MO recommendation in Boston

[Rfs1975]

I am looking for a MO recommendation in Boston, thanks in advance.

[Tall_Allen]

Matthew Smith at Mass General, Chris Sweeney at B&W or Dana Farber, Mary Ellen Taplin at Dana Farber

[Rfs1975 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thanks Tall Allen, you guys are all great! I got responses within hours.

[MrkP]

Mark Pomerantz at DFCI.

[DarkEnergy in reply to MrkP]

Well, of course!

[Rfs1975 in reply to MrkP]

Thanks

[DarkEnergy]

Well, with all respects to Nalakrats and Tall_Allen, premier knowledge and immensely respected in this forum, But, I have hands on knowledge with this question.

Dr Mark Pomerantz from Dana Farber is my MO and recommend him highly. He spends the time with patients and addresses concerns with what is known, he's not all over the place with research papers and travels like Chris Sweeney and Mary Ellen Taplin. I did consider them, but scheduling visits would be a challenge.

And Dr Pomerantz is bold to go beyond SOC, this was paramount for picking an MO. But, you better do your homework and understand beyond SOC (lack of Clinical Trails) care when discussing this with him.

Was very impressed when we agreed on getting Chemo, while my PSA is <0.02, we had a great discussion about circulating tumor cells (CTC) from the primary prostate tumor. Not all CTC "would" be hormone sensitive.

Anyway, the other MO candidate was from Tufts, can't remember his name, but someone posted his name here recently.

[Tall_Allen in reply to DarkEnergy]

I think you're raising a good point. I can argue both sides. As you point out, the advantage of not going with the top name MOs in the field is that you are likely to get more personal time. In fact, some of the top names no longer take patients. Maybe they are more likely to offer standard of care, which has known safety and effectiveness. For most patients, the SOC is excellent.

The advantages of the top names who go to and present at major conferences is that

• they are aware of leading edge developments

• they all know one another, know what the others are working on, and can easily reach out for opinions

• they work on the most promising clinical trials and may have a sense as to which are yielding good results

• they have the experience of hundreds of patients to inform their practice

[DarkEnergy in reply to Tall_Allen]

Should have added, that Chris Sweeney, Mary Ellen Taplin and other birds of the feather, bring home their knowledge, which happens to be Dana Farber and Harvard Medical School's associated health facilities.

Actually, I knew about Dr. Mark Pomerantz from my healthcare software development work, before my PCa diagnosis!

I've worked on NIH/CDC clinical research standard data sets that can be reused across clinical trials. But politics killed such an endeavor, research centers don't want to share data. Dr. Mark Pomernatz is Dana Farber's resident computer geek...

Clinical Research Internal Review Boards (IRB) and HIPAA are used as "facade" barriers.

[Hotrod65 in reply to DarkEnergy]

Dr Paul Mathew MD, Tufts Cancer Center, Geniturinary MO, Specialization in PC, Director of Molecular Oncology Research Lab and professor of Medicine at teaching Hospital..My Guy and saving my life with experimental immunotheraphy.

[Rfs1975]

DarkEnergy,

Thanks for giving me a complete overview. Hope you are doing well

[MrkP in reply to Rfs1975]

Pomerantz is my MO. I did a clinical trial with him. What have you done beyond the SOC?

[Rfs1975 in reply to MrkP]

Thanks MrkP

I had a RP by David Canes at Lahey clinic in June 2016, PSA <.01 for 22 months, then a jump to <.06, started SRT in June 2019 had my PSA tested in October, <.03 and getting retested next week. My MO at Lahey thinks monitoring my PSA is all that is needed so far.

[DarkEnergy in reply to Rfs1975]

Interesting, my first MO was from Lahey Health Cancer Institute, it was so convenient going there. But the doc is an Hematology Oncologist , in just one month into PCa diagnosis, couldn't answer my questions.

[tom67inMA in reply to DarkEnergy]

Interesting indeed. My MO is also hematology and oncology, and answers a lot of my questions along the lines of "we don't know in prostate cancer, but in breast cancer study xxx showed yyy". Given that I have had two separate cancers, I like that my MO has wide experience to draw from. He also mentioned he has two neuroendocrine prostate patients right now, and recommended I don't choose that path

[TonyS58 in reply to tom67inMA]

My MO is at Lahey and is up-to-date (based on what I've learned here). I did have a consultation with Dr. David Einstein at Beth Israel who mostly concurred with my treatment plan... but for logistical reasons, I decided to stay with Lahey. Dr. Einstein offered to take me into his service, meet with me periodically, or to consult at major decision points along the way.

It needs to be said that many of the doctors in the Boston hospitals are children of Harvard Medical School - they know each other, we're residents together, or are on faculty together. They are very aware of the current studies and state-of-the-art.

My recommendation is to find a MO you're comfortable with and consult with one of the names TA mentioned if you can get an appointment or with Einstein at BI as a check to see what other options/trials are available.

[DarkEnergy in reply to Rfs1975]

Well, as you know, getting PCa diagnosis sucks, but at this point we're in a different state of mind and life.

So, I'm doing well, I believe every problem has an underlining opportunity, I'm living the vida loca.

Cheers, to you my brother!

[Rfs1975]

Thanks Nalakrats

[DarkEnergy]

Well, PCa is state management, it depends on our cancer cells ability to mutate. The state is when our PCa cells mutate against ADT, currently, no one knows when and why, our cancer cells preceded us, they do not respond to our lifetime, they are passed on through generations.

[EchoII]

Mary Ellen Taplin if you want the cutting edge or a clinical trial. She is one of my two MOs.

[ctflatlander in reply to EchoII]

I couldn't get an appm't w/her. Not taking new patients.

[Faith1111 in reply to ctflatlander]

Dr Mark Pomerantz at Dana Farber. Saw him yesterday with my brother. He’s an amazing doctor. You will be very happy with him

[ctflatlander in reply to Faith1111]

Thank you

[EchoII in reply to EchoII]

I was very lucky and I waited a year for an appointment

[Hotrod65]

Dr.Paul Mathew..Tufts Medical center.. Geniturinary Oncologist, ..PC Specialization..read his bio on Tufts website...my Guy and saving my life.

[dogstar1]

My husband's oncologist was Dr. Glenn Bubley at Beth Israel. All those folks in what we came to call the "Harvard-multiplex" (Dana Farber, Harvard, Beth Israel -- even Mass General) know each other, participate in clinical trials together, talk regularly with each other. So we got Dr. Bubley's very wonderful "bedside manner" plus all the cutting edge clinical trial connections to boot. He also collaborates, as do many other MOs, with folks in other fields such as radiology, so when we needed a referral, he had excellent suggestions.

IMHO find someone you are compatible with both in terms of medical approaches and personality. Dr. Bubley was very willing to discuss alternatives, to discuss the latest study (even if it had a very small cohort of patients and results were not generalizable). He also discussed baseball when a break from cancer discussion was what my husband needed!

Importantly (for us, at least) he values patient autonomy. Decisions were always collaborative; it was never "my way or the highway." The nurse who works with him also is wonderful.

Obviously, I cannot say enough good things about him and his staff.

[TonyS58 in reply to dogstar1]

Unfortunately, Dr Bubley isnt taking new patients... a problem with many of the names mentioned here. Thats how I got in to see David Einstein.

[Mikeski]

I’m seeing Dr Atish Choudhury at Dana Farber. I just completed Formula 509 trial. 6 months ADT - Lupron, Zytiga, Eralda combo, coinciding with SRT.