What an I opener - How'd I miss it?

mcin777
mcin777 Member Posts: 66
in Prostate Cancer #1

Well, I had my 2nd opinion interview with Dr Brian Shaffer the other day regarding my lab results.  He told me something that I had never heard or perhaps did not want to hear previously.  My understanding from what he shared with me is the following (my interpretation) - "if a single cancer cell leaves the prostate and goes elsewhere in the body, the cancer then becomes incurable.  There is no way to eradicate/eliminate the cancer once it leaves the prostate.  The progression of the cancer can be slowed down but not eliminated."

Now, I may have heard this from my 1st Dr.  I do not recall.  With a gleason score of 6, I have been walking around thinking, "I have time.  No big hurry.  Check out your options, etc.  Now my motivation is pray to Jesus no cells have left the prostate and hurry and get the prostate out of my body.  If this "truth" had resonated witih me back in October of 2011 when I was told that I was a good candidate for wait and watch, I would not have waited and why would I want to watch?

I will have robotic surgery.  I now need to find out which of two Doctors would be the best to perform the surgery and get this thing out of my body.

Thank you all for your input.  The advice I got here to check out Dr. Shaffer for the 2nd opinion is invaluable.

 

Jim

Comments

  • hopeful and optimistic
    hopeful and optimistic Member Posts: 2,339 Member
    #2
    Dear Jim,

    In your last thread you did not respond to the question that was posed to you about how many cores were positive in your biopsies, so I am unable to make comments about  a treatment decision  specific to you.

    http://csn.cancer.org/node/255309

  • Swingshiftworker
    Swingshiftworker Member Posts: 1,017 Member
    #3
    Overreaction?

    It's your choice, of course, but your reaction to the notion of a single PCa cell floating in your body seems to be a gross over-reaction, especially if you think that simply cutting your prostate out will free you from any continued risk of PCa or its spread to other parts of your body, not to mention the risks associated w/surgery as a treatment "option" for PCa alone.

    All you have to do is troll the threads here for 1st hand info on the negative consequences of surgery AND the many different types of follow-up treatments that were required after failed PCa surgery to find evidence of this.

    FWIW, I think you need to take a deep breath, reassess the risks of the various forms of treatments and THEN decide if you still want to go ahead w/surgery or not.  Don't know what your Gleason score or other risks factors are but, even for more serious PCa, surgery may NOT be the best course but whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best.

     

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