New Member - Treatment Decission

Tom – you mention going to MD Anderson; I believe they have a multi-disciplinary program there so that you can set up appointments with a surgeon and a radiation oncologist in the same day. They have a team approach to curing your cancer. They also offer proton beam therapy, which you are interested in.

Met with the new radiation oncologist this morning from the Radiation Therapy Center at Fairview here in Mn. Very nice, well informed Dr (Olson) who was willing to spend all day with me, if I'd needed. In the end, his reccommendation for me was seeds & EBR, if not nothing (AS). I didn't ask him the "If you were me.." questionbut he offerred it up anyway and said that if it was him, he would not do anything right now. He'd wait another 6 weeks, retest PSA and see where it is at. His opinion, based on 30 years of practice and 3000+ prostate cancer patients, was that I appeared to be at early, slow growth stage and he would wait to see what I was at once the full effects of the biopsy were over with and I'd have a truer picture of how aggressive it was.

Obviously, I'm going to like anyone who tells me what I'd like to hear (just wait and do nothing! ), but he did make some sense to me. Regarding my discussions with him concerning proton VS EBR, he thinks that protons are being "over sold" a bit to PCa patients in order to pay for the equipment/facilities (which i agree, they'll never be paid for by 5-10 cases annually of rare spinal tumors...). He did say to me that the biological effectiveness of protons to stop cell division (through dna "scrambling" was more effective than with photon (Xray) radiation. But that in his opinion both were effective enough. He was pretty much pro-seeds and said he would only do a seed & external beam for me.

So, I'm now waiting to hear how the insurance goes with MDAnderson and the protons (to see how much I really have to pay out of pocket, evidently the therapy is $180K). I guess I did jump the gun with having a PSA taken at only ~6 weeks post biopsy and I can probably relax a bit and assume that it should be lower in another 6 weeks. In the meantime, I can get that colonoscopy scheduled that I've been dying to do... and plan a trip to Houston to meet with the Anderson folks.

Thanks for the info and support out there!

Tom

Hi guys (and gals),

Been a spell since I posted here, been reading along and really appreciate the information and candor that I get here. A quick update on my situation: I have finally come to terms that I have to do something with the pc that's happily growing (slowly?) in me. Been a struggle as you all know with so many options and such ambigious information of there. I've have settled on undergoing proton beam radiation therapy at MD Anderson in Houston. Went there 2 weeks ago and had my screening, blood work, consultation and the dreaded endo-rectal coil MRI. I've had 4 other MRIs (manily for spinal issues) in my life and with each one I guess I'm becoming more and more claustrophobic. The next one I'll have to be put under to tolerate. I don't know how the rest of you who've had this procedure faired, but that was the worst 75 minutes of my 52 years (only joking slightly...). When they say it's not as bad as the biopsy, they are lying

I'm driving back down to Houston from Minnesota over Easter and will have the carbon fiducials (markers) implanted on that next monday, followed by a simulation in the radiation gantry the next day. The team there then creates the radiation treatment plan and brings it in front of an advisory board to get it approved. A week later on about Apr 17th, I should be getting my first zap and should finish up the second week of June. They are quite open and realistic about all the SEs involved. MDA is really a fantastic place, the people and the facility, and they have helped me quite a bit through this. I'll be spending the 2.5 months down there by myself and I hope the boredom doesn't get to me too much. I'll have the golf clubs and motorcycle with to help pass the time (so maybe I'll be ready for the senior PGA by the time I'm done, ha!).

I'll try and send in a few more posts as I go through the process down there, in case anyone else is considering this type of treatment and is curious as to how it went for me.

Sláinte,
Tom

Tom – good to hear from you, it’s been a while. Glad you have made a treatment decision. I’m betting you’re at peace with it. I remember agonizing over what treatment to go with and after finally making the decision – how much at peace I was.

Best of luck to you.

Hey Tom, thanks for the update. Glad things are going well for you. Keep us posted.