This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
Hi, I'm new to this. I live in the United States (Wisconsin). A friend shared this website with me. If anyone has an honest opinion about my Prostate Cancer, I definitely want to hear it and appreciate it. There is so much information out there on the internet, and I have read alot and watched You Tube videos- especially from Dr. Mark Scholz..... In January 2022 my PSA was 4.86. I had a 12 core biopsy in February. The results showed cancer cells in 2 of the cores. 1 of the cores had less than 5% of Gleason 3+3. The 2nd core had 10% tumor volume - and within that 10% is 10% of Gleason pattern 4. So I'm a 3+4. The doctor said I'm really much closer to a 3+3, but it has to be characterized as 3+4 even though the pattern 4 makes up less than 1% of the entire biopsy specimen. I chose Active Surveillance... 10 weeks after biopsy I had a MRI. The MRI showed no sign of cancer. No focal high grade lesion on the MRI. No nodal disease in the pelvis. So, biopsy proven cancer.... I had my PSA tested again in October and it was 4.89. So it went up .03 in 9 months.... The next step is another MRI and PSA in April 2023..... I know this is slow moving, but everyone is different. I keep thinking that the volume is very low, and being on AS is the right thing and could be the right thing for many years. But as always there is uncertainty which cause me to be very anxious. I'm currently 58 years old. I'll be 59 in January. Right now the choices are surgery or AS. I keep reading that AS has become very popular the past 10 or 15 years, and I read that in many cases Prostate Cancer has been overtreated in the past. As I said at the beginning, I welcome any opinion from anyone who has or had Prostate Cancer. Thanks, David Lang
G'day David,
In days gone bye you would have had 20 replies to your post. But to your question, at 58 years of age, with a gleason score of 3+4, that places you in the intermediate risk range for PCa. Had the 4 not been there, AS would be ideal, not that I am not saying it is not, just with a few caveats. Yearly repeat biopsy's would probably be in order, your physician of course not withstanding. In 2008 my PSA was 6, my gleason score was 4+3 in six cores of the twelve taken, my staging was T2A. I underwent EBRT and 9/12 of ADT. 15 years on and enjoying life.
