Gleason of 3+5 (later downgraded to 3+4), and my timeline of care:

Biopsy - 9/29
Diagnosis - 10/21
PET scan - 11/5
Treatment plan - 11/18
Surgery - 1/7

That works out to…79 days between “You have cancer” to “Wake up, surgery was a success.”