Prostate Tumor - Watch or Extract?

[boris68]

I am a 42 year old healthy caucasion wih no immediate famly history of prostate or breast cancer.  My PSA level is 3.4.  I recently had a biopsy where a tumor was found in 1 of 18 cores. The tumor was graded a 1.5mm T1c Gleason score (3+3)=6.

Should I go straight ahead with a radical prostectamy or undertake active surveillance?

[claytex]

Dear boris68:  I had prostate cancer in 2005 my psa was 4.5 and the gleason was 6.  I had proton radiation treatments at loma linda university medical center in loma linda california.  my psa is now .03.  Personally i would not consider a radical prostectamy.  It has too many  bad side effects.. Proton Radiation is the very best treatment for prostate cancer in my opinion.  It has a 90% cure rate and no side effects usually.  I was not sick or  even felt bad one single day during or after my treatments... and I have no side effects at all as a result of the treatments... Its like I never had cancer.  As far as waiting ..personally I wouldnt wait.. from what I have learned, the numbers you have gives you about a 90 percent chance of being cured if your treated now.. if you wait and the numbers get worse... that will not be the case...i am so glad I had the proton radiation and had it when I did. ... it is very different from conventional radiation in that 90% of the energy released for the treatment goes to the exact spot of the tumor... therefore surrounding tissue and organs are not damaged... therefore you have no side  effects.. That is not the case  with conventional radiation.  There are about 6-8 places in the USA that now offer Proton Radiaton.   If you would like more information on Proton, please send me a message and I will get the info for you... I wish you the very best.

Claytex

[otherhalf]

I would say get as much information as you can. Prostate cancer is often described as being either a pussycat (slow growing) or a tiger (very aggressive).

In my husbands case the cancer was found to be much more agressive than first thought with biopsy results so a watch and wait would not have been a good option - he had just turned 50, so please take care.

otherhalf

[1forsunny]

Consumer Reports says sit tight, as the risk from surgery is just too great, and prostate cancer is so slow.  Find out your Free PSA score, as they are saying it is a better predictor, the lower the % the worse the cancer.

Most men wish they had waited.

There are new treatments on the horizon that are due to be approved soon, so if you wait you could have a better, less side effect treatment, namely HIFU, ultrasound, it's been in clinical trials for 6 years here (USA), so results should be out in a year or so.  HIFU has been in use for over 20 years in the rest of the world with great success.  My husband had it done off shore, no pain, no side effects, only a 2 hour treatment, and he is cancer free today, 2 years later.  

Thing that I didn't know is now you are signed up for a life time of watching waiting, after all treatments no one knows if the treatment worked or not, so you get your psa taken every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months.

Best of luck.