staging ?

pc dave, you asked me why I put my husbands stage at T2c with a ?. We have been to 3 doctors, who have each told us that the stage is T2.  None of them have offered a, b, or c.  Looking at staging information, a & b appear to be only on one lobe, were as, my husband has 20% involvement on both lobes.  Also, the T1 stages, in the info that I have require < 5% involvement and again on one lobe.  We have not been given any info on DRE.  To my knowledge, Kurt has nothad one since last summer when his PSA was 2.6 and he was dx'd with prostatis.  If I am missing something, please let me know.  I would love to believe that we have caught this thing even early than where I think we are.  Courtney

kziz

when trying to determine my stage i found the staging tables somewhat confusing and conflicting. i was told by my urologist (who is an expert at a major hospital), that if my DRE was negative (which it was), that even though i had cancer in both lobes, i was stage T1c. In other words, if you have a negative DRE, you don't go to the next stage T2, even if the cancer is in both lobes. see the table below and note what it says in the T1 and T2 headings, which supports what i have said above. if your husband had a negative DRE, i believe he is stage T1c; if he had a positive DRE and both lobes are involved, i believe he is stage T2c.

if your husband has been to three doctors and i assume that all of them performed a DRE, they should have told him if it was positive (i.e., that they felt a palpable tumor) or negative. In any case, your husband should have asked the result of his DRE. i suggest that a phone call be made to his primary doctor to ascertain this information and clarify exactly what stage he is at.

the problem with the medical profession is they don't necessarily tell you anything unless you ask! you have to be proactive and become as knowledgeable as possible about prostate cancer (or any other medical condition) and ask as many questions as are necessary. good luck!

STAGE SUB-STAGE DEFINITION
T1 Clinically unapparent tumor, not detected by DRE nor visible by imaging

T1a Incidental histologic finding; <5% of tissue resected during TURP
T1b Incidental histologic finding; >5% of tissue resected during TURP
T1c Tumor identified by needle biopsy due to elevated PSA

T2 Confined within the prostate (detectable by DRE, not visible on TRUS)

T2a Tumor involves half of the lobe or less
T2b Tumor involves more than one half of one lobe but not both lobes
T2c Tumor involves both lobes

Dave

kizz

good grief--sorry to hear about the E coli infection--i hope they can eradicate it soon as it can be very serious. it's tough enough having to deal with PC. i would expect that your husband's sugeon took a DRE in one of his initial visits. if not, he should have. if your husband is having surgery in march, it is kind of a moot point to get a DRE now. a bone scan and CT scan are important to to help confirm his stage of cancer before surgery, but none of these tests are 100% perfect. good luck with everything.

Dave