cyberknife insurance coverage

Fred

Welcome to the board.

I am not a CK survivor and know nothing about the treatment costs in Canada or else. Some guys reported to have CK covered by their insurances but some got difficulty in the approval process. You may read and place questions at the following forum dedicated to CK patients;
http://www.cyberknife.com/Search.aspx?searchtext=Search

There were also reports on Hifu but in terms of outcomes it did not perform as well as radiation treatments. The side effects seem to be very similar in both treatments with more recurrence cases registered in the Hifu choice.

In any case, the success of a therapy depends very much in the initial status of the patient and in proper diagnosis. What assurances do we have that cancer is localized and contained?
Many here advise in getting second opinions on the obtained data and results before making a final decision.

Some links;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22672199

http://csn.cancer.org/node/177783

http://csn.cancer.org/node/188555

http://csn.cancer.org/node/149722

http://csn.cancer.org/node/265660

Best wishes and luck in your journey.

VG

Fred191 said:

59 y.o, psa 6.4, stage T1c,

59 y.o, psa 6.4, stage T1c, gleason 3+3, diagnosed about 2 months. I am wondering to have cyberknife or hifu. I live in vancouver. My prefrences are less invasive, less complication, short treatment period, lower cost. 

Thanks for sharing your experience and opinion

fred191

It is possible that you may be a candidate for Active Surveillance with Delayed Treatment if necessary. The information that you posted is not complete to make an accessment. There are criteria for this treatment type; that is less than two cores of 3+3=6 out of 12 cores taken with less than 50 percent involvement in each, that is less than 50 percent of each of these cores cancerous. 

What led to your having a biopsy of the prostate. A bump on the prostate, rapid rise of the PSA?

It is wise to have a second opinion on the pathologoy that was taken of your prostate to confirm the results, so that you will not be under or over treated.

It is wise to have further diagnostic test such as a MRI with a powerful tesla 3.0 magnet which may determine extracapsular extension, and preclude a localized treatement.

SBRT, cyberknife one of the platforms of SBRT is a valid and excellent treatment decision if Active Surveillance with delayed treatment is not an option.

There is an expert in Active Surveillance in Canada, Dr. Klotz who an expert's expert .

I am a patient, having been in an Active Surveillance protocol for the last 5 and 1/2 years.  Simply click my name on the left side to read about the treatments that I have had and to find other useful information.

Fred191 said:

Dear hopeful &

Dear hopeful & optimistic

thanks for your advice. Your medical history was very useful as well.

I had 18 cores of sono guided biopsy which were divided into 7 blocks and one block showed "tiny focus of atypical micro-acinar proliferation" and in the note they mentioned " due to scant amount of atypical glands in apecimen, definite diagnosis cannot be made. IHC (Immuno-Histo-Chemistry) features were "consistent with prostatic adenocarcinoma".

 My preferences for treatment ( if I am a stage T1c and gleason score 3+3) are less invasive, less complications, shorter duration of procedure and healing, lower cost . So I am going to have a MR spectroscopy and also think about active surveillance.

I hope yours will go well as the past 5.5 years

fred

I strongly reccomend that you have a second opinion of the pathology by a world class pathologist,,,,there is a chance that you do not have prostate cancer. There are 8 world class specialists listed  in a book , "A Primer on Prostate Cancer" by Stephen B. Strum that I kep on my desk. Two of these are David Grignon, Michigan313745-2520 and John McNeal , California650 725-5534

As I understand an MRI with a Tesla 3.0 magnet will do the job. If the Tesla3.0, is used a spectoscopy is not required. It is important to have an experienced team admisister the MRI.

I suggest that you see a physician who specializes in Active surveilance.. If you are in or near Toronto see Dr.Laurence Klotzm.d.at sunnybrook Health Science Center.If not , you might want to call them to have a recommendation for a doctor in the area wihere you live.

Also I suggest that you wait a little to have the MRI since the doctor who will treat you, likes you to use one from his hospital

By the way,what you describe is a low volume, low aggressive cancer....that is very treatable......doctors from every discipline will want to treat you because your cure rate is high.....I hope that you, like myself will make the decision to follow an active surveillance protocol, and not suffer the any side effects from an active treatment.