newbie to PCa

Hello All:

I was diagnosed 6/10/15 with PCa. Quite a surprise!

Both the URO and the RO I've consulted have stated that it should be
treated. The URO I consulted has recommended surgery, and the RO I consulted has recommended IMRT.

I've been doing a lot of research since then and I'm very glad to have
found this forum. I've been reading a lot of the posts here, and found
them informative and encouraging. Thank you to each and every one
of you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. Its a godsend to
a newbie like me.

Since I would like to avoid surgery if possible, I'm focusing on some
form of radiation therapy for treatment. One of the initial issues I'm
having is finding local RO's who perform HDR brachy and SBRT.
Any ideas on how to locate Doc's doing those therapy's (other than
getting out a phone book and calling them all)? I'm not even sure
that Mayo - Rochester does them (but I'll find out later this month -
going for a second opinion).

Also, any ideas where I can find stats on HDR brachy vs HDR and
external radiation?

Thank you.

The stats depend on your stats.What is your Dx?

I think you're right that Mayo doesn't do SBRT or HDR brachy. What is your ability to travel for treatment? St. Joseph's in St. Paul does CyberKnife. If you can get to Detroit for HDR brachy, Alvaro Martinez there is one of the world's experts. And there's Brian Moran in Chicago for seeds. Dr Catalona at Northwestern is well known for surgery.

- Allen

Welcome to HW, sorry you need to be here.

If you could share some of your numbers, PSA, gleason, etc, we could give you better suggestions.

I didn't want to do surgery and ended up selecting IGRT because my local clinic offered it and I found a good RO. That was a few years ago and somethings have changed. If I could do it again, I'd be very interested in SBRT.

Andrew

TV,

Just to prove that we can always answer your questions with more questions...

Was your Gleason 7 written as Gleason 7 (3+4) or Gleason 7 (4+3). The first puts you in low intermediate risk and the second in high intermediate risk. A Gleason score is the sum of the Gleason grades of the two most common abnormal cell types seen. Gleason 7(3+4) has mostly type 3 cells and only a few of the more-aggressive type 4. Gleason 7(4+3) has more of the more aggressive type and is considered higher risk. Unhandily, quite a few treatment decisions seem to turn on which kind of Gleason 7 we are looking at.

Give us a few minutes, we'll think of more questions. ;)

Here's what's going to drive you crazy - choosing a treatment. Most of the main line treatments should work well for you and put you in the curative zone.

What you'll want to do now is to talk to a good surgeon and a good radiation oncologist. Someone will come along with better stats, but HDR as a mono-therapy might just work out fine. I understand wanting to avoid surgery. You've got plenty of radiation choices and any of them would work just fine.

I your place, I'd just start looking for a good doctor to work with and get some other medical opinions.

Hang in there and keep us updated on your progress,
Andrew