5 ms·

I have a SNP (according to ancestry) that gives me ~5X the chance to get prostate cancer. What treatment is available for prostate cancer, besides debilitatin

by raducu 6y ago

I have a SNP (according to ancestry) that gives me ~5X the chance to get prostate cancer. What treatment is available for prostate cancer, besides debilitating surgery?

HeadsUpHigh 6y ago
Chemo and radiotherapy, the whole trifecta. Some new ways of implanting small radioactive disks straight into the prostate with a minimally invasive procedure are being developed as well.
scandox 6y ago
Someone I know had robotic keyhole surgery and they were up and walking about in a week. That was a man in his 60s with mediocre health. He went to the Henry Ford Medical Centre.
- pintxo 6y ago
  Keyhole is the key here to walk out asap. The "roboter" is not delivering that much in terms of quality of outcome or speed of recovery.
pintxo 6y ago
Surgery, done by good surgeons, has low (single digit) complication rates. Tip: Ask your surgeon how often he does this specific surgery. Removing the prostate requires foremost experience to not severe any nerves surrounding the organ, which are important for potency and continence. As you would not want your cars brake firmware to be written by someone who usually writes marketing apps, you do not want to get this surgery from anyone who has not specialized on it. There are specialists who do this surgery >200 times a year.
- raducu 6y ago
  I'm in my mid thirties, I'll look into PSA, and my father has prostatitis, but no family history of prostate cancer(my grandfather died 86 years old, but lived a much healthier life than me or my father). So I'll definitely keep it under observation, I just hope those percentages will improve in the next decades.
pintxo 6y ago
Depending on personnel preferences, you might want to get a regular PSA check once a year to ensure you catch it early to give you runway to evaluate treatment options. It's better to be able to assess the situation and contact multiple experts than having to rush if detected to late.
vikramkr 6y ago
Triple therapy is what a relative of mine underwent after getting Gleeson score 9 (bad but not metastasized) prostrate cancer. He hadn't been doing regulator screenings or would have caught it earlier. The triple therapy (radiation + hormone + brachytherapy, basically little radioactive implants) sucked in terms of side effects at the peak, but it hasn't been long term debilitating, amd he's now doing well in remission.
abalone 6y ago
First, you should be focusing on detection. You probably know about the PSA test and biopsies, but there is also a more sophisticated 4kscore blood test. MRIs and TRUS ultrasounds are also diagnostic tools. If it’s detected then they will biopsy it and grade the cells to see how aggressive it is. If it’s not aggressive they will just monitor it without treatment. If it comes to treatment, and you’ve caught it at stage 2 (hasn’t spread), then it’s either cut out your prostate or zap it somehow (e.g. localized radiation). For “younger” patients they usually recommend surgery. First, with early detection it is less likely to be debilitating. They can spare the nerves that control erectile function, although they can still get messed up and there is still a big chance of some decline in function. But it’s a better outcome than older age brackets or larger tumors — keep that in mind when looking at overall stats. The reason they recommend surgery is the long term side effects are similar to radiation and if they don’t get it all with surgery, they can go back in and mop up with radiation. Whereas the reverse doesn’t work as well because of tissue damage. (Note: some people are drawn to alternative ways of zapping it like proton therapy in the hopes it will have less side effects but so far, nothing conclusive.)

by raducu 6y ago

I have a SNP (according to ancestry) that gives me ~5X the chance to get prostate cancer. What treatment is available for prostate cancer, besides debilitating surgery?

HeadsUpHigh 6y ago

Chemo and radiotherapy, the whole trifecta. Some new ways of implanting small radioactive disks straight into the prostate with a minimally invasive procedure are being developed as well.

scandox 6y ago

Someone I know had robotic keyhole surgery and they were up and walking about in a week. That was a man in his 60s with mediocre health. He went to the Henry Ford Medical Centre.

pintxo 6y ago
Keyhole is the key here to walk out asap. The "roboter" is not delivering that much in terms of quality of outcome or speed of recovery.

pintxo 6y ago

Surgery, done by good surgeons, has low (single digit) complication rates. Tip: Ask your surgeon how often he does this specific surgery. Removing the prostate requires foremost experience to not severe any nerves surrounding the organ, which are important for potency and continence. As you would not want your cars brake firmware to be written by someone who usually writes marketing apps, you do not want to get this surgery from anyone who has not specialized on it. There are specialists who do this surgery >200 times a year.

raducu 6y ago
I'm in my mid thirties, I'll look into PSA, and my father has prostatitis, but no family history of prostate cancer(my grandfather died 86 years old, but lived a much healthier life than me or my father). So I'll definitely keep it under observation, I just hope those percentages will improve in the next decades.

pintxo 6y ago

Depending on personnel preferences, you might want to get a regular PSA check once a year to ensure you catch it early to give you runway to evaluate treatment options. It's better to be able to assess the situation and contact multiple experts than having to rush if detected to late.

vikramkr 6y ago

Triple therapy is what a relative of mine underwent after getting Gleeson score 9 (bad but not metastasized) prostrate cancer. He hadn't been doing regulator screenings or would have caught it earlier. The triple therapy (radiation + hormone + brachytherapy, basically little radioactive implants) sucked in terms of side effects at the peak, but it hasn't been long term debilitating, amd he's now doing well in remission.

abalone 6y ago

First, you should be focusing on detection. You probably know about the PSA test and biopsies, but there is also a more sophisticated 4kscore blood test. MRIs and TRUS ultrasounds are also diagnostic tools. If it’s detected then they will biopsy it and grade the cells to see how aggressive it is. If it’s not aggressive they will just monitor it without treatment. If it comes to treatment, and you’ve caught it at stage 2 (hasn’t spread), then it’s either cut out your prostate or zap it somehow (e.g. localized radiation). For “younger” patients they usually recommend surgery. First, with early detection it is less likely to be debilitating. They can spare the nerves that control erectile function, although they can still get messed up and there is still a big chance of some decline in function. But it’s a better outcome than older age brackets or larger tumors — keep that in mind when looking at overall stats. The reason they recommend surgery is the long term side effects are similar to radiation and if they don’t get it all with surgery, they can go back in and mop up with radiation. Whereas the reverse doesn’t work as well because of tissue damage. (Note: some people are drawn to alternative ways of zapping it like proton therapy in the hopes it will have less side effects but so far, nothing conclusive.)