2004 Intermittant Triple Hormone Blockade/Leibowitz Protocol ~ Now 2007 looking for option B??

I'm new here and not too sure what I'm into.  I am a 59 year old living in Sarasota, Fla.  I was diagnosed in 2004 through psa testing and a psa at 6ish before my first treatment.  I was a t1c with a gleason of 3+3 and very low mircoscopic tumor development on both sides.  The pressure to go for the "gold standard of surgery" was pretty clearly represented by the local treatment choice.  After lots of research and being educated by the PAACT newsletters, I talked a local urologist into treating me with the Intermittant Triple Hormone Blockade/Leibowitz Protocol.  For those unfamiliar, that is a 13 month blockade with LHRH shots, use of antiadrogen (casodex) and finasteride with the finasteride maintained after the 13 month blockade is completed.   At first I celebrated my good fortune when the blockade worked so well.  Three years later my psa is in the 5's, my gleason is up to 7 and I am pondering option b.  Right now I am leaning toward DaVinci surgury at Ohio State University with Dr. Vipal Patel (over 1700 procedures under his belt).  I have read just enough to be concerned that with a 7 gleason, it might not make sense to pursue surgury.  I need to finalize a decision soon as my last biopsy was july 2, 2007 and two months must pass before surgury.  My local urologist wants to give me just the LHRH shot for the interval.    Any word of wisdom?  Prayers appreciated   Bob   Post edited to add a title to this thread J   Post Edited By Moderator (bluebird) : 7/17/2007 7:53:46 PM (GMT-6)

bzup

Thanks for the reply. I will stay in touch if I can figure this site out. I have heard that Dr. Patel is excellent also, but also was warned that OSU is a "teaching" hospital and that a new resident might actually be doing the surgery. Did you inquire about this?

Hi ~ SRQ & Loved Ones,   Caring Enough to Share…..     A    “Special”   Warm Welcome   to   You!         This is truly a great forum!!! ~ “You” have joined! You are now part of our forum family ~ a group of wonderful individuals who are so willing to share their journey .   Thank you for joining all of us on this road to HealingWell …..   KNOWLEDGE IS POWER... and POWER conquers fear   Keeping you Extra Close in our thoughts and prayers. In New…Friendship ~ Lee & Buddy   “God Bless You”  It's a little prayer   ~   "God Bless You"   ...but it means so much each day, It means may angels guard you and guide you on your   way   (Direct Link ~ just click on the title below and a new window will open!   Reminder … click on the REFRESH icon once you get there) Helpful Hints ~ & ~ Direct Links to Important Topic Threads ~ Hope this helps you!! :)   mama bluebird - Lee & Buddy… from North Carolina J   We invite you to visit our personal thread:   Click Here:   “Our Journey” ~ Sharing is Caring   April 3, 2006  53 on surgery day RRP / Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy with "wide excision" PSA 4.6   Gleason  3+3=6    T2a   Confined to Prostate 2nd PSA 02-06-2007 Less than 0.1 Non-Detectable :)   Post Edited (bluebird) : 7/17/2007 7:58:53 PM (GMT-6)

I highly recommend going with the surgery.  As you can see by my signature line, I was very similar to you at diagnosis, but went with the surgery.  I was very surprised at my post surgery pathology report, but at least I know how much cancer I have/had.  Now I'm going with my plan B, adjuvant radiation with hormones.  I always go back to the quote from my surgeon after he told me of the pathology report, "The best news is it's sitting in a jar of formaldeheide somewhere!"

Good luck with your decision.