Gleason 8 - Surgery scheduled in early Sept - timing ok?

Wow, fantastic. So happy for you. This made my day.

When you start getting to the higher Gleason levels... surgery?

Here is a good website to compare odds of cure for the major treatment paths. You have to determine your stage, low risk, intermediate, or high risk (risk of recurrence). So if you are intermediate, pull up the intermediate chart and you can see odds of 10-20 yr survival, etc. based on the treatment you pick.
https://www.prostatecancerfree.org/compare-prostate-cancer-treatments/
It is best viewed on computer or just print it on paper. Not so viewable on phone.

To make the graphs easier to read, i drew a dot on the endpoints of the elipses, and then drew a line through the dots. This turns the elipses into lines.

If you are going for prostate surgery, get a pair of breakaway pants like basketball players wear. It will make living with the catheter after surgery much easier. Available on Amazon. I wish someone had told us.

Interesting. This looks like seeds + ERBT is the winner for my husband's risk group. But that was not offered to him as a treatment without 2 years of ADT - and he is unwilling to do the ADT

That graph looks definitive, but I'm sceptical about the varied nature of the studies it's based on...age, quality, numbers. So hard to compare apples to oranges. I think individual FEELINGS, like an aversion to chemical castration, are important, as well as population based survival percentages. We all die, how we live until then is a valid consideration.

We're each a case study of one, and no population based study can say what will happen to any given individual...

Done!

Great! It is so much more discreet because you can feed the tube out of of the side holes and have long pants on. Otherwise it is shorts and everything exposed or cutting massive holes in your own pants. A real game changer. You can hide the bag in a grocery bag and even go for a walk outside. A real game changer! Good luck there.

You made very quick work of that graph! Sharp. They are not simple.

One thing those graphs don’t show is the benefit of salvage radiation. So when i was researching, i looked for papers on salvage rad performance. I didn’t find much useable data. From what i remember, i used a benefit of 12% boost to the RP numbers.

Basically i drew a parallel line 12% above the RP line.

When you look at these sites, it's good to remember that they are often linked to providers, who have found them to be an excellent way to generate referrals. In this case, it doesn't take a lot of looking to identify the MD behind this site... https://www.seattlecca.org/providers/r-alex-hsi. And surprise, he is in fact a radiation oncologist 🙂

See my response to the first post. Internet sites are not necessarily neutral because they are sponsored by a nonprofit. In fact, most MDs would rather spend the money as a tax deduction than a marketing expense if it works for both.... https://www.seattlecca.org/providers/r-alex-hsi.