Prostate cancer: Anyone had surgery at 3+3?

That’s great thanks

Yeah my father had PC and las MRI showed it had grown a little

In 2 weeks, it will be 1 year since my RP. Was Gleason 8 at diagnosis, 7 after pathology. Doing well

Completely agree. My intial was 3+4 and i opted for radiation and brachythrrapy and that gave me 6 symptom free years before a return.

If you have cancer in you, get it out

Congratulations - Excellent news and such a relief to have the known cancer out of you and PSA levels undetectable after a year!! I am about 14 months post RP and all well.

Time is on your side, so definitely embark on research (read, read, ask questions, read, take a break) and education yourself on the various pathways. The pathway you take is ultimately a personal decision.

You will hear of extreme cases of where people stay on active surveillance with somewhat elevated PSA and the PSA doesn't increase for many years, and other cases where people have low PSA, take action, and biochemical recurrence occurs quite soon and they have to palliative treatment.

This might be the first time you consider end of life scenarios, for some people that brings upon anxiety as they have not planned. For others, they already have scenarios in place, have their estate figured out and the path from their employer insurance to Medicare as an example.

Quality of life is a huge deal. Incontinence, impotence are real points of consideration.

What you will find, is that no matter what path you take, someone out there has taken a similar path and will be able to provide input and comfort as you travel forward.

robo45vt: I had 3+4 with a 10.2 psa. Treated with a specific narrow margin (2mm vs 3-5mm...a big deal on healthy tissue and side effects) radiation machine in February of 2023. If you go that route, check out Spaceoar and BioProtect for separating the rectum from the prostate. I did not want the risks of side effects with prostate removal and I understood that a prostate removal after radiation could be complicated. You might want to get the Decipher test done using your biopsy material which I understand is good for a year. It DOES have an impact on your doctors recommendations. I spoke with 5 radiation oncologists, 3 from Centers of excellence.

see 4kscoretest.com

Get second opinions. Research and prepare yourself. Forums like this are a good start. I suggest you contact a proton therapy center near you. Here's a video link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFKAFXDguFo) from the center in Knoxville, TN from a few years ago that explains the technology, it's history and how it differs from photon therapy. It's really very good. I called the UF Health Prostate Therapy Institute in Jacksonville because I live in Florida and they sent out, by Fedex, a very informative package about proton therapy. Traditional Medicare pays for it and a few insurance companies too, but you could check it out. You have some pretty important decisions to make and it gets more complicated with you being 64 and looking at switching to Medicare at 65. I vote traditional Medicare with a supplemental policy because there is no gatekeeper and you could go anywhere they accept Medicare for your treatment if you wait until you're 65. You should see if you can get a PSMA/PET scan and Decipher test too, to know if that cancer is low risk and just where it might be at the moment. If you can self-pay, that more readily opens up other treatments like HIFU, Tulsa Pro, and Laser Ablation, but all have their own pros and cons. Good Luck.