Increasing PSA numbers, biopsy scheduled: So many questions

I think tat you need a top notch medical team at a major cancer center, university hospital, mayo, etc. If need be travel to a major center, so be it. You need an experienced expert performing the biopsy and reading the results and a second experienced expert concurring on the biopsy results. If there is cancer, you might only monitor it. At any rate expert, highly rated cancer medical people, no entry level people and then listen to them and do your homework. Prostate cancer is slow growing so you have time to do things right. Good luck, you’ll do fine.

There are a multitude of causes for a rising PSA and certainly cancer is one of them. A urologist should be considering all urinary tract issues, and if their review suggests a biopsy, just make sure they have explained other considerations.

I'm 75 and in AZ and am now at Mayo. Feb of 2022 a Non Mayo urologist did the biopsy and sent it out to " some pathologist". Mayo (pathology) reviewed the biopsy the same samples (5 mos later) a more serious picture resulted. I am getting stellar care at Mayo Phoenix . I have "Aggressive high risk " PCa. I chose radiation over surgery. It ain't all flowers but it's still livin.

Mayo is the best and Phoenix is a beautiful city to be in ( I now live on the ocean north of LA but I lived in Phoenix for over 50 years). We are the same age and I also have an aggressive high risk PC. They have so many types of treatment now and it will get better. I hope that we both have a very long journey and a very good life. When we were younger and in better health we all squandered a lot of time. It is now time to make the best of our remaining time. Best of Luck to you!

Thank you for sharing this. We will definitely be getting the Mayo involved soon. We are just trying to decide if we delay the biopsy already scheduled by switching now or let his current urologist perform the biopsy and then involve Mayo at that point by having them also review and switch care to Mayo. It’s so hard to think about delaying given his 4k results. At the same time I lost a cousin to pancreatic cancer when he wasn’t diagnosed until stage 4 because his primary care team misdiagnosed and performed a bad biopsy. Such a hard decision.

I am glad you ultimately got into the right hands are are getting the care you need. Best of luck with your continued treatment ❤️❤️.

Thank you! We are in Minnesota but also have a great Mayo network here. We will definitely be transferring care in the very near future. Best of luck with your continued care, and thank you so much for the guidance and advice ❤️❤️.

Mwarsha, A lot of controversy over proton and photon treatments. Some say no difference other studies show less damage to surrounding organs and tissues with proton.

If you live in Minnesota the Mayo Clinic at Rocshester for prostrate cancer treament can be any better. They have proton treatment. At the provider I chose 2 books on prostrate cancer were given to me. There were testimonials as some include proton radiation treatment at Mayo Rochester.

If I lived there I would definetly go there. Problem is that only in the last 10 years or so has proton radiation been readily available at enough locations to make if readily available. To me anything you can do to reduce radiation damage to surrounding tissues and organs is a must.

From what I have read you would get outstanding care at Mayo Rochester and there are few better or most updated care than Rochester Mayo. Just wished I lived there to get mine. Wife is a diabetic (uncontrolled) so traveling staying somewhere else was not an option.
Good luck,

Thank you for all of this information. I will look into this treatment. I was hoping one of the Mayo’s satellite hospitals closer to us would be equally as good, but it sounds like maybe it’s best to stick with the large Rochester site instead? Rochester’s not too far away, so we could make that work too, but the satellite hospital is just 30 minutes from us. Will look at both and see what both offer. Thanks so much for your guidance.

mwarsha: I found the best urologist locally that I could find. They put me out for the biopsy. I took his report and the biopsy material and had the decipher test done to check aggressiveness (and dr's do like this test) and sent the biopsy report to 5 radiation oncologists including 4 centers of excellence. I narrowed my treatment down to Proton therapy or the MRIdian viewray. Use the search function at the top to search for patient conversations on both treatments. My treatment was at the Orlando cancer center with the MRIdian. My brothers prostate cancer was treated on the same machine at NY Presbyterian/ Cornell Weil in New York city. Mayo clinic is considered a center of excellence and obviously there are many patients that have expressed their gratitude and described their success using Mayo. Take one step at a time and try to get as many opinions after each step as you can. I chose to try and get opinions outside of any one institution to potentially avoid any bias or conflict that may have been inherently built into an institutes structure recognizing that all doctors have the best of intentions.

Thank you so much for all of this guidance. I like the idea of sending everything to multiple COE's and getting different approaches/analysis. I will also use the search function for researching approaches in handling any outcomes. Thank you so much for sharing all of this, and I hope you and your brother are both doing well.