Posting for a friend - Newly diagnosed in San Diego

Hello all. I'm posting this for a co-worker of mine ("Mike") who is newly diagnosed and looking for Dr. referrals in Southern California.

Here are his details:

Age:63
PSA: 8.5
Biopsy results: G8 (4+4) Adenocarcinoma was found in the Right Apex sample involving 60% of the core. 11/12 cores were benign prostatic tissue.

The biopsy was conducted by Bostwick Labs, and he has requested a second opinion from Epstein's lab.

He has also had an MRI that indicated the cancer is contained in the capsule, but I don't have any detail on the type of test that was done.

Mike's urologist is Dr. James Fawcett ( a GREAT name for a urologist), who is a surgeon but apparently does not do lots of surgery. He referred Mike to Dr. Carol Salem at Mercy hospital and Dr. Julian Anthony at Tri-City hospital in Vista, both surgeons. Fawcett did not recommend radiation, but gave him the name of Dr. Geoffrey Weinstein at Sharp. He has not met with any of these doctors yet, but has a consult planned with Dr. Parsons in the proton therapy group at UCSD.

Mike is looking for any feedback on the above Docs, and for recommendations for surgeons and ROs in SoCal. I know UCLA has a great rep, but am not sure who to contact there. Like all of us, he's anxious to get the process moving, and I've been encouraging him to make sure he explores all of his options.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Kit

Post Edited (Kcheves) : 7/21/2017 1:27:22 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks. I updated his biopsy results to show that the core was G8.

Sorry I don't know any of those doctors, but I can highly recommend a Urosurgeon, Dr. Dena Lynn Engel at Sharp on Wexford. She has over 1000 robotic assisted surgeries. She sparred both my nerve bundles. I am 90-95% back with sexual and urinary function. Still improving with continence, and sexual function has stalled with Lupron. She will obviously recommend surgery, as she believes in her craft, although wasn't pushy or arrogant or 'surgery is the only way- attitude. She has excellent bedside manner, is approachable, non-judgmental, patient, willing to work with whomever I wanted a referral to see, and, most importantly, highly skilled and experienced.

I did decide on an RO, and after seeing 5, I am happy with my choice of Dr. John Einck at UCSD Health in La Jolla, very experienced, knowledgeable, published, head of RO dept treating urinary cancers. Teaching hospital, excellent rapport at my 1st consult, and referenced recent publications. Due to low PSA, we decided to delay ART to allow continued continence recovery.

Dr Demanes will probably recommend IMRT with a HDR brachy boost. If he decides to go with that option, he can probably get the 25 IMRT treatments done at a convenient local location, and he will only have to come to UCLA one time for the brachy boost. Dr King has a clinical trial for SBRT (5 treatments) for high risk patients. Ahlering at UC Irvine has done a lot of surgeries.

I saw Dr. Weinstein after being diagnosed with breast cancer. He was highly recommended by my primary care physician and took an active approach in my treatment. I ended up getting radiation at Grossmont since it was closer to home, but he still was an active part in my treatment.

Kailey

Not that I would recommend radiation in your case, but we have a top-notch uro RO here in town - Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines. Dr. Tripuraneni. He answered rapid-fire questions as fast as I could answer them until I ran out. They have a proton system now - my treatment happened before that was in place.
Jeff