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ZVUGKTUBM wrote:Best of luck to you, Bob (and our friend, Seaoat). My wife and I had a consult with Dr. Sawrie (radiation oncologist) at the Woodlands yesterday afternoon. We are going to wait until January or February and then I will start a 44-treatment radiation therapy series for my prostate cancer.

I have a very small area of cancer, with a Gleason Score of 6. I have to thank some very persistent VA GPs, who kept noting my increased PSA when I would go to the JACC for my annual physical. In 2014, Dr. Bond at the VA finally insisted I see a specialist. I saw Dr. Garner (urologist) at the Woodlands, and he ultimately performed two prostate biopsies, finding the cancer on the second try. Dr. Garner retired last December, so now I am followed by a much younger man, Dr. Vaughan. A few months from now, Dr. Vaughan will put three gold markers over the area of my prostate where the cancer is, and Dr. Sawrie's machinery will cue on that. Dr. Sawrie says the entire treatment uses low-dose xrays, and takes about 5 minutes to finish, each time. But, I have to go there 5 days a week for 8 consecutive weeks, plus four additional days. My PSA levels should start decreasing after that, and it takes about a year before they know how effective the treatment was.

Both my father and maternal grandfathers had slow-growing prostate cancers. My grandfather never treated his, as he was already advanced in age when they found it. My dad submitted to brachytherapy and was declared cancer-free 3 years later. The doctors at the Woodlands to not recommend brachytherapy.

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:

ppaca wrote:The Gleason score is what they take from the biopsy? Correct?

I haven't had one yet but I feel it's coming.  Did you get an infection from either biopsies?

I have researched immunotherapy and prostate cancer and there just doesn't seem to anything yet that I can find.

Just watch your PSA levels, and submit to a rectal finger exam, PPCA (do both annually). Make sure you insist on having PSA evaluated when you do your annual bloodwork. My regular GP at West Florida Primary Care kept dismissing the importance of PSA. The VA doctor kept emphasizing it. Based on how I ended up, I would say PSA is important.

The biopsies sound more gross than they turned out. It entails 12 sticks with a biopsy-needle across the prostate, accessed through the anus. The doctor guides the needle using an ultrasound device, and the needles are shot into your prostate using a spring-loaded thing called a Biopity. I didn't feel any pain during the procedures, because they give you a shot inside your rectum to deaden the area around the prostate. For the second one, I experienced more bleeding, as I had been taking both Plavix and aspirin for my heart condition (I had to come off Plavix a full week before Dr. Garner did the second biopsy). A real man can endure this procedure just fine.

I did not get any infections from either procedure. Yes, they map your cancer's general location based on the biopsy needle results, and a pathologist awards your Gleason Score from there. My little bit of cancer is way off to one side of the prostate. It was found very early in me. Without these advanced testing measures, I likely would have been in my early to mid 70s before it was found conventionally, as it was with those related to me. I was told I could let this sit for a while before worrying about it, as my cancer is extremely slow-growing. I am just going to get it taken care of, now that they found it. I have no symptoms from it at all.

ppaca wrote:What do you think of Dr Parra? He's my urologist.

SheWrites wrote:

ppaca wrote:What do you think of Dr Parra? He's my urologist.

I met him last year when Mom had a biopsy.  He's thorough and explains things very well.  She really likes him.

ppaca wrote:

SheWrites wrote:

ppaca wrote:What do you think of Dr Parra? He's my urologist.

I met him last year when Mom had a biopsy.  He's thorough and explains things very well.  She really likes him.

I like him too. But he talks to fast.