Which CK Center - Winthrop NYCyberKnife or Flushing Radiation Oncology CyberKnife Center

Experience counts. That's why I recommend Alan Katz - he's been doing it longer than almost everybody. He also tracks and studies his patients closely.

Can anyone tell me why some CK centers won't treat G7 prostate cancers? (I have G7)

Works Out: That is very confusing to the patient to get such disparate opinions from the experts.

I think I will make an appointment with Katz as a 2nd CK opinion.

I have not heard from anyone that has used Winthrop CK in Manhattan yet but I will search the forum to see what I can find.

Hoping,

I had a similar experience with CK and Gleason 3+4. I had Gleason 6 at diagnosis and was on active surveillance for 5 years before any progression. During that time I had researched things and was inclined to pick CK as my treatment option. I'm in North Carolina and one of the local university cancer centers had a CK unit. When I was ready for treatment and went to set up treatment, I was told that they did not recommend CK for G7 patients. This was a major and unexpected obstacle for me. I had read about many CK centers that treated Gleason 3+4 cases, or those even more advanced, with excellent results.

When pressed about the reasons for their recommendation, I was told that the side effects were sometimes more severe but that if I wanted Ck they would perform it. Certainly not much of a confidence builder.

I ended up going to Dr. Katz at FROS in Flushing NY just because his results data was available. If the treatment wasn't going to be convenient for me, I might as well go somewhere with experience and specific outcome data.

From my own investigation, I concluded that the local CK unit did a slightly different protocol than that used by Katz and others, which involved higher doses of radiation than that used by Katz. Dr. Katz believes that the lower dose is just as effective with less complications. Perhaps the local CK unit had more adverse side effects because of that. Who knows.

Bottom line, I never really received a good explanation to the question you ask. I assume different CK practitioners have different ideas about what works best, and have had different experiences regarding outcomes and side effects. Perhaps there are protocol variations that make a difference. I personally wanted a CK practitioner who was experienced in cases like mine, who had good results in similar cases, and who thought CK for Gleason 7 was a wonderful idea.

In the absence of objective data to explain their thinking, I decided not to worry any more about why other guys felt differently about CK and G7s. Sure is aggravating though, isn't it?

Mac