I just wanted to mention that the scans I discussed are not the standard, fairly insensitive ones your husband had. These are much more sensitive, especially with a PSA over two and higher PSA...
Sorry to hear the bad news. If it were me, I'd at least consider making an appointment at Rochester Mayo for the C11 Choline scan to see if the mets can be localized and dealt with. The C11 acetate...
A recent study about the C11 Choline PET scan on hormone resistant patients found that most patients with a positive scan had four or fewer lesions. According to Dr. Myers, they might be considered...
At your current PSA doubling time, you could very soon be a good candidate for treatment at Mayo, first with a C11 Choline Pet scan to locate the lesion, and then radiation or surgery to treat it,...
Interesting discussion of the value of post-surgery pathology report. My case, where I went from a G7 biopsy to a G9 after surgery, is likely just the exception. I'm very glad I found out I have G9,...
Hi Michael, One question you might ask (or perhaps you already know) is the location of the cancer. If it is in the apex, surgery would very likely result in a positive margin, which would likely...
Here's a new study that suggests that loss of penile length is recovered by 48 months after surgery. Some of us lose a lot more than 1cm that they claim is average. I'll have willie read it and see...
I went through three oncologists before turning to Dr. Scholz and relying on my general practitioner to perform the tests. One oncologist was just a jackass who wanted to ram his conservative,...
Welcome, Scottie, I agree with Purgatory that you should find an expert medical oncologist to help you treat your disease. You current stats suggest that you could look into getting one of the newer...
For a long time I have wondered about calculating doubling times with results from the ultrasensitive test. I happened on a review article that made comparisons. "Poor agreement of prostate specific...
Results came in at <0.015, but it's hard to be real happy with others facing climbing PSA. Best wishes, Mel. Nellie...
The less-than symbol means undetectable in PSA tests. You got it, so congratulations. Nellie...
I did find an article that states: "In patients with Gleason grade 8-10 disease, a proportion of these tumours are so poorly differentiated that they produce relatively little PSA." The article...
SpecialLady, It must be the case. It's all pretty confusing. I'd sure hate to see all this inconclusive and surely incomplete research on my part make folks feel bad. Lord knows, I'm no expert; I'm...
Hi HD, Since you are Gleason 6, I'm not sure you would need to jump to RT like I did with Gleason 9. Such a low PSA could quite easily be from benign sources. Plus, it is rising so slowly (that's...
My real concern, based on this article, was that waiting until my PSA rose even to the traditional .2 trigger for recurrence might compromise the effectiveness of RT, so I pulled the trigger very...
I have previously been an advocate for using the ultra-sensitive test, primarily for folks with aggressive PCa trying to determine if they should pursue adjuvant or salvage RT. I base my advocacy on...
When I first read Jerry's post, I thought that the paper on PSA-low stem cells answered the question. I think I'm returning to that view. The paper I cited states that these stem cells either have no...
Dr. Bonkoff in Germany has been one of the pioneers in gene profiling of cancer to tailor treatments to the particular biology of the patient. In a recent review article, we can see his current...
SpecialLady, Great article. Thanks! There are a few quotes I found particularly relevant to this discussion: This last quote is a real eye-opener: Nellie...
Hi Jerry, Here are two more articles that may help shed some light. One discusses how abiraterone and enzalutamide work to block androgen, and thereby give another weapon against CRPC: "Overcoming...
Tigre, That low of PSA could be an indication of benign prostate growth. When you have positive margins, there's only about a 50% chance that the cells left behind are even viable (according to...
Jerry, You might find the following thread interesting: http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=2414538 It contains links to articles about androgen-receptive versus...
Here's a link to a Mayo Clinic web page about prostate cancer surgery. In it, they discuss debulking: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cancer-surgery/CA00033 Here's a link to a 2006 abstract about...
Here's a paper that gives the skinny: "Treatment and survival outcomes in young men diagnosed with prostate cancer" http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.24324/full Hope that helps. Best...
Although my wife doesn't participate in forums, I would be lost without her. The women who share with us here are incredibly strong, thoughtful, persistent and caring, just like her. We all owe them...
Going in the 17th. Stopped ADT last July so I still expect a goose egg. But the poor luck of our friend Fairwind has me a little concerned. A tip of the hat to Fairwind. Hope you're making progress...
mmbagehi, Welcome to HW. I too have Gleason 9, although I didn't know it at the time of my biopsy. Previous posters have provided excellent advice about how to approach aggressive PCa. I too would...
I think your husband has simply chosen denial, with the help of a greedy, negligent doctor. There's really not much you can do about it at this point. It's very sad because the pathology report days...
Fairwind, Sorry to hear the news. I hope you do find a good medical oncologist. For a radiation oncologist to send you to your former urologist sounds like the "good old boys club" at work. Remember...
The New Cancer Infolink posted a summary of an article by Dr. Bonkoff about Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P). He describes what this is, and how it should be differentiated from high...
David, Is there a PSA threshold for the scan? I know the C-Choline scan done at Mayo works best if the PSA is > 1.5 and is rising quickly. Thanks, Nellie...
David, Best wishes for a swift discovery and recovery. Nellie...
In your case, which is very similar to mine except I had positive margins, Dr. Mark Scholz would likely go for adjuvant docetaxel concurrent with radiation and 12 months of ADT3. That is what he...
Hi Rider, The decision making process is not an easy task, so congratulations on navigating the mine field. The nice thing about surgery is that doctors can see what is really going on instead of...
Here are couple of articles I found: "Role of Radiotherapy in Ductal (Endometrioid) Carcinoma of the Prostate", http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950740/ "Metastatic ductal carcinoma of...
Welcome a new member - Sword. Hope we can be of help. Sword posted in another thread the following question: "Looking for someone that as been diagnosed with Ductile Carcinoma of the Prostate. Thank...
Sword and others, this thread is over four years old, sad to say. Sword, welcome to HW. Hope we can be of help. You might want to create your own thread about Ductile Carcinoma of the Prostate. Best...
From time to time, I've seen folks ask about the viability of salvage prostatectomy after recurrence following failed primary treatment. I came across this recent study from Vanderbilt discussing...
Hi John, From my earlier research, I learned that a testosterone count of 32 seemed to be the point that it may begin to have an adverse effect on PSA. That is why oncologists need to check it to...
Welcome to HW. Hope we can be of help. Living in the LA area, you have access not only to great hospitals, but one of the best experts in prostate cancer: Dr. Mark Scholz. He's a medical oncologist...
The horse is dead, already, folks. Nellie...
AS candidates could be getting an important new tool, according to one of today's entries at the Prostate Cancer Infolink. Soon to be released is a biopsy-related test that should be able to tell if...
Thank you for posting this. It provided many insights. Nellie...
HD_Rider, Here's a link to a PCa staging chart from the American Cancer Society: http://www.cancerstaging.org/staging/posters/prostate8.5x11.pdf They indicate that positive margins do not elevate the...
Sorry to hear the bad news. Figuring out what to do about this disease is never easy. Even now, five years after your treatments, the fundamental tests to determine staging are pretty flawed. In your...
This is quite an amazing statistic for high risk patients, and suggests that adjuvant chemo may become more prevalent. When I talked with Dr. Scholz, he suggested that it would increase my chance of...
Hi TooYoung, I feel bad about your results, both because it happened to you, and because it happened like this. I know you used the ultra-sensitive test, but somebody forgot to tell you that results...
Just thought I'd add a link to the New Prostate Cancer Infolink take on the study. There is mentioned in the comments of an editorial on the study by Dr. Oliver Sartor with some quotes....
Hi Bluebird, Before surgery, a doctor cannot say there are positive margins unless he is also saying that the cancer has escaped the capsule into the bladder neck, urethra, seminal vesicles or even...