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Question on delaying RARP surgery by 1 month
Hello new to the group.
I have surgery scheduled at Mayo Phoenix (Dr Jack Andrews) in the middle of July. I have been diagnosed via biopsy of Gleason score 3+4 with Intermediate Favorable Prostate Cancer Group 2.
Problem is my wife has a wedding to go to in Europe and I would like to reschedule on month later so she can go. Is there any risk with this diagnosis and month delay? Thank You.
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Per what others have offered, I too had to delay one month. In the midst of my diagnosis and planned DaVinci single-incision RP, I was finalizing my divorce after 32 years of marriage. I had to sell my house - and did - and quickly had to pack and prep the house, then find and move into a new house. I couldn't do that while recovering and dragging around a catheter for 11 days. So, I asked if I could delay one month, and the doctor gave an unconcerned "sure, no problem" response. The cancer grows slowly. Whatever you have day #1, is likely not going to change much at all by day #30. Good luck to you. Let us know how it goes.
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1 ReactionYou will likely be fine waiting a month or so, but in my experience having had 4+3 and all tests indicating cancer had not left the prostate (DRE, MRI, Biopsy, Bone Scan, Prolaris, PSMA PET scan) and Drs. saying no worries. I took 6 months deciding on which treatment path I should take. Long story short, I likely should have acted sooner. After initial treatment which was successful, six months later I ended up with stage 4A Pca having pelvic lymph nodes affected. Drs. say micro metastasis likely too small to be seen in first PSMA PET scan. Anyhow, Shoulda, woulda, coulda I be able to go back in time, I believe earlier treatment in my case may have saved me a lot of grief. Knowing what I know now, I would have asked for an oral ADT drug to take during the deciding period to keep the bandit at bay. These decisions are agonizing and you can only attempt to make the best one for you by you. It's a bit of a crap shoot, but luckily there are many treatments to keep us going for most of us. After pelvic IMRT and 18 months so far of Orgovyx, Zytiga, and Prednisone my PSA is now undetectable. 🙂 Good luck with your decision.
This study from 2020 reported in JAMA indicates that even with localized, high-risk prostate cancer, a surgery delay of up to 6 months has no statistically significant chance of worse outcome. —> https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2773817
(For a localized, Gleason 7(4+3), PSA of 7.976, I had 28 fractions of proton radiation + 6 months of Eligard.)