 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate BPH / May 2008Why 18 cores instead of 12?
Why 18 cores instead of 12? Hi all, Im going in for a prostate biopsy in 2 weeks or so. The Urologist says he wants to do 18 sticks. Most people I have spoken with have never had more that 12. So far as I know, there is nothing special about my presentation: 55 yo male, enlarged prostate X 15 years PSA rose from 2.4 in 2001 to 5.25 in 2008, no symptoms, no nodules or tumors on DRE. Why the extra cores? The doctor sort of made a half joke that as long as he's in there, there's no difference between 1 stick or 18. GMAFB. I'm a paramedic and I know very well what the difference is. I'm not happy with that kind of answer. He also put me on Avodart for a month before the procedure. Anybody ever heard of that? 1) Are there any extra complications from the extra sticks? 2) Are there any studies showing more cancer is found from 18 sticks as opposed to 12? TIA Hi piker, I suspect that the reason for the additional "sticks" is because your prostate is enlarged, and more samples would have a better chance of finding cancer than 6, 8, or 12 samples. My PSA crossed just above 4 about 10 yrs ago, has been bouncing around between 4.5 and 6 since then, and I have resisted a biopsy because I have no other symptoms. I have gone to 2 different specialists in the last 5 yrs to have a color-doppler ultrasound of the prostate. Both Doctors do not biopsy unless they see something suspicious. In my case neither Doctor found any suspicious areas. I watched the procedure on a color monitor, and it is sensitive enough that you can actually see the blood pulsing through the veins. My big hangup about the biopsy is that if nothing is found, you really don't have a negative diagnosis, and will probably face additional biopsies in the future. I suppose the biggest complication from the biopsy, other than the discomfort, is the chance of infection from puncturing the intestine. Don Hi Don, Thanks for replying. My PSA has been slowly but steadily rising over the past 15 or 20 years. No other signs or symptoms, though. I wasn't real keen on a biopsy either. I'm with you in that I think it's probably unneccessary until there is some specific reason, +DRE, Ultrasound, etc. I think doctors tend to biopsy almost routinely now. Read recently that last year there were 1.6 MILLION biopsies performed last year. Were they all really necessary?? Doubtful.But they wore me down, so I'm doing it. My main worry about the number of sticks is post surgical complications. All procedures carry that risk despite how the doctors downplay it. BTW, I like the approach your doctors take to the issue, are your doctors in the Atlanta area by any chance? In article <1208fba2-ea24-4ffb-9fa6-b19337b4c467@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, PRIJPAUDZGGS@spammotel.com says... >Hi piker, > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > >Don > BTW, I like the approach your doctors take to the issue, are your > doctors in the Atlanta area by any chance? Piker, No, the Doctors that I went to were Dr. Fred Lee of Rochester Urology in the Detroit area and Dr Duke Bahn of the Prostate Institute of America in Ventura, CA (saw Dr Bahn last August). Here is a link to other Drs. who have the color doppler equipment: http://www.alternative-health-group.org/power-color-doppler.html And here is a link to an article by Dr Bahn that explains the procedure and equipment: http://www.prostate-cancer.org/education/staging/Bahn_ColorDopplerUltrasound.html FYI Don > Why 18 cores instead of 12? > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > TIA Yes, with a high PSA, you are guilty til proved innocent, and they won't give you a PVP til you are exonerated. This is fairly absurd since they don't believe PSA can distinguish between cancer and BPH. (though free PSA will do better). Color Doppler Ultrasound is a good idea, tho it won't detect the smallest cancers. Dr. Fred Lee in Rochester Mich is the great expert in this. Does anybody know of somebody who does this as a way of testing for prostate cancer, somebody in New York City? A further ilogic in this medical circus is that if you have an enlarged prostate, the biopsy (now escalating to "saturation," upwards of 72 sticks), will further inflame yr prostate and shut you down, requiring cateterization. Jesse > Does anybody know of somebody who does this as a way of > testing for prostate cancer, somebody in New York City? A further [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Jesse Jesse, I just noticed your question about a Dr. in the New York area. In the link I provided: http://www.alternative-health-group.org/power-color-doppler.html I see that Dr. Bard is located in New York, NY. His web site is: http://www.cancerscan.com/ Hope this is what you were asking about. Don > Why 18 cores instead of 12? > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > The Urologist says he wants to do 18 sticks. Most people > I have spoken with have never had more that 12. Hi Piker, Can you share with us how the biopsy went? Don |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.