Hi Just,

Thanks for the link, they were quite useful and interesting.

I guess there is a risk in most things, but Cox-2 inhibitors seem to
me to have more on the upside than the downside.

I don't think the risk {of potential fatal bleeding}is enough put me
off taking Celebrex, those occurrances are very rare, yet the upside
in slowing or even {potentially} killing off the cancer cells/tumours
is a bet worth taking in my book.

I've been involved in risk analysis for 35+ years {as an Engineer} and
through that work have {shall I say} refined my ability to calculate
the odds of catastophic events, and after reading all that I have been
able to get on Cox-2 inhibitors I would have little if any {personal}
concern over taking them.

I guess Cox-1 inhibitors {Aspirin, et-al} carry a risk, and that risk
is more in some individuals than in the general population, but all in
all we benefit greatly from Aspirin and the like.

Once we are diagnosed with PCa we are already at risk, and one that we
didn't any choice in, any "move" that we make to rid ourselves of {or
at least control} PCa carries a risk factor with it, so we have to
decide the level of risk that we feel comfortable with.

As an example it seems that in any surgery that lasts over 2 hours
around 1 person in 300 dies, and that's down to the length of time
under aneasthesia not the type of Operation the surgeon is doing.

A 1 in 300 shot at my head doesn't fill me with comfort of confidence,
yet if the problem that I have has a 20% chance of fitting me out with
a wooden overcoat then it makes sense to improve your odds as take the
operation.

I don't know what all the odds are in all the options that present
themselves to us with PCa, but I guess we can try to balance what risk
we can tolerate and then take the appropriate action.

Having said that some folks aren't that good at weighing up the
odds/risks even when they aren't under pressure, and when they are
told they have PCa they are {like me} stressed out, and less likely to
be able to think things through.

My thought is that some of us in here will be able to make very good
judgements on where we are at, and what we should do, based on all the
info we can gather and be able to evaluate.

Those folks may make the right decisions and hopefully get at least a
roll back of the PCa clock, if not a complete "cure".

Others will simply be directed by their GP and take whatever option
that are presented with, and that may {or may not be} the best thing
for them.

But I think this forum benefits us all, we can see what results other
folks have had from whatever option they took, that and as I expect
many of us are running around looking for the life boats, and some of
us may find an option that is new/novel and be able to present that to
the rest of us, the more we know the better off we are {for the most
part}.

For some folks desperation sets in {hey its had it way with me th last
couple of months}, and some folks think that drinking their own urine,
or 26 litres of carrot juice or some expensive/exotic weed from China
will save the day for us, thank God there aint much of that nonesense
in here, we all need to help each other out, not add to the agony and
confusion.

It's a desperate club to be in, none of us wanted to join it, but now
that we are all here, let's see what we can do to tilt the odds a bit
more in our favour.

Thanks for your comments Just, it's good to look at both sides of the
coin.

All the Best, from Wigan, England.

Bob.