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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate Cancer / April 2006Ready for any prostate cancer questions
If it seems this newsgroup is getting off topic, that is just because right now no one has any questions or problems popping up. This group is populated with very experienced and knowledgable prostate cancer patients (and some newbies like me). They watch the group as a service, and sometimes when there are no prostate cancer questions end up getting into long, off topic posts. Feel free to speak right up if you have any questions or concerns about prostate cancer. laurel Laurel, a simple question. Gleason 4+3. RP Jan 2006, one month later PSA 0,07 no other prescriptions awaiting second PSA test.Would you consider this "no therapy" , more than 3 month later correct? Colophony > If it seems this newsgroup is getting off topic, that is just because > right now no one has any questions or problems popping up. This group [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > up getting into long, off topic posts. Feel free to speak right up if > you have any questions or concerns about prostate cancer. laurel > Laurel, > a simple question. Gleason 4+3. > RP Jan 2006, one month later PSA 0,07 no other prescriptions awaiting second > PSA test.Would you consider this "no therapy" , more than 3 month later > correct? > Colophony OK, a simple answer. Yes. You should at least have had another PSA to see if it went to zero. And be choosing a course of action (even if you chose no action) if it didn't. But I wonder why you are only asking that question? Are you wondering what else should be done? When's your next PSA test, colophony? What did your surgical pathology report say? What do you want to happen? Are you trying to get treatment and you can't? What does the doctor say? best wishes, laurel I should be able to rely next PSA test on the 4th of May. My concern is that my uro/surgeon tells me very little. The only thing he said was that the first PSA 0,07 (two digits) was good and nothing else. Reading the posts of this group I notice that everybody does something else after the radical prostatectomy while I do not do anything. OK I will wait next PSA and may be my uro will tell me more. Thanks Colophony >> Laurel, >> a simple question. Gleason 4+3. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > laurel Hi colophony, Many of the regular posters have advanced prostate cancer and indeed usually have followup treatments after there initial treatment. However, many patients have been lucky and have caught there cancer early enough that they haven't needed any followup treatment. I for one have been one of those lucky ones (so Far) three years post LRP and still am <.1. So maybe you will also be one of the lucky ones and not need followup treatment. It's still a little early since your RP to be overly worried. However I can understand your concern as this is something quite scary for most of us when we first find out we have the dreaded Cancer bug. Ron S. > I should be able to rely next PSA test on the 4th of May. My concern is that > my uro/surgeon tells me very little. The only thing he said was that the > first PSA 0,07 (two digits) was good and nothing else. Reading the posts of > this group I notice that everybody does something else after the radical colophony, The people who are on the groups any length of time tend to be the people who did not have a cure from RP. A lot of people do have cures. They pop up every so often and give their info (4 years still undetectable, or whatever). They answer questions, too, but generally they aren't as involved because they don't have issues. It is those of us who had unhappy results from the surgery that keep asking questions, mostly. If you would put your info in from your surgical reports, people would give you more info than your uro did, about what it means. But really, about half the men never need to do anything else after surgery. Your pathology report will tell a lot about whether you need to be concerned with further treatment besides monitoring your PSA. laurel thanks to Laurel and Ron, i feel little bit better Colophony >> I should be able to rely next PSA test on the 4th of May. My concern is >> that [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > laurel I guess, too, colophony that if the RP pretty well takes care of things, people don't tend to keep learning as much. It's really not very informative to go in 3-4 times a year and give a small blood sample. Then go on back to the golf course, the latex factory, the potato chip truck, the class room, law office or whatever. I suppose you get a phone call in a day or two and PSA is acceptable. I don't know. at this point, 6 1/2 weeks post RP I've had to have a dialation (opened up urethra where it had been attached to the bladder, sort of roto rooter ) and had bad infection. I am Cipro resistant, or the infection is, and on anti-biotic Keflex. Maybe in a month they might scedule radiation. I just don't know yet. I'll sure let you know what's happening to me pst RP. It's just "not much" right now. David > It's really not > very informative to go in 3-4 times a year and give a small blood > sample. Unless it starts rising again, in which case its VERY useful, as it starts the research phase all over again. I.P. a simple question. Gleason 4+3. RP Jan 2006, one month later PSA 0,07 no other prescriptions awaiting second PSA test.Would you consider this "no therapy" , more than 3 month later correct? Colophony =========== it usually is common practice to wait 90 days after the psa test to find out what direction or what level the psa reading is at and that will usually dictate the next sequence of events. since your RP was in jan 2006 and they pulled the psa in feb, the .007 is a good number, but will pull the psa again in may and it should be listed as "undetectable" as close to that, since you are using a three digit psa blood test. given the nature of the question, when you said, Would you consider this "no therapy" --------- i don't have the information as to what the stage was, nor the path report, nor if there was invasion to give a comment. ~ curtis knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional "Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so." http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc > a simple question. Gleason 4+3. > RP Jan 2006, one month later PSA 0,07 no other prescriptions awaiting [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > listed as "undetectable" as close to that, since you are using a three > digit psa blood test. Curtis, I'm guessing that the comma in "0,07" is what we in the U.S. would replace with a decimal point, so Colophony is only .07, not .007. Colophony, However, that's still a decent number. It's not clear exactly what constitutes evidence of success, and any number below 0.1 used to be taken as indicating success. Some doctors even use 0.2. I agree with everyone else that your upcoming PSA test is the one that will tell the tale. I suggest that, in addition to getting the PSA test, ask the uro for a copy of the pathology report. After RP, the excised prostate is supposed to be taken to a pathologist for examination and he can tell you a lot of things about the disease that weren't known from the biopsy. I agree with Laurel / Juniper. The majority of men who get surgery do _not_ need follow up treatment. Here's hoping you're in the majority. Alan Does anyone know how fast a prostate can enlarge in a year? When I had RP back in Dec of 2004, I was surprised to find out that it was 56 grams. I had been told through the years, prior to this of course, that during my annual DRE/PSA tests that my prostate was small and supple with no suspicious nodules. (Ha, so much for the finger alone really knowing what's going on!) B.A. > Does anyone know how fast a prostate can enlarge in a year? When I had > RP back in Dec of 2004, I was surprised to find out that it was 56 [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > B.A. Bob, I sure hope someone will answer this. What does "small and supple" mean, size-wise? Sounds more like a "oh don't worry" comment than a diagnosis. As far as I know, it is difficult to estimate the size of the prostate from a DRE. This study indicates that there is low accuracy without special training: http://tinyurl.com/g7gnk. In our experience, my husband's prostate glad grew by 1/3 overnight. The TRUS at biopsy said 27 grams, but the endorectal MRI said 39 grams (which is also what the surgical pathology report said.) laurel Wed, Apr 26, 2006, 12:49pm (CDT+1) From: bobantho@bellsouth.net (Bob Anthony) Does anyone know how fast a prostate can enlarge in a year? When I had RP back in Dec of 2004, I was surprised to find out that it was 56 grams. I had been told through the years, prior to this of course, that during my annual DRE/PSA tests that my prostate was small and supple with no suspicious nodules. (Ha, so much for the finger alone really knowing what's going on!) B.A. ======= there is no pattern that i know of as to an average annual growth rate of a prostate. maybe the gov't will launch a study into this one. we studied everything else. as long as the prostate is in the body, it is a guess as to how big it really is, whether it is by finger or by machine. the TRUS unit measured my prostate at 30 grams and i still have the photos the uro made. when my path report came back, it weighed in at 55 grams, almost double. just hours before i had the RP surgery, the uro's finger couldn't feel any nodes or anything out of the ordinary, even though we both knew that both lobes had pca in them. ~ curtis knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional "Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so." http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc Did I break an unknown rule? It just seemed like the topics were getting pretty far-ranging, so I wanted anyone with a PCa question to feel free to jump in. But these 2 questions have been here 12 hours, and no one has spoken up. So I'm wondering if you're 'punishing' me for this post? By not answering these guys? If so, that's pretty awful. If I screwed up then tell me, my email address works, but you don't have to, like, ignore these guys. laurel > If it seems this newsgroup is getting off topic, that is just because > right now no one has any questions or problems popping up. This group [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > up getting into long, off topic posts. Feel free to speak right up if > you have any questions or concerns about prostate cancer. laurel Hi Laurel: Thanks for your reply. I think that the people here are not ignoring your post. Maybe my question was boring ;) There are some pretty good writers with smarts on this ng and I think that the OT posts are somewhat of an interesting diversion for most of them. Some of the members here should have become professional op-ed writers and or novelists. The health care debates are somewhat informative although they can get a bit nasty at times when politics/religion get into the mix. I guess OT posts are good sometimes, but we should not lose focus on why we are all here in the first place. B.A. > Hi Laurel: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > B.A. Thanks, Bob, I was in a chat last night and they laughed at me in a friendly way, for worrying. Oh well, could be worse. What's worse than being self-centered, impulsive and egotisitcal? Uh. Walking under an elephant with diahrrea? It is some pretty good writing, I agree. Amazes me. Keep on posting, Bob. And thanks again for the comfort. laurel > Did I break an unknown rule? It just seemed like the topics were > getting pretty far-ranging, so I wanted anyone with a PCa question to [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > awful. If I screwed up then tell me, my email address works, but you > don't have to, like, ignore these guys. laurel 1. 12 hours is a blink of the eye for those of us not glued to our screens. 2. They should be posing questions in new threads to catch our eye and to address the whole forum rather than appearing to be asking one person their question. 3. Your opening post was well-timed and poignant. We HAVE gotten way OT lately. BUT . . . and this is a big BUTT . . . we do it with aplomb, compared to almost every other forum on USENET. A. We mark OT threads as OT. B. Most of us avoid ad hominem (unsupported, unjustified personal attacks). That's virtually unheard of when politics are involved. I.P. > 1. 12 hours is a blink of the eye for those of us not glued to our screens. True. My time sense was skewed. > 2. They should be posing questions in new threads to catch our eye and > to address the whole forum rather than appearing to be asking one person > their question. I.P., if this newsgroup is only for experienced internet-support-savvy prostate cancer patients, maybe we should add that to the newsgroup name. alt.support.cancer.prostate.expert. After the vitrol of some recent posts, I'm glad that they post at all. In the 4 months I have been on this list, I have figured out a lot about good times to start new threads, when to stay in the same one. But that comes with experience. And I'm not great at it yet. Just better. And, there are no hard-and-fast rules anyway. The big issue was that one about my time sense. > 3. Your opening post was well-timed and poignant. We HAVE gotten way OT > lately. BUT . . . and this is a big BUTT . . . we do it with aplomb, I didn't mean for it to be poignant, and I don't even have a problem with all the recent posts. I read what I want and skip the rest. I just wanted a thread to pop up that sounded inviting. best regards, laurel > Did I break an unknown rule? You may have, but if it's unknown, don't worry about it. > But these 2 questions have been here 12 hours, > and no one has spoken up. So I'm wondering if you're 'punishing' me > for this post? I've been awful busy. My wife had the worst flu of her life. My mom is getting ready for a third hip replacement on her right side on May 1. However, I agree with you on colophony. At 0.07 (if that's what 0,07 means) he's doing very well and should be worried more about the tower in Pisa than his own cancer right now. As to the growth rate of a prostate, I'm completely at a loss.  SignaturePSA 16 10/17/2000 @ 46 Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c RRP 12/15/2000 G7 (3+4), T3cN0M0 Neg margins PSA .1 .1 .1 .27 .37 .75 EBRT 05-07/2002 @ 47 PSA .34 .22 .15 .21 .32 Lupron 07/03 (1 mo) 8/03 (4 mo), 12/03, 4/04, 09/04, 01/05, 5/05, 10/05, 2/06 PSA .07 .05 .06 .09 .08 .132 Non Illegitimi Carborundum
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