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There have been many, many articles in the media and many posts on the Internet about these two subjects. Many of the posts on these related subjects put me in mind of the quote attributed to Willet Whitmore many years ago:
"Let's try to replace heated opinion with cold facts."
So….nothing has changed over the years then, with cold facts seemingly in short supply but an oversupply of heated opinions?
For newcomers who may not be aware, Dr Whitmore was a leading urologist with a penchant for good lines most of which are still valid and which jointly pretty well sum up the position regarding our shared disease. Here are some of them:
"The current state of prostate cancer may not be good medicine but it sure is good business."
"There are more people making a living from prostate cancer than there are dying from it."
"Buying time is the name of the game."
"Tell me what you want to hear and I'll refer you to someone who will recommend it."
"When the results are good, we tend to say, 'That's a good treatment.' When treatment fails, we shake our head and say, 'That's a bad cancer.”
He was diagnosed with prostate cancer himself, declined treatment, choosing what was then termed Watchful Waiting and, it is said, made his final quip on his deathbed:
“Perhaps I waited too long.”
There are two more quotes attributed to him. The first, which has not yet been resolved, but which is at the heart of the over-treatment controversy is:
"Is cure possible? Is cure necessary? Is cure possible only when it is not necessary?" or, put another way “Is cure necessary in those in whom it may be possible, and is cure possible in those in whom it is necessary?”
The second is the one I came across and keep in front of me at all times:
“Growing old is invariably fatal while prostate cancer is only sometimes so.”
I have never denied that prostate cancer can be a dangerous disease, and neither did the good doctor, but his adage has helped me focus, for the last fourteen years, on the fact that there are many more dangers lurking along the way.
Aloha,
With respect to Dr. Ablin, the PSA test (very high probablilty) saved my life! My DRE was for many years, just slightly off normal, not enough to trigger a biopsy. The PSA result triggered the biopsy. As most of you know, my free PSA, PSA velocity, and biopsy were, to say the least, very poor.
Hamakua Coast, I love it,
Joe
