UPDATE Biopsy results back, Not Good.

Hurting for you dow...

Diagnosis day is a tough day. I know being a Marine it is in your nature to fight. Do that and don't give up hope. That is the biggest challenge when the news hits that thinking it's all going to be bad.

You are at the beginning of something you can conquer.

Prayers for you, today, and going forward, sir.

Dow,

With all those positive cores and a confirmed Gleason score of 8(4+4) you are now a high-risk guy. Welcome to the club! I'm afraid the stupid-looking hats are on backorder. But welcome.

The tests your doctors will be doing next are to try to decide if they can offer you a chance at a cure although they may want to call it a "durable remission". If your cancer is not already wide spread outside your prostate you may be able to get it with surgery and/or radiation.

The good news is that combination therapies are getting really good results lately, even for men with high-risk disease. Brachytherapy plus external beam radiation plus a couple of years of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT/hormones) has 5-year biochemical remission free survivals in the low to mid 90 percentages, as does surgery combined with ADT. But, of course, all of these combo therapies have unfortunate side-effect profiles. Treating a high-volume Gleason 8 is gonna leave a mark. But it is doable.

Keep us posted. Good luck.

Dow,
Hey Marine, this is an Army guy talking. You may have been too young to have "boots on the ground" in the Nam, but if you did go to your county VSO immediately with your DR's report and file for benefits; they will be approved and in effect based on date of filing!
Yeah, "high risk" Gleason 8 is a bummer; please don't "flame out" since it is DO-ABLE. Check my stats--I'm still walking and I've tried to put PCa in my rear view mirror...listen to Tud, Tall Allen, and others..there are much more effective treatments since I've had mine!! Please keep us updated; they say that they are not doctors but we have some pretty savy guys here! All the best!
Bill

DS -- I was 12-12 positive with a couple of high percentage cores, PSA 6.8, G7 but I may very well have been a G8 or 9, and I have been in remission for 3.5 years post treatment. you can beat this thing but you've gotta hit it hard and soon. good luck to you.

ed

Dow,
We all know how you feel right now, "numb" is a good word to describe it.
The tests your uro is going to ask for are probably CT scan and Bone scan, we all go through that to see if mets show up and to establish a baseline.

There are lots of G9 guys here doing find, so don't panic.

I was a G3+4+7, 10-12 core. I did surgery and will use radiation as a follow up if cancer reappears. You may also need a couple of treatments to beat this beast also.
As my uro said, from now on your life is going to change.
We are all here to help you, you are not alone.

Bill from Florida

I was diagnosed in similar circumstances...For what it's worth, here is what I did....

I opted for surgery even though the surgeon felt there was only a 50% chance for a cure..He was correct, my PSA hung at 0.9 so I moved on to salvage radiation combined with hormone treatment..That too was not successful at providing a cure but at least the surgery removed all of the solid tumor and the radiation cleaned up any tiny mets remaining in my pelvic area. So now, almost 4 years later, I'm on ADT2 with my PSA stable at 0.3..

Was having the surgery a waste of time? Perhaps not..By removing most of the tumor, the radiation and HT have a MUCH smaller job to perform and I feel the progression of my cancer has been greatly slowed...

The only real downside to having surgery is the incontinence risk (choose your surgeon carefully) the cost and the risk of complications. My surgery left me with a hospital acquired staph infection which put me back in the hospital for a week..

You might want to investigate the seeds / IMRT combined treatment which has excellent results in high-risk cases if you qualify for it...So read the books, do your homework and make an informed decision....Best of luck to you...

dowstrategy,

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Welcome to HW were everyone has the same goal; fight, fight, fight and win!

Having been DX at 61 and didn't even know what PSA meant, I take it a day at a time and know I'm going to be just fine.

As others has expressed, we're all here for you and keeping you and your family in our thoughts and prayers.

Dave in Bartlett, TN