What Do You Do When You’re Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer
The news is excellent about prostate cancer. Although it is the third most often diagnosed cancer in men in the United States, following skin and lung cancers, 98 percent of sufferers are still alive five years after diagnosis. This is a vast improvement over the 64 percent rate of the late 1980s. Although the rate drops to 91 percent ten years after diagnosis this is still an impressive survival rate considering that the group includes men who were first diagnosed with advanced cancer and many older men of whom an appreciable number have other health issues.
The news can be very excellent to be sure; for example, 99 percent of men with Gleason 6 organ confined prostate cancer have not had any relapse (biochemical failure) a decade after surgical treatment. Further, it is very unlikely that these men will experience a recurrence after that time.
Maintenance the aforementioned "excellent news" uppermost in mind. As it has been observed, a man is far more likely to die WITH prostate cancer than OF it. Prostate cancer tends to be an indolent disease and many men may live to a ripe ancient age to die of something else even if left untreated. Although treatment proffers survival advantages to many, such as men diagnosed at a younger age and those with aggressive disease, some men may do well with "watchful waiting", frequently measuring their PSA readings to monitor whether their cancer remains at a stable level. The clearest case for watchful waiting seems to be for elderly men with low level disease with a less than 10 year life expectancy.
Don't go it alone. Whether you're an average man or consider yourself emotionally tough you stand to benefit from having people to lean on and use as a sounding board to ensure that your decisions regarding your disease are reasonable. There are many likely candidates to help you through this period. They range from family and friends to your physician or your clergyman. Virtually every community has a number of prostate cancer support groups that provide access to information and the shared experiences of others who have gone through exactly what you are facing. And there is a tremendous amount of information about this disease on the internet although as with every other type of on-line information you will need to do some work to ensure that it is is accurate.
Concern about incontinence - most prostate cancer treatments have the potential to compromise a man's ability to control his urinary voiding function. The experience between different men and between different physicians is quite variable. Some physicians can demonstrate impressive continence rates for their patients; others less so. And some men will experience long drawn out problems despite receiving brilliant treatment.
Each remedial approach has its particular strengths and weaknesses and depending on a man's particular clinical circumstance and personality type, may be more or less appropriate for him. That is why it is so vital for a man to familiarize himself with his choices before making a pronouncement. Shop wisely!
Much depends on the choice of the surgeon and to a lesser extent, on which facility the surgery is performed in. The differences in cancer control and successful recovery rates are quite pronounced between the best surgeons and those of average ability.
Make a treatment pronouncement that you are comfortable with - By the time most men end doing their "homework" a treatment pronouncement (or even the pronouncement to defer treatment) will have assumed a certain shape in their mind. It will be the result of time spent speaking with their support crew of family and friends, hearing or conception about prostate cancer survivors' experiences, conception the information available in print and on the internet, speaking to physicians about the best course of action to take and doing a honest amount of thinking. By the time most men go forward with their pronouncement much of their early dread and uncertainty has vanished and the road ahead assumed at least some sort of reassuring outline Over a longer span of time subsequent to treatment most men express a honestly high degree of satisfaction with the treatment decisions they made.
Learn more about prostate cancer. Contact Dr. Ash Tewari.