Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself

breadmaker,
thanks for the reply. I'm 69 YO. Gl was 3+4 25% 4 in one of 12 cores. no lesions anywhere else. MRI PI-RADS 2, fairly benign #'s but my Decipher was high, .80.
Do you have any experience with HIFU? with high decipher?

thanks

Just an update to my previous post. I forgot to mention that I was 67 when diagnosed and 68 now. Pathology showed prostate full of cancer with cribriform in some of the Gleason 4 areas. Cancer tried to leave the prostate on one corner and the surgeon said he burned the surrounding area and said it should be good. Also lymph nodes came back clear but seminal vesicle had cancer in it but and was contained within. Going forward he is doing PSA tests every 3 months for the next 2 years and he said he was cautiously optimistic that cancer would not reappear. The cribriform finding and the cautiously optimistic comment was hard to swallow but hopefully it will not or has not spread elsewhere.
I read on a cancer site that some prolonged use of antibiotics have a possibility of causing cells to deform and may cause them to grow possibly causing cancer. No definitive proof but something they are looking at. In my case, with my chronic prostatitis for over 20 years, I have been prescribed with different antibiotics many times with my last instance just before I was diagnosed, I was on 3 different antibiotics, 3 months each so almost 9 months continuously to try to control a persistent infection. So there might be some relevance.

Due to a urethral stricture I was not able to candidate for an AUS. An external urethral clamp i found was the best alternative, I often don’t know it’s there and can do anything with it on, bike, swim, gym….

Age 67. Diagnosed in July 2024 with Gleason 9. Surgery in November discovered some spread to the left bladder neck. First blood work was end of February and was undetectable. Next blood work due in 3 weeks with doctor appointment a week later. Incontinence was difficult the first 5 months, but physical therapy and Gemtesa led to improvement. The biggest issue for that now is with exertion, like lifting something heavy or playing golf.

I was 75 years old when I was diagnosed with PC, Gleason4+4, aggressive.
After meeting with different surgeon oncologists and radiation oncologists, I decided that the removal of my prostate was not an option, too risky. The side effects, incontinence, and impotency , to big. Friends whom went through the surgery, warned me no to do it. A physician friend of mine suggested that I should to talk to radiologist oncologist, I did I went to talk to a doctor at California Proton, and I liked what I heard and decided to go with 25 rounds of Proton therapy and six months of Lupron. I did not like the side effects of the hormone therapy, but my oncologist suggested that I should be only for six months. I went along and today my BPA is.0.03. It seems to me that the treatment was successful. I did not have incontinence , but I have not recover from ED 🤞. My libido is fine , but I have not been able to have a strong erction. My oncologist said that, sometimes it takes 2 0r 3 years to get to that point. WE’ll see.
By the way I had esophagus cancer and treated with Proton therapy 2 years earlier , and feeling fine.
My suggestion to PC sufferers , obtained second and third opinions and talk to men that went through the same issue.

I am living with cancer, not dying from cancer. Living with cancer means tying to become the best version of yourself every hour of every day. Dying from cancer means fighting it. Yes, it's a battle, a war, either way surviving it is a challenge. The mission is always the same "Make this world a better place."

Good question. My PSA is 0.13. I get tested every four months.

What you experiencing is very common. Somebody was just posting about it in here last week. They also had it go up then down.

Here is a table of what happens if you don’t treat at .2. As you can see if you wait until .5 you’re going to have to go on ADT As well as salvage radiation if it will work at all.

From Ascopubs about what PSA to do salvage radiation.
≤0.2 ng/mL:
Starting at this level maximizes disease control and long-term survival. Patients treated at PSA < 0.2 ng/mL achieve higher rates of undetectable post-SRT PSA (56-70%) and improved 5-year progression-free survival (62.7-75%).
Delaying SRT beyond PSA ≥0.25 ng/mL increases mortality risk by ~50%.
0.2–0.5 ng/mL:
Still effective, particularly for patients with low-risk features (e.g., Gleason ≤7, slow PSA doubling time). The Journal of Clinical Oncology recommends SRT before PSA exceeds 0.25 ng/mL to preserve curative potential.
0.5–1.0 ng/mL:
Salvage radiation remains beneficial but may require combining with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for higher-risk cases.

Jeff,

Thanks. No interest is the AUS, or the proAct (which I first read about here). I'm primarily concerned about the slowly rising PSA - that for whatever reason went down the last time I had a PSA test. I was just wondering if anyone else that had surgery for their PCa experienced anything similar and what they had done, if anything, about it. Even at .2 I don't see me doing anything other than AS for quite some time.

After 6 months, I was finally diagnosed with Gleason 9 in Feb/2024. Prostate removed in June 2024 -Stage 3 (a). Total urinary incontinence with AUS installed Jan 2025. PSA 0 and AUS gave me my life back.