When to get a MO

Okay Guy's and Gal's...
At what point do you start looking for a MO....?

What is an MO and what is an RO?

I have been here 7 months now and still can't understand all these abbreviations.

What Mattam said: When primary treatments fail or when there is a high possiblity for mets or when you want a second opinion on your case.

mentor: Heres a list of abbreviations we use (sticky thread at top of forum): https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1019612

I believe you should look for a MO that is very active and experienced treating advanced PCa in a proactive way, not just palliative.

While it is generally regarded that mPCa is not curable, it often can be well managed for quite awhile for most men while maintaining good quality of life. Look for a MO that can demonstrate such an approach.

mentor5959 said...
What is an MO and what is an RO?

mattam said...
MO = Medical Oncologist.
RO = Radiation Oncologist.

Mentor, RO treats cancer with radiation, MO treats cancer with medications (chemo)

garyi said...
"JNF" said... "I believe you should look for a MO that is very active and experienced treating advanced PCa in a proactive way, not just palliative."
I would so like to find a source listing MO's with those qualifications. In almost every case their CV's are so general it's impossible to discern what their specific expertise, specialty or treatment philosophy is.

Agreed. Word of mouth or online forums seems to be the only source. "Should I get an MO involved?" was one of my early questions to my RO when he was planning my treatment. His answer was "no". Then he retired soon after my treatment ended. And when my Uro referred me to a surgeon to implant the AUS, I essentially ended up with a new urologist. So I have no support system in the event that my next few PSA's might show an increase. It wouldn't hurt to be prepared and start looking now. Sort of like funeral planning.

My wife's oncologist is a "hemo-onc" who deals only with blood disorders, so I can see where we (us guys) would need an onc who specializes in prostate cancer. My RO did only genitourinary oncology and the surgeon who did my bowel resection does only GI surgery, so I can see where a PCa oncologist would have special knowledge that someone who treats mostly colon cancer would not know much about (no matter what we might be told during an interview). It's sort of like, "yeah, we can work on foreign cars".

The Mo is not the one to initiate the primary treatment plan. That is not generally their expertise in PCa. In fact, an early MO assessment could complicate the decision process in choosing the primary treatment.

Rather, they are the clean up expert. They follow failed primary treatments.

In some cases where the diagnosis is so bad that neither surgery nor radiation as primary could be curative, then the MO is used instead of the urologist and/or radiation oncologist. For example when the initial diagnosis discloses widespread Mets then the MO is the specialist to use as surgery and/or radiation would not be useful.

garyi said...

JNF said...
I believe you should look for a MO that is very active and experienced treating advanced PCa in a proactive way, not just palliative.

Gary:
"I would so like to find a source listing MO's with those qualifications. In almost every case their CV's are so general it's impossible to discern what their specific expertise, specialty or treatment philosophy is. Very discouraging.

"

In an appendix to Dr. Scholz book, "Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers", he says the following:
"As we have pointed out, prostate cancer is the only common cancer managed by surgeons. One of the most frequent reasons men consult me as a medical oncologist is that I am thought to be free of bias, at least as far as deciding between radiation and surgery is concerned." So it seems that Dr. Scholz at least may suggest involvement of a MO at any stage of the process.

The next pages of the appendix list medical oncologists who have taken a particular interest in prostate cancer. This doesn't exactly answer Gary's question but at least provides a starting point.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I read his book some time ago. I'll take a look at the appendix. Any leads will help. As RobLee says, it's always good to be prepared...just in case.