new member seeks solace and info

You have untold options which makes it harder. We all know the feelings you are experiencing.

Age can be a factor.

With Gleason 6 you have the option of Active Surveillance which is a path that will have you taking blood tests and biopsies often. Some are cut out for it mentally and some are not.

If you feel you aren't comfortable watching it, you can do radiation or surgery. Within the radiation side are numerous options. You could also look into HiFu and some of the newer treatments like Proton Therapy or Cyberknife.

Sorry, you got diagnosed. Never a fun day. The good news is it's low risk and is highly treatable or watchable in your case.

I was 45 at time of my diagnosis. Hit me out of left field. Cancer? At 45? I chose surgery due to my age. Felt it was best to go with the nuclear option and just get rid of it completely through cutting out the cancerous gland and hope it didn't spread. It didn't spread and my side effects are almost gone at 6 months so I consider surgery to have been highly effective. Surgeon told me my surgery was "curative" and I should be able to live my life as if this never happened save for the side effects.

Ask lots of questions...there are many guys who are pro a certain type of therapy vs. another. You'll see many throw their support behind surgery as well as radiation. I could boil it down to this... would you prefer someone cut out your problem, or leave it in there and radiate it? I opted for cutting not radiating. Was it right? For me it was and that's the only answer that matters...what is best for you? Your situation is as unique as you are nobody's path is your path.

Read a ton and when you find peace take action. I wish you well.

Hey monkeyboy,
Yep, lots of options. I am exactly in your shoes and I am favoring Active Surveillance at this point but there are no right answers. As Peter said, it would be helpful to see the rest of your biopsy info, and also your PSA history. I've found it helpful to compare notes to guys that are close in age and have the same sort of stats. That's why you'll see all that info in our signatures. Really important to know your age as well.

I can almost guarantee you that you'll find other guys here with exactly the same stats, although no 2 cases are exactly alike.

Sorry you are here but welcome aboard. You have found a great place to get good, solid information, advice, and support.

Greetings MonkeyBoy,

Welcome!

Speak to as many people as possible .... "a little cancer" can definitely spoil your day.

One thing though, as a G6 you have a little more time than most to make your decision and as someone has already said you have lots of options.

I had a G9 (5+4) and the war cry was "get it out", which I did 4 weeks post biopsy. I did do a quick survey of all the options and some can or cant be done after you’ve chosen a specific treatment. In some instances surgery is no longer an option once you had some other treatments etc..

The "good thing" is now you know.... I went to a PCa Support meeting the other day and it appeared that most "critical" cases were unaware that they had PCa and that it had spread before they were diagnosed.

...

Monkeyboy,

I'm new as well.  Recently diagnosed and quick to react. 

This is the short version of what I went through:

My gut reaction was to do radiation seeds and avoid surgery at all costs. I didn't want the quality of my life to go downhill with incontinent/ED problems. My 1st urologist didn't seem to offer all the information I was hoping for at the "you have cancer" visit. I told him at that meeting I wanted to look into the radiation seeds so he gave me a radiologist. After going online and reading tons on the topic, including YouTube testimonials on various treatments, I opted for the Da Vinci Robotic "nerve sparing" surgery. I'm 12 days post op and doing well.

The surgeon I found is an expert in Da Vinci. He is now my current urologist and the thing I like about him the most is the first thing out of his mouth is "It doesn't matter what treatment you choose, you are going to live a long time". He never pushed surgery and told me to weigh all my options and he wouldn't get his feelings hurt if I get a second opinion and visit as many other doctors as I needed to make my decision. He told me his patients that do "watchful waiting" will not hesistate to do surgery with the first increased PSA reading. He said PSAs go up and down all the time and sometimes means nothing.

What moved me to surgery was at my age (having more than 10 expected years to live) surgery would be a good first treatment because doing radiation first has its own list of side effects and doing surgery after radiation would involve too much scar tissue to save nerves. But to have my surgery first, I could always do radiation after if it was still needed.

Bottom line: Do your research and you will make the best choice for yourself and your diagnosis. Like my surgeon also told me what every decision I make is the right one.

Nicholas Vogelsang at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada is a renowned oncologist in Las Vegas. If you want to travel, Leonard Marks, my urologist at UCLA, has been a leader in the development and use of multiparametric MRIs for the diagnosis of PC and use in Active Surveillance.