Just diagnosed. Confused re treatment.

Hello JBat 

A warm welcome to the group, although I am so sorry to find you joining us. 

With figures like those I would think you could have surgery, hormone and radiotherapy or brachytherapy.

The side effects for each treatment are different and affect us all differently so my advice is get a pen and paper (or a spreadsheet) and list the pros and cons of each treatment as they would affect both you and any partner.

Use trusted sources for your research, Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan (not Dr Google!). I will start you off with 4 links:

Prostatectomy for prostate cancer.

Hormonal therapy for prostate cancer.   

Radiotherapy for prostate cancer.

Brachytherapy for prostate cancer.

I have added brachytherapy as although it's not offered in every area if you are suitable for it you are entitled to it.

Feel free to ask any questions, nothing is too trivial.

Best wishes - Brian.

Firstly, That is not a long post.

This is a couples disease and the ED is coming at you sometime soon. Hormone-therapy is great to stop the cancer in its tracks but you and your partner will need to figure more creative ways of sexual fulfilment. However saying that there are plenty of medicines and scaffold that can help should you need any.

But seriously. More information from you is good. You can put it on your profile (hiding under in plain sight top left of the page as a green roundel with an image of a sofa in it).

HT is ok, I’ve been on it 3.5 years and I’ve been stage 4 since diagnosis. My PSA is over seven-hundred so I’m no use to you to talk about surgery or radiotherapy. Sorry.

But Millibob will be along soon I’ve no doubt. He will fill you in.

Just keep asking questions.

Take care

Hi Jbat

Ok ,so you've already had some good answers but I'll just add that I was similar to you IE, near the gland edge and I went for RT simply cos didn't want a major op and potential for ED issues afterwards.

Do look at both treatments and consider everything carefully.

Best wishes 

Steve 

Hi JBat - you have time to consider all options.  Take a look at my bio (I had brachytherapy boost) after I requested a referral to a hospital that did the procedure.  Brachytherapy as a mono therapy is also an option.  On the plus side, your histology is favourable and likely to result in a cure.  AW

Hi j.    Firstly I’m not advocating surgery.   I had my surgery 8 months ago (aug25 ) and I’m glad I went down this route.  Ive been lucky that I’ve been continent since my TWOC and my ed is improving    I was Gleason 3+4 with less than 10% pattern but at my post op histology meeting was told I had bladder neck invasion which hadn’t shown up on the mri and without surgery I wouldn’t have known     As my tumour was in the tz zone I was told this is a common occurrence.   I had negative margins and have had 2 undetectable psa test since.  I was obviously not looking forward to a major op and was quite nervous but looking back it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it was going to be.  I did chat to people about the other options and it’s wasn’t an easy choice but if it’s your choice it’s the right choice.  I’m happy to answer any questions about surgery if I can.   Like others have said you will be fine although you might not think that now.  Good luck and happy to help.    Cheers.   Simon 

Great point Simon, choices are valuable in order to select an optimal treament plan even if that is only the least intrusive for you.

Everyone is different and reviewing these varied experiences will hopefully aid a decision.

Hi JBat,

I totally agree with all the advice so far.  It helps to move forward if you feel you have the power over this disease and you do.  The first step is to use the power to choose the treatment you want and feel confident in.

I just want to make sure you do provide all the data to the team who will be supporting you.  It was key to my treatment that my team were aware of my other long term condition.  I have ulcerative colitis and while I expected that the team would know this, I did ensure they were aware of that.  To my shock, they hadn't seen that in my notes and once that was on the table the correct treatment became a straight forward decision.  So please do ensure that any conditions, if you have any, are being considered.

Also you are doing the right thing by being here and doing the research.   Please use this wonderful group of people to get all the facts and I am certain you will know what route to take when the time comes.

Hello JBat,

Now you have found this forum you will find that everyone is more than happy to support you & answer any questions you may have from their own experience.  

Apart from waiting for various tests & then the results, making that decision as to which treatment to have is perhaps the hardest part of the journey you are on.  Although you have already seen the surgeon, you now need to ask to see the Oncologist to find out more about how the RT / HT would be tailored to you.  You can then draw up a list of pro's & con's of each treatment which will help you focus on what's important to you & any partner you may have - not for nothing is this known as a couples disease.

Like you, I wanted to avoid any ED or incontinence & being a wimp the thought of an operation was my last option, so chose the HT / RT route.  3 years ago I was 67 when diagnosed as Gleason 4 + 3 = 7, if it helps at all you can read my journey by clicking on my profile picture.

Best Wishes

Brian