Surgery or Radiotherapy? Decision made!

Hi Worriedwife - all that you have said is also true: especially the psychological need to remove the cancer physically.  I concentrated on two side effects only because I feel that the process and effect of these specific areas are inadequately explained during the decision phase.  Going home tonight to our super king memory foam topped mattress!     AW

 Alpine Wanderer can I suggest you put this excellent summary onto a new thread entitled something like ' Considerations if looking at surgery'. It would allow us regulars to bookmark it and link it in for new people. To go with it could be the video by Dr Mark Scholz on Surgery Vs radiotherapy.

Hi Alwayshope - not allowed to link to videos any more - I got put on the naughty step a couple of weeks ago.   AW

Good Morning Alpine Wanderer and Worriedwife 

Thank you for some very thought provoking posts - I will add that there are a number of defined treatment routes and there have been plenty of people suggesting we should have a "pinned post" at the start of the group giving details of (in no order) Surgery, HT/RT, Brachytherapy, Chemotherapy, etc.

I personally don't like this idea and prefer any one joining the Community to have personal replies from other Community members who have "been there - done that" and can reply from their own experience or be pointed that way.

As to posting links to videos - this is being reviewed in the Community guidelines but it is my understanding that if they are from a "trusted source" they are OK - The ones from Dr Mark Scholz have been Ok in the past.

Thanks for all your help.

Best wishes - Brian.

Great recommendation 

Hi AW, I didn’t have the option of removal as already too late, but my thinking would have been along similar lines.  Let’s get the cancer out and have a fallback position if it fails.  I think your 4am thought process is spot on.  The only thing that will change peoples minds are facts (including recurrence rates) with both options being compared together.  
RT has improved so much from the early days of scatter gun therapy.  I recently had SABR (sometimes called SBRT) on my sternum and the targeting is so precise there are no external marks on the skin.  
Surely if individuals are given a choice they need to have all the facts about the consequences.  I wonder if MacMillan has a fact sheet or similar with the pros & cons clearly identified?  David

Hi AW

Yes, I think the medical profession sometimes stands accused of thinking they know how much or how little patients and their families know and, perhaps, what they think or feel or should think andcfeel? They have the medical knowledge but, even that can be subjective! I recall doing some research in which one participant told me, ‘when I go to any hospital I always power dress. That gives me half a chance.Without it I have no chance!’ Does how we dress and behave influence medical decisions? And- should it?

Re your lack of sleep! Point taken - my daughter , son in law and granddaughter are staying with us tonight! Should I go out and buy a selection of mattresses for them?!!!!!

Have a safe journey home - wall to wall blue skies here!!!!

At the risk of appearing biased, I thought you would be interested to see some statistics (yes, you know me too well).

I noticed that this thread has had 23,940 views (yes, there are an awful lot of lurkers out there).  So I sorted the threads on “most number of views” to see which thread has had the most (yes, I know, I know, it’s not a competition).  My thread is the third most viewed.  The second one has about 27,000 views.  
Anyway, guess what thread has BY FAR the most number of views?  (156,116 views)….

The thread is called “salvage radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy”.  I think that this is a VERY telling statistic. It may be that men are just checking “what if”, but I think that is unlikely with such a large number of views.    AW

Oh I couldn’t agree more. Sadly, many or most that have viewed it are potentially guys (or associated loved ones) that have suffered the recurrence of radical prostatectomy. Personally, I think the statistics are shocking. This is why education of all the options is crucial but also to attitudes.

Wow! Now that is telling! How did you do do the sums?

you said in an earlier post that you were told that there is a 30% chance of needing salvage radiotherapy. Do we know more statistics such as incidence of permanent incontinence or ED? Also, what are the statistic for recurrence after other treatments with the intention to cure?  ( One for Always Hope?)

Whatever, I think it underpins my thoughts that there is no perfect cure right now. The magic ‘plaster’ out there to stick on and ‘make it better’. Hopefully, one day?