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I'm not sure if this posting went through, so I'm reposting it.
I've been reading your page since I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer a year ago. I'm on AS but I'm afraid this is going to change soon.
I have an appointment with my doctors in a couple of weeks, but there is something I would like to know, so I'm better educated to ask my doctor questions and reach an educated solution.
I had two biopsies made. One on 9/24/14, blinded, or guided by ultrasound, one cancer core out of 13 total.
Then came the MRI with a probe in January.
on 6/10/15 a guided biopsy, of fusion biopsy, in which Dr. use MRI images to guide him through the biopsy.
This last biopsy still shows Gleason 6 (3+3) T1c and Stage 1.
However, out of 13 cores, four were positive and one was "suspicious", but the cancer still considered low grade.
Genomic test done, with the biopsy slides (Onco-type DX) and Shows an intermediate risk (That[s sort of upgrading it a little bit).
But the question I have, and I count on the experience that many of you who went through it may have is the following:
The targeted biopsy, the one that shows 4 cores instead of 1, as the first one did, is because it is more accurate, but being 4 in that one is the same as 1 in the blinded biopsy?
Please don't think that I'm going to substitute your online feedback with a consultation with my doc. I will not. But doctors some times take things for granted and don't go into great details and them I clam up and don't ask many questions.
Thank you. I will contribute with my story in your forum soon.
You ask a very good question. The MRI guided biopsy was probably not sampling your entire prostate but concentrated on sampling the tumor identified by the MRI. Obviously if you just take samples from a visible tumor they will all be positive. You still may qualify for AS as long as you have no cores over 50%. It was also good that your gleason score was not upgraded.
