← Return to PSA numbers: Questions about new treatments

Discussion

PSA numbers: Questions about new treatments

Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Apr 1, 2020 | Replies (45)
Comment receiving replies
@ronan2011

Hi semeon.........I sent a reply but it didn't appear to work right and don't think it went out. Pardon if this is a duplication. I've looked at the Sperling site and am in contact with Mayo but don't have any 1st hand knowledge yet. No one I have spoken to knows about the Laser Ablation and you are the 1st person I;ve seen to actually have the procedure. I missed 1 of the basic markers of their criteria so I'm not sure if they will take me. I have a Gleason 7 and Genomic text was above the median and marked as more aggressive. So have been considering Surgery but have a very short time (about 3 months) to figure out if the Laser Ablation is an option for me. You mentioned you had it done twice, and I'm curious if they didn't get it all the 1st time or you had some recurrence so they did it again. The good thing is the procedure can be done more than once. Also I would be happy to have the extra imaging done to actually see what is there which I believe is done for the Ablation. I've been told that if I do surgery or radiation they don't do extra imaging and only go by the biopsy itself. If you have anything you feel you can share, I'd love to hear..............Regards, Dave

Jump to this post

Replies to "Hi semeon.........I sent a reply but it didn't appear to work right and don't think it..."
waynen | @waynen | Nov 10, 2019

Hi Dave, you are where I was a year ago. I was looking for the best treatment with the least amount of side effects. My Urologist gave me a book by Dr Patrick Walsh from John Hopkins that went through all of the treatment options. Walsh wasn't too keen on targeted Ablation because of the chance of missing cancer cells in the prostrate. He felt the Ablation of the entire prostrate had serious effects on the urethra and rectum. He was speaking from several years ago and the procedure may be better now.
I chose the proton beam therapy, because the men I talked to had few side effects, except irritation of the urethra during treatment. However, my Gleason score was 8, and
my radiation oncologist said by adding hormone therapy to the radiation increased my changes of survival by 20 per cent. I've talked to several men who had the proton beam therapy without hormone therapy and they resumed normal activity after treatment. There is a group that formed out of proton beam treatment at Loma Linda Med Center called the Brotherhood of the Balloon. They have a web site you can access for more information.
You actually have better diagnostics then I had and a radiation oncologist can tell you what would be your treatment option. You may have gone down this road already.
Hormone therapy shrinks the prostrate and can kill cancer cells that may have gotten in your blood stream. I just saw a study where they found cancer cells in blood of 30 of 37 men who had a prostatectomy. Their Gleason score was 8-10. My concern is killing all cells, even if I have to live with Lupron side effects for 18 months. I believe that up to 40 per cent of men treated can get recurrent cancer.
The good news is that surgery and radiation treatment result in same survival rates, so it does come down to what you are willing to live with that goes with the treatment. There's a book written by Robert Marckini, You Can Beat Prostrate Cancer, where he used a table of pros and cons for different types of treatments. It might help. His is a little old and may need
updating.
I wish you well. I know how hard this is.

VIEW AND REPLY