Prostate Cancer Treatment Investigation

geoff fernald March 1997

I've finished the biopsy showing three cancer cores on the left, 3 cancer-free cores on the right and my Dr. advising me to do surgery or radiation. My Urologist surgeon was leaning toward surgery. I embarked on my own educational foray.

STUDY AND THINKING:

After talking to 5 Surgery graduates and one seed graduate hearing their good attitudes and reading lots of papers and and asking all kinds of questions I got a second opinion from a Stanford Hospital radiation oncologist, Dr. Hancock. He staged me and gleesoned me at the same place as Kaiser Redwood City. He gave me a bunch of data on recurrance and life expectancy. He said rad. and surgery were about the same result success level and each had slightly different possible downsides.

I talked to a family friend who is a radiation oncologist in Sacramento and he said he preferred surgery bacause of the 'salvage' options (chances for using radiation later when recurrance occurs) were better. He also said he thought seeds were not as good at my staging.

Jane and I read 5 different books friends had recommended.

My Surgeon Dr. at Kaiser said salvage after surgery tended to be hormone therapy most often anyway for either surgery or radiation.

DECISION:
So I made the attached pro and con chart and discussed it with Jane and my Dr. at Kaiser. I thought the chart suggested radiation for me.

There are many intangibles which take place in ones mind in making this decision and which will probably go undocumented here since they are too complicated to elaborate cleanly or to keep your attention, but some are;

-T2b may be outside the capsule anyway and radiation may help that;

-if they are both about the same survival and recurrance rate I think I will fall in the successful 80% group so radiation seems to have an ease of application and sexual function upside;

-there are scary stories about radiation downsides like kolostomy bags, which is why I prefer 3D conformal technology which is only 2 years old at Stanford.


SO, I'm getting 2 months of testosterone suppressant and then on JULY 11 I get scanned for radiation and start the following week with treatments 5 days a week for 7 1/2 weeks. Wish me luck.



geoff fernald