Upon my doctor's advice I had a Decipher Genetic Test done to help decide on treatment for my prostrate cancer. I received a $1,500 bill (USA, obviously), but also an application for the Decipher Assist program. Does anyone have experience with this? I expect I make too much money to qualify, but how will they evaluate my application?
Regarding the test itself... It showed my cancer as more high-risk than I'd like, so I am now thinking about surgery rather than just active surveillance.
Why surgery?
Hmmm, well let's see if I can recall all the answers I received when I asked this question...
I am only 60, and if I tried radiation now it would make surgery less advantageous if the cancer came back. The cancer is not in just a small portion of the prostrate that could be easily targeted. Prostrate cancer runs in my family. And also my doctor just likes cutting people up.
You have been misinformed because you did not talk to experts in the other treatments. Here are the answers you would get if you spoke to them.
(1) "I am only 60" I was 57 when treated - what has age to do with it?
(2) "if I tried radiation now it would make surgery less advantageous if the cancer came back." That is true as stated, but the question should be "what salvage therapies are best if radiation fails?" The answer is, more focussed radiation. As you can see in the table at the end of the following article, the many salvage therapies have better outcomes than salvage surgery. More importantly, with recurrence rates of less than a few percent, why is salvage even a consideration?
prostatecancer.news/2017/09...
(3) "The cancer is not in just a small portion of the prostate that could be easily targeted." I agree. Focal ablation is not a good idea for you. But whole gland radiotherapy is.
(4)"Prostate cancer runs in my family. " Yes, your genomics are not the best. But how does that influence choice of therapy?
(5)"And also my doctor just likes cutting people up." LOL! Clearly! That's why you owe it to yourself to make the effort to get a full, true picture.
I think all of us have been through the "just cut it out" phase, so I do understand. I hope you can get beyond that and make a more well-considered decision.
I agree with Allen on all counts with clarification on #1. In my case age was a big factor on deciding between AS and treatment. I was 58 and decided that, because I was young and felt I had a long life ahead, AS was not an option for me. AS would only delay the inevitable for essentially the purpose of delaying the side effects. I decided on whole gland RT and the side effects have been negligible especially when compared to the stress of living with knowing you have cancer growing in your body. There is no way I would have elected for surgery over RT at my young age, THOSE side effects were not worth it to me. If AS was a consideration before the genomic test, jumping to surgery is overkill.
I had the Decipher test performed but locked in a price of 100 dollars with a company representative. I received a bill for 4000 dollars but only paid 100. They were changing to a program where you would pay base on income and family size at that time.
Hello Ab75, I am in a similar situation, how do they determine the "Number of persons in Family Household" and "Gross Annual Household Income". Those are two of the questions on the application. I have not been working for a year now and any reduction in my medical bills would be nice.
I had the Decipher test and my urologist said it would cost me about $700, however, Decipher submitted to my health insurance a bill for almost $5,500. My health insurance said it was out of network, but I should only pay about $2,000. I have yet to receive the bill directly from Decipher and based on your post I will now look into the assistance program. The lesson I learned is to always get pre-approval before proceeding.
dont know your numbers ..but gleason 6 doesnt require surgery
Hello Smasher, What was the outcome of your Decipher application? It did not appear that anyone had responded to your request for information.
They never responded. They ghosted me. I ended up paying the full amount.
I had decipher and it wasn’t covered by insurance. After about 6 months of back and forth, they sent me a bill for $395, reduced from their total price of about $5500. If insurance had paid it, I would have owed 20% so Ithink I was better off as it was and gladly paid that. I had no firms and surely would not have passed a low income test. My thinking is they still want your data for future proof to insurances that the test is valid. So when charging directly they discount the price to keep their data gathering intact. The $100 sure,y would have been nicer though. 😀
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