Seeking advice

Billy, welcome to Healingwell.

To answer your question directly, prostate cancer generally does not present with symptoms unless and until it's in the more advanced stages.

Have you discussed treatment options with your urologist? There are many, and the best one depends a lot on your pathology report, what your Gleason score shows, what your MRI shows. Would have been great if your MRI had been done before the biopsy, to guide them in where they should take tissue from, but a. thats water under the bridge, and b. since they did find cancer, you don't have to be concerned with them missing it, which can happen (false negative). Now the MRI will show the chance of whether the cancer has extended outside the prostate or is confined to the organ. Your PSA isn't particularly high in the context of PC, so good chance, but no guarantee that it's confined to the prostate.

Once you have all the facts, you can work on deciding if you should do Surgery or one of the many types of radiation available. Urologists are generally surgeons, and so they believe in surgery for that reason your guy may try to push you in that direction.

But you should definitely talk to radiation oncologists, who specialize in SBRT (AKA Cyberknife) as well as external beam radiation.

Probably getting ahead of myself here, not knowing what your pathology report showed. You should get a copy of it, and if you are of a mind to post the details here, we can help you with some guidance.

We are not medical professionals, but a group of guys who have all been in your shoes, and the group here, for the most part, consists of guys that have educated themselves, and made their own decisions, with guidance from the expert medical practitioners.

Lots more to say, but I will leave it for that for now, others will certainly chime in with more. Again, it would be helpful if you could post details of your biopsy pathology report (Gleason score, grade group, number of cores taken and positive, etc. as well as your age.

Stick around, guys here can offer a lot of support and guidance.

A few thoughts. Age 51 is rather young for prostate cancer. Until you get the pathology report, I suggest you don’t make any treatment decisions. Also I would try to get a PET scan.

Thank you sir!

Halbert thank you man. I cried a little when I read that. I’m hoping to not have surgery. Nothing is scheduled as of yet. Still trying to get that MRI. THIS HAS BEEN A HUGE HELP DAY 1. I’ll get that report.

Thank you Mumbo!

Bill,
All good input from others here so far. I’d just like to add that our cases are very similar in that i just turned 50 when my 6.7 PSA showed up in an annual blood test and I had no symptoms previously. At this point I’ll say this: you have some time to digest the biopsy report and make a decision on how to move forward. Lots of options today:

Stay strong.

You fellas have put my mind at ease a lot I’ve the last 24 hours. When you hear the C word it’s a bit rattling. I’ve had two guys I used to go to church with contact me. One actually put me into this forum. I’ll try to get that report today! Thanks for the encouragement !

Thanks Terry! I sure will!

Thanks Boomer!

billygoat515 said...
I did find they took 12 samples. My appointment is the 18th and in sure I will get more information there. I am 51 years old. The MRI isn’t scheduled until the 1st of February.

It doesn't sound like it, but you got "lucky" that they found the cancer with an unguided biopsy. They really should have done the MRI first, to help guide the biopsy.

You don't want to rush the MRI now. The biopsy leaves a bunch of damage artifacts in the prostate that can make reading the MRI more difficult. So be patient. February 1st will let your prostate heal and you can get a clean MRI scan.

My other piece of advise is to consider moving your care to a major prostate cancer treatment center. You want the best standard of care possible.

Are you at a major hospital?

I’ve never heard of a diagnosis of cancer prior to a pathology report. Anybody else? Just seems weird.

Ok, you should have a copy of it too. All of my pathology reports appeared on my patient portal. I downloaded them, highlighted this and that, and showed up at my appointment with focused questions. You will be on your back feet if you see them for the first time at your doctors appt.

Is yours aren’t readily available, I would call the office and ask for a copy ASAP. First thing tomorrow morning.

If you are comfortable with it, post them here, names removed. There’s huge experience in interpreting them from a patient perspective in this crowd.