newbie question re genomic/biomarker testing

marks1k

I had a recent MRI which showed two lesions, one with a PI-RAD score of 5, the other with score of 3. So, highly likely to be cancerous.

I've been dealing with another, rare form of cancer (GIST) for two and a half years; it's incurable but treatable, for an unknown length of time. For that cancer, mutational/biomarker testing is necessary as different mutations respond to different medications. In a weird way, it's almost good to have a different form of cancer as I'm not nearly as freaked out about prostate cancer having already gone through a different kind of cancer.

It appears (at least from the reading I've done thus far) that mutational or genomic testing isn't as widespread for prostate cancer. I will be getting treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering (where I get treatment for my other cancer) and I assume they routinely do this type of testing. But I've also heard of other tests, e.g., Prolaris, Decipher, etc. and am wondering how important people think this kind of genomic/biomarker testing is for prostate cancer. Also wondering is anyone knows if those tests provide more information than the MSK-IMPACT test does. Knowning what I know from the cancer I have, I do believe that the more information one has about their cancer, the better.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Old Salt

I would leave that question to the very knowledgeable people at MSK. It's also a bit premature because you haven't been diagnosed with prostate cancer as yet. I am reasonably sure that a biopsy is in your near future with special attention to the PI-RADS 5 lesion.

I hope they won't find anything worrisome…

Clevelandguy

Hi,

As Old salt said you will need a biopsy to grade your Prostate cancer which can determine your treatment path. I feel the Gleason score should tell you what comes next. If you do have Prostate cancer I would get a PMSA PET scan which is very sensitive at picking up metatastic spread.

Dave 3+4

marks1k

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1715513#Comment_1715513

Thanks. Yes, I do realize a biopsy will be my next step. I'm really just trying to get a sense of whether people think that genomic testing is important for prostate cancer.