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.