Susan - I also had salvage radiation after my primary treatment (surgery) failed. It was relatively hassle free, and the side effects have been tolerable: a little leakage from time to time, not so...
Todd - I just want to say thanks for bringing this up and I hope there is an alternative to facebook. My concerns about facebook in no way detract from my respect for you and the many ways in which...
@ BNSF yardmaster There was a slight slowing of my urinary stream, but since this happens to most guys as they age, i did not consider it a symptom any more than I consider my thinning hair a symptom...
What myers laid for me was similar to what is described above (this was in 2012) - lycopene - vitamin D (I tested as deficient, you can get this test done) - resveratrol - statin (I was already on...
Watchful waiting is sensible but the "watchful" part is essential. The time trend of PSA readings is very different for prostatitis and prostate cancer. If you have prostatis then it will likely come...
Todd, Is there a way to participate without joining a facebook group? This is a public facebook group. It should probably be a private group. Facebook privacy settings are complicated and they change...
Take a deep breath. In the study you mentioned, "Very early" is defined to mean anything between .01 and 0.2. You do not need to be in any hurry. If you have a PSA of >.03 with a rising trend (as...
FWIW my SRT was done at UCSF under Mac Roach. This was standard IMRT, not hypofractionated, targeting both prostate bed and extended pelvic region. They implanted fiducials and used tattoos. They...
I had fiducials implanted and 3 small tattoos. This was done at UCSF in San Francisco. It's really hard to imagine how they could do a good job positioning a patient without either of those. It was a...
I have become a big fan of the daily 7 minute workout popularized by New York Times and others. I basically don't enjoy exercise and just want to get it done as quickly as possible. This routine...
That advice shouldn't matter for anyone who has had his prostate removed, as far as I know. Also, there is no need to wait six weeks to do a retest in a situation like this. No sense in sitting...
I had my salvage radiation done at UCSF and they were strong believers in starting the radiation 2 months Bobby - after starting the ADT, for reasons Tall Allen said. As to the duration of ADT, their...
Hi Newton - rather than mess with the manual version of the Partin Table you might want to try the online nomogram at Memorial Sloan Kettering: https://www.mskcc.org/nomograms/prostate/pre-op...
My situation was very similar to yours. I waited until it hit .1 (this was before the research about .03 came out, or I would not have waited.) Then got SRT which so far (15 months later) PSA is...
Latest research shows that with combination of >.03 and a rising trend you can confidently declare a recurrence. The old idea of waiting until .2 is not consistent with current research although I...
Here is another article from Globe and Mail which says a bit about how the drug works and what it targets. The first trial lasts two years and combines phase I and phase II and targets metastatic...
Purg, I am sorry to hear of the latest round of bad news. I can't image how difficult it must be to experience so much pain without a break. I hope the new kidney doctor and dermatologist can find...
Paul - if you think about the nature of prostate cancer as a disease process, there's basically no reason for PSA to "roller coaster" if indeed it is cancer. PC will grow at some exponential rate....
I'm wondering if you might have dropped decimal place in your earlier test results early on. If your results were: <.004 .02 .04 then your doc is right, you've had two increases. if it were me I'd...
I had IMRT for salvage radiation about 14 months ago. ED has gotten worse and now I have occasional leakage. No GI side effects. So far psa is back to undetectable....
when I was on HT, i found that a cold compress on my head or forehead would kill the hot flash very quickly. my suggestion is to buy a few of the re-useable gel cold packs that you can chill in the...
I had mine done by Carroll and the follow up care, including salvage radiation four and a half years later at UCSF as well. I did not research Stanford carefully; my initial research said that...
Pratoman, you are definitely getting an ultrasensitive test if you are seeing two digits to the right of the decimal. But even among "ultrasensitive" PSA test systems, different machines report...
Sounds great! i lived there for six years (Cambridge/Watertown). September/October is a great time to visit. If you are lucky you just might hit New England at peak fall foliage, and there is...
In my (not-expert) option, Gemlin has it right in terms of the way Gleason is calculated. So the pathologist is correct in that if you had less than 5% G5, that would typically not be reflected in...
Your PSA seems to be actually going down. It would be very unlikely that you have PC, given that your PC is decreasing. Still you should see the urologist since there are rare types of PC that do not...
That article seems to say that aspirin helps regardless of the modality of treatment used. And the higher the risk grade of the PC, the greater the benefit. Where did you see something about aspirin...
Welcome CJ - sorry to hear about your husband's situation, but welcome to this community. There are quite a few Gleason 9 guys here and some of them have had very good results keeping this beast at...
There has been some very positive research on this. I think the problem though is financial. you can't patent a dog. and it's hard to scale a dog. So training a dog to detect cancer is only the first...
I traveled in Cuba last year and it is a fascinating place. Despite the many problems with their economy, their medical system is pretty good from what I've heard and seen. Average life expectancy...
Radiation is the usual step for many who are in the situation like the one you are in. But there is also the option to do hormone treatment alone. For many people the side effects of the hormone...
Usually the doctor's office provides instructions. If I recall correctly there will be instructions to stop eating some time before the procedure and use a laxative of some kind in the morning to...
I am sure you will get many responses to this. The latest research suggests that if the PSA is steadily rising, then pretty much everyone who hits .05 will ultimately go on to hit .2 and a recurrence...
Good stuff! I too was surprised about the implication that everyone needs to get scanned. I was treated at UCSF and I consult with Scholz and both said a scan would show nothing in my case. (PSA...
"I think my stance will NOT be to get a biopsy, but to get regular PSA tests and jump on it if we see that it is rising" I think that's right. His number is on the high side for 36. Test at not less...
can you post the example where you see the term? that might help....
I was advised to use a VED 10x a week, just inflate for two minutes each time, to keep the penile vasculature in good shape if you are unable to get erections with the viagra/cialas options. seems to...
I went to see an ED specialist at UCSF for advice just as I was starting ADT along with radiation. He told me to use the pump about ten times a week. He said no need to actually have sex if the...
try this thread: http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=2897641 ...
Thanks Allen - these two studies together definitely chip away at the uncertainty regarding what to do in such cases....
Hi Purg: Your are correct, as usual. I have changed the title of my post accordingly. Thanks for flagging that. I hope the change ultimately propagates to the thread title so people aren't confused. ...
Hi Tall Allen . Thank you for the reference to these earlier discussions. I think this study might be a little different from the one you mentioned, although they are both from UCLA. Both may...
In my personal situation (which was before this study came out), I decided to pull the trigger on SRT at a PSA of .1 instead of .2. There was no problem with my blue shield PPO paying for it. So...
Hi Everyone This interesting research came today. It's a study from UCLA that looks at the predictive value of early ultra-sensitive PSA scores in a group of men who had prostatectomy as their...
Hi David - I'm glad to hear you are getting care from a solid doc who is paying close attention and seems determined to figure out what's going on. I hope he comes up with some answers quickly. And I...
The point to consider salvage would be the next PSA. Once you get a second rising value above 0.2, that is the official definition of recurrence....
sorry to hear of the disappointing results. Given that you are experiencing pelvic pain, seemingly from mets, I wonder why they are waiting until the end of January to start treatment. It's a matter...
Thanks, Logos. The drain and tumor emboli part took a bit of research. I hadn't seen that before....
See inline below for translation: " ... patient tolerated the procedure well. Peri/post operative period was uneventful." ** nothing went wrong in the surgery or recovery. " Drain was 90 cc on POD...
Purg - you are in my thoughts. I hope the positive benefits of this treatment continue, and you can get the weight loss under control. There is some research emerging about the the role of hypoxia...