Welcome and sorry you are here. You will find a fair bit on the web on HIFU. The very short of it is that that with HIFU you get much lower incidence of serious SE's than with other treatments. The...
For the true newbies, we almost all start with a good sense of personal privacy. After two biopsies and multiple DRE's, for me the sense faded considerably. After the cystoscopy, it was a dim,...
There is a number missing from your stats, which is the % of the core that was cancerous. If the two positive cores were 5 or 10%, and if the second opinion confirms that you have a Gleason 3+3, then...
Bill, First, the good news. With your PSA, it is highly unlikely that the bone scan or lung x-ray will find anything. You need them as baselines and so the gas man will do general anesthesia for any...
You don't state the % of the cores found to contain tumor cells. If a large % - meaning 30%+ - then you would want to consider treatment regardless of Gleason score. With Mayo telling you that you...
SG Your experience is not uncommon. If you do some web searches, you will find that both the Germans and Johns Hopkins have done studies finding about 1/3 of biopsies result in underestimates of the...
6x With a PSA of 4.2, then you might look at complicating factors or possible prostatitis. With a 9.5, my amateur opinion is that a biopsy is clearly indicated. The number is just too high. Really...
The doc said that Rapaflo is the new hot drug, but I could not tell the difference. I found the SE's to be minimal, except that I leaked less when I stopped using either, and even the leaks were...
Hi Fred, I think the way you want to look at this is that your plumbing system took a major hit with your treatment, and that the Flomax helps ease the plumbing back to something closer to normal...
I was through Bermuda security twice with SP tubing and a quart leg bag, and had no comment or extra anything from security. I suspect this may be because at that airport they see the package all the...
I hope the RO green lights you. You are way too young and your Gleason is too high to be doing nothing. You may have been hearing about over treatment etc, but that applies, if at all, to Gleason 6...
Glenn Sounds like HIFU. I suspect it is fair to say the SE rate is 1/3 to 1/2 that of surgery or radiation so not 0, but much lower rate, but the 'cure' rate is lower, so a tradeoff of benefit v...
I did have Scionti perform both HIFU's. Flying home with the cath was shockingly easy, even security The Princess is expensive, look for 4 nights for price of 3 deals, and the hotel across the street...
The tradeoff for HIFU is a considerably reduced risk of SE's against apparently a higher frequency of recurrence. Not saying it's a bad trade, since I made it. I would recc against the targeted...
You will be told that you need a CT scan and a bone scan. These are to rule out current metastases. A positive result on such tests is extremely unlikely, but you will not be able to talk the docs...
Hi guys, On the side effects front, there is both no risk free treatment and no high quality stats, and it seems that several stats are better described as stories flying in formation. That being...
Hi guys, If you don't like a procedure not covered by insurance or with uncertain recurrence rates, fine. To describe a procedure actually done in a real hospital - King Edward in Bermuda - by a...
Hi concerned First, I suggest that a diagnosis of cancer - and maybe even no cancer - without a biopsy is likely outside the reach of 2011 science. Hopefully soon, but not yet, Second, having been...
Hi, There are risks associated with all treatment options, but the impotence risk for cryo is about 80%, and that may be a low estimate. I suggest you explore other options....
David, It is a widely held, but incorrect, belief that PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. In reality, PSA stands for Permanent Stress Aggravator Larch...
Gem I take it that by 'early stage' you mean a Gleason 3+3 with 5-10% involvement in one or two cores. If so, you should look into the articles - especially recent posts - on Active Surveillance (AS)...
Hi guys, PSA went from .8 to 1.5, which the uro confirmed was both a bad number and a bad trend, so back to biopsy. Will keep you posted on how the re-treat goes....
I don't think we should be shocked that an initial treatment by HIFU or any other approach is not 100% successful. We are fighting a very difficult enemy, as the posters with SRT after surgery and...
Sleepless, The radiation fries the gland so that it literally adheres to the surrounding bone/tissues in a way that it needs to be scraped off by the surgeon - which is why most surgeons walk away -...
Hi Guys, Two out of three outcomes are doing great, but I get to be one of the rare cases of follow up treatment post-HIFU. Interestingly, while the HIFU doc says all options are open, the uro (who...
Hi guys, So far I am a success case for HIFU, so a bit of the story for those interested . Tested because of recent family history and PSA 7.5 at age 60. Two of six cores were Gleason 3+4 with 50%...
Jack, While the ultimate concern here is metastases, and while the intuitive reaction is to act as quickly as possible to prevent metastases, the consensus across a broad band of MD's, not just us...
First, surgical complications are not unknown, but they are not your principal or even secondary downside risk. Second, different people here will have different opinions on the better treatment...
RayPat, I took a different treatment route, but completed a four day course of tracking urine flow volumes yesterday, so based on my tracking measurements, I have some confidence saying that 350 ml...
Dan, Deciding to get a biopsy is not deciding to do surgery, radiation, or other remedy. You can get even get a biopsy result of CANCER (all caps because it's scary) and if it is a Gleason 3+3 with...
I spoke to my MD about travel post - DaVinci when I was considering that, He said no worries even as soon as three days after surgery. However, different from what the other guys heard, I heard no...
Dan PSA results can be over and under inclusive which is why the PSA tests are attacked from time to time, although nobody yet has better tests, That being said, your numbers are high enough, the...
While the instinctive reaction is 'get the cancer out of me', I suggest that the best course for your husband, with a Gleason 6 and very small % involvement, is to get a second opinion about the...
Trog, The issue is not the accuracy of the HIFU machine in the right hands, I have no doubt that a good surgeon can use a HIFU machine to obliterate your known tumors with great precision. That...
Trog If you do not want to do annual biopsies, then AS may be off the table for you - check with your MD, Not sure that I would conclude that just because prior biopsies did not find the cancer that...
The link to the NHS reports is: http://www.nice.org.uk:80/guidance/index.jsp?action=byID&r=true&o=11128 You can get a summary at yananow which is another site with excellent discussions of...
Reason I said genetics is that two of my father's brothers and two of my brothers were diagnosed before me. While the uncles can be explained with the 'everyone over 70 will be diagnosed sooner or...
Trog I second the suggestion that you consider Active Surveillance with a proviso that you get a second opinion on the biopsy to reconfirm that there are no 4's lurking among your 3's. The answer to...
Weston, Vesicare is a standard drug for those who undergo HIFU, indeed it is the first drug that you take in the recovery room. The concept there is not to have a bladder spasm in reaction to the...
As one with well above average lifetime consumption of both red wine and blended tea, me and my Gleason 7 can attest that genetics trumps red wine and green tea. I appreciate that we are talking...
An Some time ago the consensus answer may have been aggressive therapy. These days, I suspect there is no consensus, and many would suggest active surveillance over either radiation or surgery. With...
Your PSA numbers bracket mine, and you are close enough in age, a year, and also no symptoms, so I have some idea what you are going through. You need a local anesthetic, not a general (generals...
Jim, If I had your numbers, they would need a gun and someone who I was convinced knew how to use it to perform any surgery/procedure/radiation Your problem is that Hopkins and the Germans both have...
larch - Larchmont NY...
Pog, None of us are MD's, and you need an MD's advice here, since at least one of us amateurs thinks you are working on thin margins. You have a 4 as a component of your Gleason (4+3) and any time...
Spoke to my uro about this a few weeks back. The short of it is that getting the catheter out quickly makes you feel better and more advanced, but this isn't a sprint race - and in the marathon, a...
There are stats from Hopkins that, if recalled correctly, 32% of Gleason scores go up on post-surgery pathology exam, and only 2-3% of the scores go down. Check Hopkins, there are real stats and not...