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John
- Lakewood, CA
- United States
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exercise
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Surgery
147 members
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Younger Men
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support for men who want and need to exercise after diagnosis - either to maintain or modify their existing regime or start a new one.
Individual risk, early detection, coexisting illness, suspicious biopsy, just diagnosed. What is my risk? How should I be treated?
Statistics and stories about scalpels, sutures, and surgeons -- everything you want to know about prostate cancer surgery.
Men under 50 or 55 often have concerns that are different from those over 65 or 70. Here's a place to talk about them.
There's no age limit; indeed, it's helpful to get the older crowd's perspective on issues whose importance changes with age.
Profile Information
- Have you been diagnosed with prostate cancer?
- Yes
- What brings you to the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink social network?
- Quest for knowledge.
- Would you help us grow the network? Would you tell others about it?
- Yes
- About Me:
- My PSA has been chronically high for so long that I'd almost grown accustomed to it. In 2006 my urologist ordered a biopsy when my PSA didn't drop after a course of antibiotics. This biopsy came back clean. On July 21, another biopsy was performed. This biopsy showed a 3+3 malignancy in 2 of 12 cores. Prostate volume is 77 cc.
John's Blog
8/19/2009 Urological Oncologist Consultation
This afternoon my wife and I had my first meeting with a cancer specialist since my dx. My first impression was: "I'm getting old". Dr Desai started practicing about 6 years ago; my surgeon is a kid! His credentials seem top notch (Hopkins, Loma Linda, Mayo Clinic), active practice with 100+ minimally invasive prostate procedures a year. I'm just not used to thinking of my key advisers as "kids". Time to change my mindset.
The pathology on my CT and Bone Scans were unremarkable. What an odd ter… Continue
The pathology on my CT and Bone Scans were unremarkable. What an odd ter… Continue
Posted on August 20, 2009 at 6:58am —
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The "New" Prostate Cancer InfoLink is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, please consult your health care provider.
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I live in Centennial, CO, so... when are we going to have lunch and talk about this PCa stuff. Your new friend George. call me at 303-680-0308
-- You have an 83% probability of organ confined disease
-- You have a 96% probability of biochemical recurrence-free survival at 10 years if you have surgery
-- You have an 84% probability of biochemical recurrence-free survival at 5 years if you have brachytherapy
Surgical response rates are ALL about the skill of the individual surgeon. And for someone with your numbers almost any surgeon is going to recommend surgery. The critical issue will be the ability of the surgeon to leave you fully continent and thoroughly potent within a few months after the surgery -- whether the surgeon uses a robot or not. You want someone who is doing 200+ procedures a year and can talk to you about his or her outcomes data specifically -- not someone who quotes other people's results.
When you say, "My first appointment with the oncologist is tomorrow afternoon," do you mean a medical oncologist or a radiation oncologist? I am assuming the latter.
Regarding how you "vet" a surgeon or an oncologist, have a look at the articles on this topic in the Tips & Tools section of the main web site (e.g., "How to pick a surgeon").
There's no specific protocol for getting a second opinion (assuming your insurance provider is covering this). Just ask for one. Have a look around on this site. Another patient who contacted us yesterday is going to be treated by a surgeon at City of Hope, for example. Look in the member list for Greg.
The implication of the high PIN in otherwise benign regions is that, in the long term, if you don't get treated, you are going to have multifocal cancer -- and you don't want that to happen, so you really do need treatment.
Finally, you can't "standardize" the statistics. However, there are relatively recent data that show that younger men like you who are diagnosed with Gleason 6 disease are at significantly higher risk for progressive disease over time if they don't get treatment that someone of (say) 65 with otherwise similar numbers. I would not think that active surveillance was a good idea for someone like you.
I hope this is helping. It is VERY difficult (even for the doctors) to make absolute recommendations for anyone because of all the things we still DON'T know about how best to treat this disorder.
Keep asking questions and we'll do our best to help.
Mike
A couple of questions:
-- Exactly how old are you?
-- What level had your PSA reached prior to the recent course of antibiotics?
It is very possible that you have both prostatitis and prostate cancer, but a Gleason score of 6 and a biopsy finding of prostate cancer in only 2/12 cores after two biopsies suggests that you should be eminently treatable. The important thing will be to make sure that that treatment is carried out by the most technically skilled person you can get there. You wouldn't get your high-performance sports car serviced by any corner garage. You's take it to a real specifialist. Give your prostate the same level of respect. There is no shortage of really experienced prostate cancer specialists in southern CA.
Please feel able to leave me a merssage if you have any specific questions that I may be able to help with.
Mike