Bombshells from my radiation onocologist

Godfather, my husband's stats were:

Age - 57
PSA at diagnosis- 6.4 DRE was negative. Clinical stage - T1c
Weight - 190
Height - 6'2"
Health - excellent
Biopsy - 10 cores taken, 2 positive both on left side of prostate. Gleason scores were 3+3 and 3+4. Perineural invasion present.

Urologist said husband was excellent candidate for surgery - no health issues, an expected life span of more than 10 years, etc.

Pathology report from surgery upgraded stage to T3a (upgrading is quite common). The upgrade came about because there was a "miniscule" extension into (but not through) the prostate capsule. No seminal vesicle involvement, all surgical margins were clean, and bladder neck was free of tumor. We have a copy of both the biopsy and surgical path reports. When my husband read the surgical report (2 pages long), he said to me "this shows me that surgery was the right choice for me" and I would agree with him.

The surgery was done at Northern Westchester Hospital (in Mount Kisco, NY) by Warren Bromberg. Warren has done several hundred robotic surgeries and many, many more open surgeries. If you live in the City, look into NYU - I think the doctor's name is Tewara (or something like that). His name has appeared often on this and another forum I participate in. Also look into Memorial Sloan Kettering.

As to side effects from the surgery, besides the usual feeling of exhaustion and the darn catheter, my husband had absolutely no pain. A morphine line was put in pre-op but he never used it and it was removed the next day. He had no abdominal discomfort from the carbon dioxide that is blown into the abdominal cavity prior to surgery (this is done for any abdominal surgery). He had 5 small incisions (4 of them were about 1" and the fifth - right above the navel - was about 1.5 inches). The incisions were closed with staples (looked yucky but were removed very easily and without pain). Incontinence is still an issue - not a huge one but he does leak periodically so still wears a liner in his drawers. ED is a bigger issue and we've not been successful in this department.

I know that my husband would be happy to chat with you about his "experience" as would I. If you'd like to talk in person, let me know and we'll set something up.

Thanks Sephie. I'm an ex-New Yorker and my daughter-in-law is a urologic nurse at Sloan-Kettering. I've not ruled out going to MSK so your input is helpful.

Tony