← Return to Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself

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@colleenyoung

@ronan2011, deciding which treatments to do is really tough. I'm bringing @semeon into this discussion as he has had Focal Laser Ablation for prostate cancer and may be able to answer some of your questions.

You can learn more about treatment decision making in these discussions:
- PSA numbers: Questions about new treatments https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/psa-numbers/
- prostate cancer treatment choices https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prostate-cancer-treatment-choices/
- Prostate Cancer: What treatments did you choose after surgery? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prostate-cancer-3/

You may also be interested in this Video Q&A about Prostate Cancer with Dr. Erik Castle and Dr. Scott Cheney – Oct 3, 2019
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/webinar/video-qa-about-prostate-cancer-1/

@stuckonu, that's interesting that in support groups, men tend to rally around or advocate for the procedure that the majority did. Very good to keep in mind when making choices.

Ronan, may I ask why you reluctant about radiation therapy options?

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Replies to "@ronan2011, deciding which treatments to do is really tough. I'm bringing @semeon into this discussion as..."

Hi Colleen...........Thanks for all the info. FYI my name is Dave. Ronan O'Brien is our cat who my wife named after coming back from Ireland. ....... I did see the October Video by the 2 doctors. I will check out your other links here.
As far as the Radiation, I've talked at length with the Oncologist//Surgeon and the Radiation specialist. At first I thought the radiation sounded great (why take out the prostate if you don't have to) but after talking with the surgeon my wife and I both felt more comfortable with that route. Various takeaways about the side effects, but my main thought is that if you do radiation and it doesn't get all the cancer or it comes back, the doctors are reluctant to do surgery as the next option because the initial radiation can cause complications for later surgery, but if surgery takes place, and cancer comes back somewhere else or or has escaped, then radiation and other modes are still available. I just had a friend go through that who had cancer in another area after surgery and he was able to do the hormone/radiation treatments and it worked great.............