All Roads Lead to the Same Place
After I was diagnosed with prostate cancer three weeks ago, I have been spending a good deal of time researching treatment options. I think it has been time well spent. What I know today can help me spot biased information. For example, a video entitled "3 Reasons Radiation Treatment May Not Be Your Best Option" came up in my YouTube feed today. Obviously, I have been watching YouTube videos about prostate cancer. Most of them from Prostate Cancer Research Institute. This one was not. This one was from a urologist. Shockingly, he was pro-surgery. The whole video, besides a boring history part at the beginning, was just him listing the radiation side effect risks. That is just too easy. Anyone can make their argument sound good by listing the disadvantages of the other option without mentioning any disadvantages of your option.
All Roads Lead to the Same Place. Maybe that should end with a question mark. I am too new to prostate cancer to say definitively. I thought if I kept searching I would find the killer app: a treatment that has the highest chance of preventing recurrence with the lowest risk of urinary and sexual side effects. I didn't find it.
It seems like no matter what we choose - surgery or radiation - there is a good chance that 5 or 10 years down the road the cancer might be coming back, and oh by the way you're also incontinent and impotent. What a great disease. But that's not all folks. No, unbelievably, there's more. ADT shrinks your junk to pre-pubescent size, and takes whatever sexual function you might have had left after surgery or radiation and throws it in the trash.
Stats: 64 Years old, decent shape otherwise, prostate-contained T1c, PSA 5.6, Gleason 4+3 in 4/13 cores and 3+4 in 2/13 cores, unfavorable intermediate risk.