you are close enough to Hopkins....they are the best. I'd go to your
local guys and get a biopsy. The procedure  sucks but hopefully you'll
get a definitive read,  then get 2nd opinion from Hopkins. My brother
an MD went to Hopkins for his RP.

I am in similar boat. Good luck to you. If you have it, I hope it's
contained.

The surgeons at Johns Hopkins know everything there is to know about
this disease.

jimhoney
RRP at J-H, age 52, cured, no significant aftereffects

Ed Kratz wrote:

hey ed  '
johns hopkins was my first choice but they weren't in our insurance group so
i went with my second choice ,the university of pennsylvania .i got the
chief of urology ,Dr. Allen Wein .i am 3 and a half weeks out of surgury and
so far everything is ok. i go through not quite a half of a pad a day on
average and i get a little bit of a response from mr. winky.
good luck to you in wherever you go .

Harry

  Don't put the cart before the horse Ed.  Look for a PCa specialist when
you find out you need one.  Get to a urologist and get it checked out. Could
be several benign things also.

Ed :

Dr. Alan Wein or Dr. Bruce Malkowicz of the Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania.  The team there is terriffic.

http://pennhealth.com/WagForm/MainPage.aspx?config=provider&P=PP&ID=1398

Good luck.

Ed, I'm not sure you are at the point of looking for a surgeon yet. I
suspect you will want to find out if you have PCa or not, then read relevant
parts of books like that of Walsh and Strum, visit authoritative cancer
sites and post questions to this well-informed NG, then finally decide if
you want surgery or some other treatment.

If you do eventually elect surgery, I had a terrific experience with Dr. Ash
Tewari at Weil Cornell Columbia in NYC.  (Is that close enough to Philly?)
He is head of Robotic Surgery and has performed well over a thousand RRPs. I
found him to be not only quite knowledgeable, but a kind, concerned and
modest human being who took time to answer questions and address concerns.
He has gathered a sharp team around him as well. Incidentally, his
statistics look quite good, but by his own admission, there is not enough
data yet on robotic surgery to compare outcomes definitively to those of
classical RP. His office number is 212 746-5638.

He did my surgery August 10, and I am down to a pad a day and beginning to
show erectile signs of life.  (I'm 60 years young, Gleason 3+3=6, cancer in
both lobes, negative margins, 7-weeks post-op PSA 0.0).

Michael K

Ed,

Relax!

Quickly increasing PSA is not ever good.  But, "bad" is relative.

At this point, your chances of having cancer are, maybe, 50/50.  Maybe less.
Maybe as little as 33%.

Your chances of dying from cancer, at this point, are maybe 10%.

You really don't know enough about your diagnosis to panic.  Your doctor may
prescribe antibiotics and tell you to wait another three months for another
PSA.

So, relax.  Worry a bit.  Read a lot.