Quest has several PSA tests: (1) PSA, Total has sensitivity of <0.10 ng/mL Test code is 5363 https://testdirectory.questdiagnostics.com/test/test-detail/5363/psa-total?cc=MASTER (2) PSA, Post...
Congrats Hal...
Prato, its not so much the level as the pattern of the rise. If it is a steady rising PSA over several years, then it is probably of concern to most Urologists, regardless of the level of PSA and his...
Good luck Hal!...
My thoughts are that this is a high risk diagnosis and you have to hit it with all you have and hope for the best. A combo therapy is necessary. I'm surprised that surgery + ADT + IMRT wasn't...
Try this website. It will give you a coupon for your local pharmacy at the prices I mentioned http://www.goodrx.com ...
Looks like that has been a dramatic fall in the price of Cialis since Pratoman looked. Giant Pharmacy is the cheapest for a 1 month supply now at $24.21 followed by ShopRite at $28.71 The rest -...
Surgery after regular radiation is very difficult, but this is SBRT, a far morel precise form of radiation. My guess is that it is planned carefully to ensure that it doesn't affect the...
I actually think this study is quite interesting. For high risk patients, pT3, some combo therapy is usually required, whether its Brachy Boost or Surgery/adjuvant/SRT. As far as I know both are...
For high risk patients, this looks like an interesting option https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.2019.37.7_suppl.TPS137 ...
There are some reasons to choose surgery, especially if there is a chance of higher risk disease, so its not just the "get it out" syndrome. SBRT is apparently as effective as surgery (clinical...
I'd be somewhat concerned about radiation DNA damage to the stem cells used to make sperm. Before one proceeds, there might be a way to analyze the sperm for damage before attempting to father a...
From what I have seen, Urologists seem to derive some of their estimates on the risk of the combo therapy from the multi parametric MRI and the subsequent MRI fusion biopsy that they perform. If the...
e.noont, congratulations on your decision for SBRT. May it go smoothly and you have the best possible outcome. I prefer not to advocate for either surgery or radiation, but might stand up for one or...
E.noont. I think you have reasoned this out thoroughly and SBRT is clearly the treatment with the most convenience and fewest immediate side effects, while providing statistically so far, equivalent...
LadyJaneK, With that high a PSA and being a G9, the probability of combotheraphy was probably about 80%. He is definitely a candidate for Adjuvant radiation rather than Salvage radiation and the...
With ED, to some extent you are fighting age as well. There was a study in North Carolina where over 20% of patients on Active Surveillance reported some ED at the 2-year mark. Since nothing was done...
Perhaps I have a wrong or imprecise definition of "focal". I have no doubt that SBRT will treat the whole gland, just as a prostatectomy would remove the whole prostate. However, pathology of the...
Enoont, I've been lurking on this thread as others have already given very good advice, but I thought I would just chime in on one of your observations, noting that you are keen on SBRT vs surgery....
It's not an old study. It was published in September 2018...
What I meant by "Its that simple..." is that If the surgeon takes your nerves, there is complete ED. But he does it for a reason and oldbeek was a T3a, which likely meant EPE on one side. Since you...
If one is concerned about ED, ask the surgeon if he can do nerve sparing surgery. It's much more likely if you are G7 (3+4) and below, capsule contained. If you are higher risk or have EPE, you are...
From the information, the surgeon determined that the prostate cancer had invaded the rectum through the wall of the prostate, hence they were "stuck" together. This isn't altogether uncommon....
Here is a list of travel insurance companies that cover pre existing conditions https://www.travelinsurancereview.net/coverages/pre-existing-condition/ ...
With a favorable intermediate risk diagnosis, Koach64 need not rush into surgery, but he should definitely seek treatment within the next few months, and explore the radiation options if he isn't...
He could try a PSMA PET Scan, which is more accurate for locating prostate cancer within the body compared with CT or Bone scans....
1. If he had a PSMA or Axumin Pet Scan, then that is the best technology available currently to determine if cancer has spread beyond the prostate bed and whether there is any point doing SRT. 2. MD...
For the diabetics, do note that LDL is the most important thing to control and the new 2018 guidelines are for LDL to be below 70 for diabetics. My endo put me on Atorvastatin, which lowered my LDL...
I would think that if you have been on a treatment holiday for 6 months and your testosterone has risen to a fair level, with a PSA of 0.06, you might just be cured. While rare, Stage 4 cancers can...
Craig, Welcome to the group where no one wants to be. One key issue you have recognized is determining whether the PC is still in the area around the prostate e.g. lymph nodes or more wide spread and...
Great news....
Rather than continuing to push personal biases of surgery vs radiation, we should just focus on helping Big John's continuing journey. I may stand corrected, but from BJ's signature, he was a T1C...
It depends on which Quest lab it is sent to and which PSA test chosen. Quest has different codes for Total PSA and Ultrasensitive PSA (for post-prostatectomy). If you choose the Ultrasensitive PSA,...
I didn't look at your links on Proton because SBRT seems to be of interest here. I was just looking at whether your statistical claims on SBRT vs surgery are true or false. Currently SBRT is not a...
Essentially, you took 3 separate, incomparable studies to make the assertion "The recurrence rate for intermediate risk men is 6 percent versus about 35 percent for surgery" . First of all, the...
Can you provide the source for this data?...
I think SBRT is promising, but we won't have this type of data on it for another 10 or more years. It is possible that the late-term effect data may not be that different from other modalities of...
I came across this study recently. Not sure if it has been posted before http://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2016.70.6317 Overall, 14.6% of the entire group expressed some treatment regret —...
Quite a few Urologists can be fairly sure based on PSA velocity and their experience. Question is, did you have enough PSA tests for him to calculate your PSA velocity properly. Prostatitis can cause...
From what I can see, a fusion biopsy was done on the "irregular" lesion and no cancer was found there....
Hal, congrats on your 4th anniversary. As you know, I'm almost exactly 2 years behind you. Will try to catch up for a coffee this summer....
I think its a good treatment plan. My PSA rose from 0.7 to 4.3 over about 8 years before I had a biopsy. The Endocrinologist who ran the PSA test was monitoring me for other issues and never thought...
This rush to bash iPoop's father's urologist as incompetent belies some misunderstanding over the difference between Active Surveillance and Watchful Waiting. Watchful Waiting is a decision of the...
It sounds like it could be an attractive treatment if they manage to refine it because of low side effects, particularly ED. The results of the clinical trials won't be available until 2029 though....
There is seemingly a lack of understanding of what this <2% is. It is the percentage of men who died or had metastatic Stage 4 prostate cancer . Vistacal's cancer is Stage 3 and he is NOT among the...
Certainly interesting because it was quite a large study compared to Pratoman's link with a similar conclusion - that the triple-play (BBT + ADT) and surgery+radiation have similar mortality in...
In Pratoman's article, it was NOT comparing radiation as a primary treatment against surgery plus radiation. Rather, it was comparing a specific type of radiation BBT, which combines two types of...
Pratoman's article says that surgery plus radiation is as effective as the best form of radiation for high risk - HDR BT. It's not that surgery plus radiation is any more effective. If you are...
That was the older study by Kishan that Pratoman's link seems to contradict. There is no clear direction anymore if you don't consider ED....
It's certainly interesting because the older research showed that Brachy Boost therapy had superior outcomes than all the other therapies for G9-G10 men. This research seems to contradict that by...