halbert, I agree with what you posted shortly after my initial post.
my l/t oncologist (5 plus years) and my urologist (9 plus years) are r/l doctors with lots of PC experience. Both have told me for year, that they feel too many men jump at a secondary treatment, especially post surgery, and they blame it on ultra sensitive PSA testing as the main reason, and how many RO's and radiation centers (high profit makers) push SRT onto patients playing on their fear.
I feel the opposite of TA's position here. I see the danger in premature secondary treatments. For starters, no point of doing a PSA test 6 weeks after surgery, most old school surgeons will insist on waiting for 12 weeks (3 months) out, mainly to allow things to settle down. As for ultra sensitive testing, and just my opinion, all it does it promote fear, unneeded fear at that. There's no reason to have a reading beyond .xx IMO. And it serves men better to remember the old standard of .10. Even at .10, I had a doctor explain to me how minute amount of cancer that really related to. Nothing to get overly excited about
. Yes, once it rises above that, one needs to pay attention to it, to determine if its a trend leading to true recurrence, or whether its settling down.
Most agree as a general rule, that PC is a slow moving cancer. So even it moved from .10 to .13 in six months, doesn't mean you are risking a painful end of life event.
Fear and panic are poor tools for making such a serious decision such as SRT. Considering the high failure rate, the risks and side effects, the anxiety of going through it, etc., it should be reserved for those that have true verified recurrence. Not just because a patient becomes spooked (no racial intent, couldn't think of a better word) and wants to be treated for the sake of treatment.
I was pushed into SRT with a reading of .16. If I could only go back in time. My 3 months post surgery reading was .05. I had already underwent a major radiation event 8 years prior to my SRT event, and that one caused me extensive damage. I am mad at me for not trusting my gut feeling, and consented to the SRT. At that point, I felt I was in a patient-doctor relationship, and I had to trust the RO.
The SRT was flawed from the git-go, the damage was/is heavy and still on-going 7 years later, the cancer was never in my prostate bed and the SRT failed miserably.
I don't depend on studies and stats, I worked with numbers my entire career in senior level accounting positions as Controller, CFO, and Comptroller. Was even one of only seven state finance directors in SC at one time. I know about
numbers, a report or study can be made to angle any position or point you want it to be. Not saying they don't have some value, but the best study is still no substitute for sound medical advice, IMO.
So yes, and no offense to the OP of this thread, I do understand your concern for your own PC case, each case is unique. But I have seen dozens upon dozens of men and women here over the years fretting over microscopic PSA numbers post surgery, and again, I blame a lot of it on mis-placed fear over ultra sensitive PSA testing.
I am not pretending to give medical advice, I am not clever enough or trained, simply giving a qualified opinion based on first hand experience to a patient peer to peer online support group. My opinion(s) have no more value than any other member.
(corrected .xxx readings to .xx)
Post Edited (Purgatory) : 11/1/2016 6:38:02 PM (GMT-6)