Active Surveillance versus Treatment

Hi Skeggiered

I am 69 and was on A/S for 18 months my psa was around 6.7 at the time I had a mri followed by a biopsy which came back with no cancer showing, psa slowly crept up to 10 that’s when I went for another mri followed by biopsy that came back wiith Gleason score of 3+3.  
I was offered to carry on with A/S which I quickly decided against or RT or surgery. 
I decided to go for surgery and I am awiating to hear when it will be. 

It’s a hard decision to make as to what treatment is best but I wish you the best with whatever you decide. 

Thank you for your reply & good luck with the surgery  

I worry, Skeggiered, if perhaps so many different opinions might have caused you more concern than help? That said, a lot of us have had difficult decisions to make and perhaps knowing that you are not alone in facing a difficult decision might have helped? What I do know is that everyone here is rooting for you and, whatever decision you make for yourself, you will not be judged! Thank you for inviting us to open up about our own decision making and do let us know what decision you make for yourself. I wish you all the best on this journey.

Thank for reply & concern. I have decided for now to go with the AS. 

Good that you’ve made your decision! Good luck!

Just thought I would update my progress 

Yesterday I had an interesting meeting with a senior consultant specializing in prostate.  
My Gleason is 3+3 and psa 8.8. 
After discussing with mdt his opinion was for me to stay on A/S and have 3 monthly psa tests and a mri after a year. 
I was glad he gave me this advice as the other consultant I saw just gave me 3 options and I was left to choose what option i wanted. 

Choosing to take the A/S option backed up the Reserch I’ve done with the help of this forum so what the consultant told me was reassuring. 

I asked what is the percentage of men coming back for treatment after being on A/S he told me it was around 50% but this figure is somewhat skewed as not all men will have more aggressive cancers, some men came off A/S because of mental strain others didn’t like mris or biopsy’s so the true figure is around 30%  

I also asked what is the chance that the 2 biopsy’s I had missed any cancer farther in my prostate, his reply was seeing as I’ve had 2 biopsy’s with a total of 24 samples taken and my prostate not being too enlarged he would be surprised if anything was missed  

He then said if and when I would need any treatment he could do it in around 6 weeks and the chances are unlikely that the cancer would have spread outside of the prostate, but as anything with cancer nothing is certain 

Im content to follow this pathway at the moment  

A big thankyou to everyone that has contributed to this thread I’ve learned so much and it’s been a real help  

I wish everyone well in whatever form of treatment they feel is best for themselves, 

Roy  

That's good news Roy

I was on AS for 4 years although always felt that I was being pressured into starting treatment.

Looking back the RT was dead easy so  I could have started treatment a bit earlier as the tumour was getting near the gland edge in year 4.

Def worth keeping your eye on tumour size (from MRI), mine went from 3mm to 13mm during the 4 years.

Good luck

Steve 

Hello Roy (Fleet) 

Thank you for taking the time to put up a very informative and interesting post.

I wish you well with your chosen pathway and hope all goes well in the future.

We are always here for you if you would be so kind as to keep us updated with your progress.

Best wishes - Brian.