psa going down each visit from 5.5 one year ago now 2.5 gleason 3+3 =6 cancer found in 1 of 12 lob

fathersson said:

Interesting
The watchful waiting is tempting as I have only one core out of 12 with less than 5% positive and a Gleason 6. That said, the issue that spurs me to have the surgery is that my Dad died from P a decade ago at 74. I am 57. ( scheduled in early May) My PSA went from 2.8 three years ago to 4.8 in Oct to 5.02 in November. It was then that I went to uro and had biopsy. Also had bone and ct scan.. thank goodness clean except minute low grade tumor in bladder that has been since removed. Interested in yours or anyone elses comments.

Thx

Frank

hopeful and optimistic said:

Here are some results of Lawernce Klotz,MD, well respected
active sureilance expert

protocol:

PSA and DRE every 3 months
Prostate ultrasound every 12 months
Repeat biopsy at month 12 and 36

After 8 years:

- 55% remain untreated with stable disease

- 36% decided to have treatment(eventhough they did not have progression)

- 9% treated with surgery or radiation for increase in psa or gleason score

- none have metastatic disease
< 1% men died of prostate cancer

---------------------------------------------------
Analysis of Bill Axelson by Lawernce Klotz, MD
Journal of clinical Onchology 2005

. lower gleason
. less than 1/3 cores and none >50%
. PSA < 10 and not rising
. PSA density < 0.15
. no palpable diesease
. early treatment for any progression

FOR LOW RISK, 100 SURGERIES WILL SAVE 1 LIFE 10 YEARS IN THE FUTURE

mrshisname said:

1 life in 10 years saved
But - what if you are the one life? What if you AREN'T? That is what my husband and I can't get past....statistics are great but what if you become the 'bad' statistic??

mrshisname said:

randy
Hope you had a great weekend and time spent with your kids. Congrats on your skiing - you really SHOULD be the poster child! Everyone has to make their own choice and find a way to make peace with it. Jesse had a down day yesterday, I just hate this for him. We go to opinion #2 tomorrow at 11, rad oncologist next monday and michael koch on the 16th. Onward!

randy_in_indy said:

Hopeful
I know these are real statistics...but after I had Post Op path report that showed more cancer than what biopsy showed and my turmor involvement was in both sides...nearly broken through the capsle less than 1mm. I am certianly glad I did not wait ...and had it removed....but I did not have the spectroscopy...just coil...and I did not have the test to determine the growth rate....but I did have some grade 5 in the post op path...I sure hope you are doing the right thing...I pray you are....

Randy in indy

hopeful and optimistic said:

Hi Randy,
I also hope that I am doing the right thing...actually I feel pretty comfortable with my decision and I am going on with my life......Randy, I really appreciate your concern, taking the time to let me know, and prayers......I will be seeing my doc in april, so I will see where I stand at that time.

Ira

hopeful and optimistic said:

Hi Randy
Deciding on a treatment option is very difficult. There are lots of choices with strong avocates for each.

It may be that as part of my work carreer, I had done research so I am comfortable in taking some risk, based on the active surveillance studies. In the study , there were some who had to take more active treatments because of progression...( I believe that I heard someplace that there is a 30 percent chance that the disease will progress.

I've been taking state of the art tests, which measure where I am, more so than the patients in the study which was completed 5 years ago, so I tend to know a little more of where I stand.

I also believe that we, as a group, we want to be proactive in taking care of our problems......As Maria and many others say, they want to get the cancer out of their bodies.......you will notice in the study that about 30 percent simply decided to stop the active surveillance treatment, and decided to pursue a treatment option such as surgery or radiation.......I believe that there is a lot of peer group pressure to pursue an active treatment option.......since there are only a small amount of men who in fact have been diagnosed with low volume "CANCER", to go with the crowd, and it our nature to get rid of, or avoid something that bothers us

For example on this board, the vast majority have had a prostemectomy, and there are very few who are doing active surveillance........you may have noticed that there are negative comments made from time to time about the active surveillance treatment.....(now, I don't own this treatment option, so its ok by me to hear comments, since they may be helpful)....just saying.......of course, I do some thinking every time I here one of these comments.

Anyway. time to stop rambling.

Ira

PS I've also been prety athletic in my life, have done a lot of hiking and biking as well as sand volleyball, etc.

active surveillance said:

all we are is dust in the
Active surveillance is in the "crap shoot twilight zone" right now... we are awaiting the forthcoming bio-marker/DNA tissue tests that will identify aggressive cancer. I would like to find someone near me that does this MRI spectroscopy, color-doplar ultrasound stuff and knows where to send my biopsy tissues for a best opinion--- A LOT TO ASk?!! My Urologist is from the Dark Ages and wanted to carve me right away ! This is why "AS" isn't a walk in the Park yet! And that PSA holy icon is misleading with its rise and falls.
And T2s -on up- are the guys that need the best expertise we can give them/us.
Soap box crashes beneath my feet
Love and healing to all