While reading the bio of forum member, I noted the following advantage to radical prostatectomy (paraphrased):"No more PCa factory"
As I have written in multiple posts I am enjoying very effective triplet therapy against my high volume metastatic prostate cancer. And because my cancer was diagnosed so late (multiple metastases to the spine and a PSA of 1700+) I never had any surgery or radiation. I generally think that in this crummy world of prostate cancer that this was a major blessing!
Tall_Allen once alluded to the idea that once metastasis has occurred then the idea that the prostate was the original source of cancer is not that relevant any more. The cancer is now a systemic problem.
This was the thinking of my doctors who saved me from surgery and radiation - apparently there would be no upside with prostate removal in terms of suppressing cancer - and there would be a lot of downsides. And so we have just been fighting cancer for two years with drugs (and have program of chemo). So far very good results.
But the poster's bio comment about "a factory" got me thinking. Is there any sense that a prostate-still-in-place is a kind of "prostate cancer cell factory pumping out cells to colonize distant locations for metastasis?" And that this prostate factory could in fact be more important and even dominant in my body system than other prostate cancer metastases? If this is the case then perhaps there is still an argument for a prostatectomy? Which would be horrible I think.
Currently my sense is that the prostate is not special anymore in terms of cancer cell germination and dispersal.
Any thoughts on this will be welcome!