Re: Totally OT: Good News for Me!

On Sat, 4 Apr 2009 20:09:32 -0400, Denise in NH wrote:

Boulanger said:
He's very thorough then! My B-I-L's doctor (quack more like it) refused
him a PSA as he always waits for other symptoms to appear first!!!!!! My
friend just had his removed as his PSA went from 2 to 4 (the biopsy
confirmed cancer). I'm on an annual schedule as a check as I had my
cancerous prostate removed 11.5 years ago.
------------------------------------------------------
Your B-I-L should find another doctor. My husband is going through
prostate cancer right now, he's 59. It was found in a routine PSA
screening. He had absolutely no symptoms. His prostate was removed and
we were told that it was completely contained and had not spread. His
next PSA proved differently, it had spread. So he recently underwent 7
weeks of 5 days a week radiation treatments. His next PSA showed a
reduction but not exactly what we had hoped for. He'll have another PSA
done this Tuesday. I've got all my fingers and toes crossed.

This Wednesday I'll be having an alternative to a Colonoscopy. Last
year when I went in for my first colonoscopy, they weren't able to
complete it because of the pain I was experiencing. No matter how much
pain meds they gave me, they couldn't put me out enough to reduce the
pain. Turns out my bowels are all stuck due to adhesions from previous
surgeries. This test is sort of like a lower GI, I think. At least I
won't have to drink that gallon of vile crap this time. That was worse
than the flopped colonoscopy.

Guys, if you're over 40, please insist on a PSA during your routine
physicals. You don't have to have symptoms to have prostate cancer.

Denise

but what you do with the results is somewhat controversial:

February 5, 2008, 11:07 am
No Answers for Men With Prostate Cancer

Last year, 218,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, but nobody can
tell them what type of treatment is most likely to save their lives.

Those are the findings of a troubling new report from the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, which analyzed hundreds of studies in an
effort to advise men about the best treatments for prostate cancer. The
report compared the effectiveness and risks of eight prostate cancer
treatments, ranging from prostate removal to radioactive implants to no
treatment at all. None of the studies provided definitive answers.
Surprisingly, no single treatment emerged as superior to doing nothing at
all.

“When it comes to prostate cancer, we have much to learn about which
treatments work best,” said agency director Carolyn M. Clancy. “Patients
should be informed about the benefits and harms of treatment options.”

But the study, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, gives
men very little guidance. Prostate cancer is typically a slow-growing
cancer, and many men can live with it for years, often dying of another
cause. But some men have aggressive prostate cancers, and last year 27,050
men died from the disease. The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with
prostate cancer has nearly doubled to 20 percent since the late 1980s, due
mostly to expanded use of the prostate-specific antigen, or P.S.A., blood
test. But the risk of dying of prostate cancer remains about 3 percent.
“Considerable overdetection and overtreatment may exist,” an agency press
release stated.

The agency review is based on analysis of 592 published articles of various
treatment strategies. The studies looked at treatments that use rapid
freezing and thawing (cryotherapy); minimally invasive surgery
(laparoscopic or robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy); testicle removal
or hormone therapy (androgen deprivation therapy); and high-intensity
ultrasound or radiation therapy. The study also evaluated research on
“watchful waiting,” which means monitoring the cancer and initiating
treatment only if it appears the disease is progressing.

No one treatment emerged as the best option for prolonging life. And it was
impossible to determine whether one treatment had fewer or less severe side
effects.

<http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/no-answers-for-men-with-prostate-cancer/>

granted, any kind of cancer is scary, but some men (especially those over a
certain age) might be well advised to let it be.

your pal,
blake
.

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