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PSA 8.6, MRI PIRADS 5, Biopsy scheduled, so a bit worried
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: May 14 12:41pm | Replies (47)Comment receiving replies
PC is slow going so you have plenty of time to ruin your eyesight reading the hundreds and hundreds of articles on prostate cancer along with driving yourself crazy. Not much you can do until your biopsy that will tell you exactly what you are dealing with. I went through what you are starting in this wonderful year of 2023 and I am looking forward to 2024 and many more after that. What I will say is that you should make sure you get a trans perineal fusion guided biopsy at a center of excellence. It was painless even though I had a 30-core biopsy because of my 120 gram prostate. I did tell the urologist and his team that did it I would much rather visit the dentist than do another one. LOL! Biopsy showed a 4-3 and some 3-4 all from the area of the lesion. I did the 5 proton radiation treatment at Mayo Phoenix. My PSA was a 2.9 and my first check at 3 months was undetectable. I did the radiation instead of a proctectomy because I am 74 years old which is much older than you and if I get 15 years before it comes back, I will be 89. Age makes a big difference in what you chose. Good luck to you and be careful of those eyes.
Replies to "PC is slow going so you have plenty of time to ruin your eyesight reading the..."
You're right that prostate cancer is slow-going about 95% of the time; the other 5%, it moves very quickly and often isn't discovered until it has already metastasised (as was the case for me in my mid 50s). If your PSA is already elevated in your 50s, I think it's good to move quickly at least until you've had scans (bone scan, PET, or whatever) and confirmed that it hasn't spread.
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I had my PSA surge from 3 to 4 in one year and then to 6.5 six months later. Had a MRI showing high likelihood of cancer. Then on to Moffitt in Tampa for more testing - biopsy, PSMA-PET and then Decipher. I have 4+3 and 3+4 Gleason 7. My Decipher results showed low risk, and PSMA-PET confirms it is still confined to the prostate. My younger brother had prostate cancer, surgery, and then ended up 14 years later dying at 65 of bladder cancer, so I'm going to move on it. Moffitt offered surgery and various forms of photon radiation and brachytherapy. After much research, I am going with the only treatment I found that has a fan club - proton therapy. I am looking to this radiation therapy at UF Health Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville as they have been doing it here in Florida the longest of the other centers. I believe you can get proton therapy here in Florida in Orlando, Miami and a couple of places in Jacksonville. I very much like Moffitt. They are top notch and are themselves building their own proton therapy center, but it won't go online until 2026.
Regular Medicare pays for proton therapy, but other insurances might deny it and make you go through an appeals process. If you go online to UF Health Proton Therapy Institute and fill out the contact form, you will get a free package via Fedex in a couple of days with some excellent literature on Proton Therapy. You will also receive a comprehensive list of men who have undergone proton therapy over the last 20 years whom you can email or call to discuss their journey. I'm talking about a list with hundreds of names on it and it gives their ages and dates of their treatments. So you can contact a guy who went through it recently or more than 20 years ago. My paperwork is being processed at UF Health and if I qualify, that's what I'm going with. I may have to move to temporary housing for a couple of months (max) in Jacksonville, but from what I'm seeing with proton therapy and the results, I will be happy to visit Jacksonville for an extended period.