Sorry to meet you under these circumstances. But yet this is a good place to be.
I don't know what your future holds--but I believe I can say that we are on it together. So what do you say we both live, laugh and get healed. Although I am 50, we have some similarities
I don't have old psa's as I never got checked until about
a couple of months ago. I don't remember what the first psa was although I want to say it was above 4. Just enough for my doctor to be concerned and to send me to a urologist. After a digital exam--where I was called a T1C. He performed a biopsy.
PSA 5.5, gleason 4+4=8, cancer in 8 0f twelve samples. Not that different from you. After I talked to my doc--it is possible that I really am a t2c as I understand it may be a t2c.
I would be interested in hearing more about
your lab on the biopsies if you have it.. Especially what was the PTI (percent tumor involvement). mine was 70% in some biopsies. Also which lobes were the worst. Both of these seem very important in diagnosis and future treatment.
I am scheduled for surgery on 5/23.
Like you I found myself looking for people farther down the road with these kinds of numbers. Although statistically there are not as many of us around as there are of gleason 6's, they are out there and they are alive and living well. If you go to the site yananow.net or in particular- - http://www.yananow.net/Chart-Gleason.htm
scroll down and you will find a list of a number of people with Gleason 8 and 9 that are willing to talk about
their stories. You are supposed to be able to e-mail them directly and ask them your questions.
I have not done this yet, but may.
I am sorry that you find yourself here but I have found this to be a good place to land. I am a little behind you but I plan to heal along with you.
Important things to know is how much if any the cancer penetrated the prostate capsule. Was it found in the lymph system or seminal vesicles.
It doesn't sound at this point like there is any treatment followup, except the PSA's. That sounds very good.
I think for me it was very helpful to find out that a gleason 8 is not a death sentence, and neither is a gleason 9.
I look forward to getting to know you better in the future.
Good luck.
sorry I didn't read as carefully as I should have --I see in rereading that you said T3C and not T2c. Which of course answers the seminal vesicles question.
Age 50
Diagnosed 4/24/07
PSA 5.5
cancer in 8 of 12 biopsy samples
gleason score 4+4=8; up to 70% pti;
some perineural invasion
surgery scheduled 5/23/07
Post Edited (oldfordlover) : 5/6/2007 2:10:53 PM (GMT-6)