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What questions to ask in first meeting regarding treatment decisions?

Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 8, 2023 | Replies (14)
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@marshallfeller

I would ask what are the chances of a recurrence (biochemical recurrence) after surgery or radiation. If recurrence does occur what typically is the treatment and does it differ depending if you had surgery or radiation?

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web265 | @web265 | Jul 4, 2023

To sort of add to this, and I remember this being a very large part of my decision,

I was told by my "team" that if the first treatment is Radiation and that didn't work as hoped, the next step could be a "salvage surgery" which, would be made much more difficult by the damage done by the radiation. It becomes a VERY specialized surgery at that point.

So for me, always having a backup plan is important. I did the surgery , which I tolerated pretty well. Then the recurrence happened (sort of, we didn't give the PSA a chance to climb very high and went the aggressive approach). I went into salvage radiation which I also tolerated pretty well.

Sooo....I'd ask your team questions to determine if this is still (or ever was) true and their input on what would be the back up plan.

Me to surgeon: If it was you, which way would you go?
Surgeon : I'd start with the surgery.
....two weeks later....
Me to RO: If it was you which way would you go?
RO: I'd start with the radiation

Some team....
Having said all that I'm about 15 mos post radiation with PSA of

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