Confused surgery or harmone etc

Hello Maltby 

Another warm welcome to the group from me. Yours is the $64.000 question, not only do you have Surgery, you have Hormone Therapy/Radiotherapy and Possibly Brachytherapy. We could do with a little more information - full TNM score. MRI details if you have them and PSA history. So as I say to everyone:

This is a choice and it's a personal choice and if you have a partner they should be involved too. Take the 3 treatments and work out how the treatment would affect you both - the actual time, recovery time, side effects and possible permanent effects. Get yourself a pen and paper (I am old fashioned) and jot down the pross and cons of each treatment as to how they would affect you and your partner.

Use trusted sources for your research - Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan - not Dr Google. I will start you off with 3 links in no set order:

Prostate Surgery

Brachytherapy

Hormone / Radiotherapy

Feel free to ask questions - you will get answers from people who have "been there - got the T Shirt" and no question is too trivial. Some Community members (myself included) have a diary of our journey and you can read this by clicking on our personal avatar.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi sorry you are here and don't know if it will help to read my OH biography.   He went down the surgery route 

Hi Maltby - the best you can do is read the bio’s of the various members on here.  Click on the icon next to their names. I had brachytherapy boost - PSA now <0.03.  At 64, you need to look so carefully at side effects, Success rates, etc.  Note that some of the success rates that are published refer to treatment regimes from 10-20 years ago (it takes a long time for statistics to be built up and analysed).  Radiotherapy nowadays is computer controlled and very accurate with minimal “spillage”, which as reduced side effects likelihood.  We are all different, but one thing is for sure: Gleason 9 sounds scary, but a dead cancer cell is dead whatever its number! (The Gleason score simply refers to the layout and spacing of the cells anyway). In my non-medically-trained opinion, with a Gleason 9, I would go for radiotherapy/ hormone therapy (preferably BBoost) because as a Gleason 9, it’s more likely to go walkabout, as Millibob would say. With surgery, you have to wait for the operation without any hormone therapy to put the cancer in the put it to sleep in a deep freeze, so they can check pathology etc after the operation.  Some men have to wait months for the operation.  With radiotherapy, you start hormone therapy straight away - to put the cancer to sleep and shrink it and this is the perfect preparation for the radiotherapy.   I must add that we’re all different, so one treatment may be more suitable in your case.    AW

Hi I got my prostate removed  by surgery  2 years ago and have been  cancer  free but I have been incontinent  since .At the moment  I am in London  getting a spinster put in to help with the incontinence if I had not got the prostate  removed  I would not be here today as my cancer  was aggressive. .The other  down side of surgery  is like me your sex organs can be damaged and that put strain  on your marriage so it a lot to take in but all I can say  is good luck and hope thing's  go well

I was T2, Gleason 7, PSA 12 about 3 years ago when I was diagnosed at the age of 65. 

I was put on active surveillance and given lots of literature on the 2 treatments that I was told would be suitable (removal or HT / RT). Both were said to be equally effective and for me it was a choice between:

1. the short sharp shock of removal (about 5 weeks recovery and significant likelihood of long term side effects), and
2. a far longer period of potential discomfort, but with a much higher possibility of being nearly normal at the end (6 months HT and a further 3 months to recover back to normal)

I chose option 2 and fortunately things haven't been to bad. Currently in month 7 after the first hormone jab, so hopefully headed in the right direction.

Take your time and have a good think about the options before you decide which is best for you.  

Hi Gerrycut - reference your incontinence and sexual issues : that’s why I post on here: so that people can think carefully about side effects before they launch into a treatment with fear of cancer being paramount (the most vulnerable stage).  Oh, by the way, I think you have got a typo when you were describing your trip to London!    AW

Hi alpine ur right it's a spinker not a spinster lol

Thanks for that millibob, yes that's exactly my intention, I am old school pen and paper, can use a computer but takes time to process new things like this forum, so if I don't reply to people its because I will have lost the plot. I agree i have kept well away from google, and had good advice from this site to look for the green tick at the bottom which I did not know. I have 3 yrs to retirement so thinking about what may fit in with work if anything at all.

Thanks will read when i can chance.

Hello Maltby 

I was 66 when I started my journey. I am Self Employed and still work full time (my staff think otherwise!!) and spend most of my day with a pen and paper or computer. 

During Hormone Therapy/Radiotherapy I didn't miss a days work - although I did suffer from fatigue - although we are all different.

Best wishes - Brian.