HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

An article designed to anger all of us with PC

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
12 3
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/3/2010 6:26 PM (GMT 0)
My oldest son just sent me this link related to PC, first time he has actively done so.  It's the same old hash about discouraging PSA tests and DRE's.  It angers me, perhaps it will anger you too.

David in SC

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_he_me/us_med_prostate_cancer

Posted 3/3/2010 7:23 PM (GMT 0)
Drat. I wasn't old enough or sick enough to get that Gleason 4+5, out of the capsule sucker cut out after all.

The old balance - die of mets. cancer in pain at a hospice, or die with a drip in a pad doing something we wanted to do (hopefully). Let's consider that carefully after having watched an informational DVD.

Yeah.

Post Edited (142) : 3/3/2010 12:26:24 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 3/3/2010 7:47 PM (GMT 0)
I read that earlier, decided to just let it go by, as idiots still manage to upset me, and my new months resolution is not be allow myself to be upset.. smilewinkgrin
Posted 3/3/2010 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
I went for my check today 3-3-10 I agree with you David.I went today for a follow up after rad treatments 3 months out PAS test I hope it was all worth it I think most doc just want to make a name for there shelf or be reconized for there work two more wks of worrying and wonder what it will be good or bad but I have PC so it really not a good sitituation anyway.I't's the not knowing that worring us all !!!
Deerhunter
Posted 3/3/2010 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
David:
at times it seems like a conspiracy in which government bodies ( USA and Canada) are now NOT encouraging preventative medicine for their citizens
- will this benefit the coffers of the doctors and insurance companies who would then only provide service after the fact
- again, my concern always with cancer is.. oops! too late, sorreeeeee....

if it wasn't for the DRE and PSA I expect my body would be worse off now than it is...

LOVE LIFE - get tested with PSA and DRE - yearly !!! (preaching to the converted )

hugs
BRONSON
Posted 3/3/2010 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
I say let some of these educated idiots spend a week with an advance PC guy and his family, or go visit someone near death in a hospice due to PC, let them walk a mile with a guy that has total incontinene and/or total ED and tell him that testing isn't worth it.
Posted 3/3/2010 9:34 PM (GMT 0)
From the article:

Men at average risk should get detailed information around age 50, the society recommends. Men at higher risk, including African-Americans and men with a father or brother who had prostate cancer before age 65, should get the information beginning at age 45. Men with more than one close relative with prostate cancer before 65 should get such information at age 40.

 

This doesn't make sense to me.  Look at my own situation:

I had regular PSA screenings and was told last year to get a biopsy.  I was diagnosed with Gleason 6 PCa.  

My brother who is 5 years older and who also had regular screenings had a PSA in the grey area for a number of years.   He was told to get a biopsy only when it was learned that I had PCa.  After his biopsy, he has been diagnosed with Gleason 7 PCa. 

Had my brother and I been following the guidelines, neither of us would have had the tests.  Good thing we didn't follow the guidelines.

Skeener

Posted 3/3/2010 9:37 PM (GMT 0)
David, CNN.com had the same article this morning, and I found myself getting angrier by the moment as I read it. "Discuss the pros and cons of testing with their patients, including giving them written information or videos that discuss the likelihood of false test results and the side effects of treatment." Can someone explain to me what the hell this means? Is the article saying that the PSA test and DRE lead to false results? Would any doctor use either or both test results to determine if a man has PCa - hopefully not!!

Too many men already shy away from getting their PSA checked or having the doctor stick a finger up their butt - some of them will read this article feel validated. And some of them might actually suffer and die from a disease that could have been dealt with effectively if caught in the earlier stages.

Frankly, I am disgusted with the stance that the ACS has taken on prostate cancer and breast cancer. They speak in broad generalities but never deal with the harsh realities of either disease.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now (but I sure am fired up over this one!).

Peace.
Posted 3/3/2010 9:50 PM (GMT 0)
The rate they show is 163 cases in /100000 men. That means I am 1 in 613!

I wasted my long odds winning on PCa! I'd be much better off had I won the lottery.

Jeff
Posted 3/3/2010 9:51 PM (GMT 0)
The finger up the arse is probably the least offensive part of the whole thing. Go through a "banana republic" customs line, and you may get a free DRE if you meet any of the smuggler profiles (I always did - too many stamps in the passport). When I actually did get a legal DRE, it wasn't near as bad as the customs "doctors" doing full body-cavity searches.

I would have been more offended if I had died from PCa without knowing why (I think).
Posted 3/3/2010 9:52 PM (GMT 0)
I'd rather that they promoted active surveillance as a realistic option for cancers not likely to grow in the short-term than to not promote psa testing. And woohoo, a nodule found with a DRE suggests a very large cancer in the gland. Sheesh, doctors did DRE's even fifty years ago almost automatically. And these recommendations are coming from the ACS! Are they suddenly an arm of the insurance companies?????
Posted 3/3/2010 10:06 PM (GMT 0)
one thing that hasn't changed recently (and you can sometimes see an ad at the top of this website) in which the Ontario Ministry of Health encourages and supports free colon cancer testing - through our universal health care - OHIP - in Ontario, we get a free sample envelop and stir stick - so we are encouraged to send poop to our government - my doctor used stronger language !!

the Canadian cancer society up here has towed the line with their American counterpart and dissed the PSA and Mammogram testing - but supporting the vaccine for the disease that can cause cervical cancer - are we become a nation (or two) of my disease is better than your disease - will breast cancer and/or prostate cancer become orphan-diseases?

argh

- let them "walk a mile in his shoes" ( the name of a fundraising programme in Newfoundland, Canada) - and see if they then think that preventative medicine is worthwhile

hugs
BRONSON
Posted 3/3/2010 10:09 PM (GMT 0)
Sephie, this is why the ACS is off my list of support, after being there for them with my past cancers. You have a right to sound angry. I know it angered me, even thought it wasn't really new news. It's the attitude.

What is their real agenda? Since the inception and use of PSA testing, no telling how many lives have been saved, and all we are talking about is an inexpensive blood test, and a DRE - slightly unpleasant but no big deal.

It was listening to my GP of 13-14 years that got me into PSA at age 50 and each year since, and I am greatful that he had enough sense to pass me on to a good urologist when I crossed the magic thresholdl of 4.0. Before him, I had never given a thought about PC in my entire life.

What you don't know, can kill you.

Thanks for speaking up, you are a sweety.

David in SC
Posted 3/3/2010 10:40 PM (GMT 0)
Once again the American Cancer Society shows us that they are just the shills for the nsurance industry. THEY WILL NEVER SEE ANOTHER PENNY FROM ME OR MY FAMILY. The ACS is the richest 'non profit' in the world, their president makes over one million dollars a year and they only spend 25 cents of every dollar on reasearch. The rest goes to fundraising and "overhead".



Join me in telling the world they are a fraud.



http://www.preventcancer.com/losing/acs/wealthiest_links.htm



(I don't know if this blog is legitimate, but much of their information can be proved to be true)
Posted 3/3/2010 10:47 PM (GMT 0)
Well for me being 46 and my pcp decided she would check just out of the blue, I'm glad she did. This led me going to the Uro and biopsy, and they say it is a slow growing cancer either my biopsy missed or my cancer doubled in 2 months. When we went over the pathology both sides of prostate had agressive cancer, biopsy only showed on the left. I never cared much for the ACS anyway.

Neal

Posted 3/3/2010 11:55 PM (GMT 0)
Are these are the same geniouses who recently said women no longer need mammographies? And they call themselves the American Cancer Society? Hard to know who our friends are and who our enemies are. I for one would never have known I had PCa until it was too late had it not been for my doctors (friends) who went an extra mile just to be sure. Sorry, it makes me angry, too. Bill 
Posted 3/4/2010 12:48 AM (GMT 0)
I will continue to be vocal with every man and woman I meet who has not yet had a PSA test or mammogram or pap smear.

What I wanted to say in my original message was that I think the American people are being set up for what may be coming down the pike regarding changes in our health care. I expect that hospice care is cheaper than surgery, radiation and chemo.

What really angers me is that the average joe knows so little about PCa and hence is not equipped to make an informed decision. And too many doctors may now feel that if a man is not in a high risk category, there's no need to check further for evidence of disease.

John's doctor had been tracking his PSA for 10 years prior to diagnosis. When John was referred to the urologist for biopsy, the doctor handed John a graph charting his PSA readings for the past decade and told him to show it to the urologist. I thank God for our doctors and for the care they've shown to John and to me. That little graph and the doctor's diligence over the years may just have saved my husband's life, and that should always be the goal.

Aaargh...
Posted 3/4/2010 12:56 AM (GMT 0)
Your story about John is exactly my point. Many of us would have raging cancers in our bodies unknownst to us, had it not been for dilligent doctors, PSA tests, and the unpleasant DRE's that we have to put up with as men.

For a group like the ACS to be doing a 100% about face, can only be motivated by them getting their pockets lined by something or someone. They do a terrible breach of justice right now, both with women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer.

They will honestly never see another penny from me, nor will I participate in any of their walks or other benefits.

David in SC
Posted 3/4/2010 1:44 AM (GMT 0)
Yep, following this advice would have cost me big time. No family history at all, none of the risk factors but yet a Gleason 4+5 at age 48 just because of a routine physical PSA test. So much for the experts.
Posted 3/4/2010 4:28 AM (GMT 0)
Today is the one year anniversary of my Uro informing me that I indeed had PCa. First of all, that means a glass of Merlot to celebrate another year of life.

I am thankful for the psa screenings that I had for the 3 years of turning 50. The psa velocity was one of the contributing factors for me to get a biopsy, the DRE was not enough by itself.
Posted 3/4/2010 12:12 PM (GMT 0)
There is a front page article in the Houston Chronicle this morning spewing the same non-sense.
Posted 3/4/2010 12:15 PM (GMT 0)
Loved the response from PCF...spot on! John was not in a high risk category: no family history, no genetic predisposition to prostate cancer in his family, exercises regularly, eats right, watches his weight, etc. If his doctor subscribed to the ACS guidelines, it's likely that John would have had a PSA test at age 40 and then skipped ten years til he hit the magic 50. Those ten years could have made all the difference in his diagnosis. Oh well, it's all water under the bridge. Now, we pray for a clean bill of health mid March when he has his next PSA test. Hopefully, an undetectable PSA reading will move him up to semi-annual check-ups rather than quarterly.


On another note: David, how are you feeling? Is the pain subsiding some?
Posted 3/4/2010 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
Explains why it's not called the American ANTI-Cancer Society?

Alfred
Posted 3/4/2010 2:03 PM (GMT 0)

Hi David,

   I am certainly glad that they want to change the guidelines. ( pause for effect ) Had P.S.A. testing been part of the regime for younger men I may have discovered the Cancer while I could still have been cured. Instead I am 46 have been battleing for for years and am waiting for that big breakthrough that will make me a permanent member of the zero club. Todd

Posted 3/4/2010 2:05 PM (GMT 0)
I will add that I was a Gleason 8 with a PSA under 4 so the PSA test saved my life. I just wish I had been more informed in prior years to check the baseline PSA versus the doctor saying I was in the normal range (under 4). In any case, the more you know the better you are.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
123