Biopsy results - trying not to panic

Thx Allen. That is good to know.

Based on your comments and Pratoman's regarding Dr Ash Tewari, we spent some time on his website yesterday. I feel that we will be well informed and able to ask the right questions when our uro recommends DaVinci. (He is trained in that discipline, so we know it's coming.)

I also saw your comment re SpaceOAR on another thread. The first one was done at a local University Hospital this spring and we are keeping that info on the table, too.

suzhtz,

When you get your opinion from Epstein, call his secretary and ask to speak to Dr. Epstein. I, as well as Pratoman, found him forthcoming.

Suz, it's soon going to be time to lay the choices on the table and make the decision. A lot of the reasons will be gut-level responses, that you can't exactly explain. That's ok. I know that for me, my reasons to choose DaVinci was a combination of facts, opinions, fears and confidences.

You'll soon learn about the greatest part of this HW forum: whatever decision you two ultimately make, once it's made, the whole group here will rally around you and support you through the waiting period and the recovery and whatever comes afterwards. I know there are many here who would have chosen differently than I did, and yet I have never been challenged or asked to justify my decision. The same will be true for you.

As long as you don't think I'm advocating it, you are certainly free to decide for yourself based on whatever info you like. However as a general principle, you can't always get reliable info from press releases, and in this case, I believe the conclusions drawn by the authors are unwarranted. It really doesn't do anything for most people, other than Augmenix. If you are interested in a deeper analysis, read the following:

SpaceOAR hydrogel decreases rectal radiation dose, but is it worthwhile?

Since then, I've had a chance to review the full study, and my conclusions remain valid. In fact, except for one outlier, there were no significant differences in toxicity. Because of the one person (this is called "lack of robustness" in statistical terminology), they drew their conclusion and based it on the wrong statistical test. If they had used the correct statistical test, there would have been no statistical significance at all even with that outlier. There will soon be a letter published in that journal to this effect.

I believe the only valid use is for men who have inflammatory bowel issues.

- Allen

Suz,

>I wonder when I will be able to start the day without that being
>my first sobering thought....

Oh yeah, know that feeling well. We're at the other end of the cancer spectrum from you, but I don't think it makes much difference for this. Dave was Dx'd last summer and this still happens to me frequently.

Best of luck dealing with all this - sounds like you're on a good path.

Carolyn