RP With Lymph Node Positive PCa

[gusgold]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/281...

[Dr_WHO]

A lot of surgeons still will not operate if there is involvement to the pelvic area. I had to argue with my surgeon and show him some studies done in Italy to operate even though my cancer spread to the pelvic lymph nodes (G8, T3N1, Ductal). That was followed by 38 rounds of radiation and two years of hormonal therapy (about 8 months into it). So far so good.

[dmt1121]

I originally had a contrast CT Scan after initial diagnosis and prior to surgery that showed one potential lymph node in the pelvic region to be positive. The urologist had the image read a second time and decided it might be my spleen. Based on this, I was allowed to go onto get a radical robotically assisted prostatectomy. The surgery showed the tumor container within the prostate capsule, However, one out of fourteen lymph nodes tested was in fact positive (probably the one I was given a pass on). In retrospect, I believe the urologist made a conscious decision to recommend me for the surgery based on the fact that I was 57 years old, young for prostate cancer.

The cancer was considered aggressive and had a post-surgery diagnosis of T2c N1 M0 (Stage 4). Since then (May 2016), I have had chemotherapy and Lupron treatments and my post-surgery PSA of 0.01 had stayed there. I believe that removing the source of the cancer (the tumor) is critical to the effectiveness of other types of systemic treatments for obtaining a curative outcome. I am very thankful I had the surgery and was able to go directly into chemotherapy. I believe that as time goes on, this approach will gain more support in the medical profession through additional studies and the data they provide.