Choosing treatment

Hello Lark1535 

A warm welcome to the group, although I am so sorry to find you joining us. The treatment choice is a very personal thing and can have life changing consequences. it would help us to help you if we had some facts and figures - your PSA score and TNM and Gleason Score from the Biopsy.

From your initial post it looks like various treatment paths are open to you so my advice is to sit down with your partner if you have one (your treatment will affect both of you) and make a list of the pros and cons of each treatment as to how the possible side effects would affect you. Use trusted sources for your information, Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan - not Dr Google.

I will start you off with some links for you:

Prostate Surgery.

Hormone Therapy.

Radiotherapy.

Brachytherapy.

More often than not Hormone/Radiotherapy is one treatment. Brachytherapy may be available but you may not be offered it as it's not available in your NHS Trust - you are still entitled to it if it's best for you.

Many Community members have documented their personal journey and you can read this by clicking on their user name or avatar.

Feel free to ask any questions, nothing is too trivial and you will get honest answers from people who have "been there - got the T-Shirt".

Best wishes - Brian.

Thank you so much for your quick reply. It is very reassuring to have somewhere to go when everything is so new and overwhelming . 

This is the information I have 

PSA -6.74

Gleason- 7(3+4)

Grade- Grade 2

I have been offered Brachytherapy followed by Radiotherapy 

That's a result then, less invasive than Surgery and less side effects than Hormone Therapy.

Low PSA and a low Gleason 7 - so you should be on a "Curative Pathway".

Our Community member Alpine Wanderer is our "Brachy Expert" so I have "Tagged" him into this post.

You can read his full story here:

 Surgery or Radiotherapy? Decision made! 

I think that's the perfect treatment in your case. Fee free to ask any questions.

Best wishes - Brian.

hi, please have a look at my profile as this may be what you are offered.   

Hi lark.  I had surgery aug20 last year.  If you’ve any questions I’ll be glad to answer them 

Thank you so much 

Thank you.  I have read it all and found it so helpful and comforting .

Thank you. I am still struggling to decide. What was the main reason you opted for surgery ?

Hi Lark1535

Just one thing, your stats are low so just wondered why u are being offered Radiotherapy and Brachytherapy together.

I know that some people have Radiotherapy OR Brachytherapy and some are offered both together but thought that would be more for higher stats/spread.

It's just that potentially opens the door for more side effects although of course I have to add that there may be none 

I had similar stats to u and I had Radiotherapy which I found dead easy, didn't really fancy surgery because major op.

Anyway justy opinion and of course I am not a Dr.

All the best 

Steve 

I opted for surgery as I wanted it “out “for want of a better phrase and the possibility of radiotherapy in the future would still be an option if it reoccurred . For me it was a quite easy decision after weighing up other options .   In 12 days it will have been a year since the op date.   I have had my 4 th psa test result yesterday which came back as undetectable so for me this seems like I made the right choice ( for myself ).