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Size of the Prostate

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Posted 10/21/2009 9:20 AM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone and thank you for all your advise and posts , i truly educating myself greatly on this site.

I have an enlarged prostate in addition to being cancerous (Gleason 6 (3+3)

i have heard on a health program by a prostate surgeon that the size of the gland also determine at times the treatment route recommended , and once the prostate is enlarged an open procedure is recommended oppose to a robotic one.

I was wondering if any of you have had such experiences or heard the same theory , and if so , how much of an enlargement will deter a robotic surgery ... again

thanks for your helpful advise
JM
Posted 10/21/2009 11:16 AM (GMT 0)
Pretty some of the guys here have been down this road. Pretty sure they took fairly standard "shrink it" meds for enlarged prostate prior to doing anything else.

Posted 10/21/2009 12:51 PM (GMT 0)
There are several factors that determine whether the surgical route will be open or robotic. But size of prostate is one of them. Like Steve said above, often times the prostate volume is reduced with meds to prior to treatment...primarily for the brachy therapy procedure however. Don't know what the upper limit in size of the prostate is for the robotic procedure, but obviously it needs to be small enough to fit through the keyhole incision.

Sorry you had to be here and welcome. Making the decision of what to do will be very difficult, but you will find lots of folks here to provide their take on their treatment plans to guide you.

Good luck and let us know what your final decision will be.
Posted 10/21/2009 2:17 PM (GMT 0)
When I had the original ultrasound with the biopsy, the doctor confirmed that I had an enlarged prostate, he said in the 75cc range. Nothing new to me or my GP, as we knew it had been enlarged for years. I had struggled with urinary function due to BPE for at least 10 years. The "normal" sized prostate is around 25cc, I think. Mine being 3 times that size on the ultrasound, he said I was not a candidate for robotic, as it was much too large to go thru the openings, and there was a risk of losing cancer cells off the gland during the process of forcing the issue. In addition, I was told that I wasn't eligible for seeding for the same reason- size of the gland. I don't remember now what the parameter was, but I wasn't eligible. The idea of hitting it with external radiation to shrink it, then trying seeding was floated, but the odds of success wasn't very much. That left the standards of open surgery or external radiation with hormone therepy. I chose open surgery. My prostate weighed 110 grams upon removal, not counting the seminal vessels, lymph nodes and such.
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