For the guys: important advice on prostate cancer detection and treatment. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 8 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
- Don’t let it sneak up on you.
- There are two easy tests as early indicators, the PSA blood test and the DRE. Your doctor does them to set a base line. Do it by age 40, then annually.
- If you’re considered at risk, get an MRI before you go for the biopsy.
- If the MRI points to likely cancer, get a biopsy. But get the good one, not the bad one.
- The bad, most common biopsy is done in the doctor’s office, and is inaccurate, painful, and comes with substantial infection risk. The good biopsy is done in the hospital MRI machine under sedation. It’s accurate, painless, with minimal infection risk. You won’t necessarily be told about the good one. Ask questions.
- If you need treatment, the common options offered are radical prostatectomy or radiation. Both come with big-time side effects. You won’t necessarily be told about the recent, more focal options. Ask specifically about: Focal Laser Ablation, Cryogenic, High Frequency Ultrasound, and emerging nanotechnology. My choice was Focal Laser Ablation, as the most focused, with the least collateral damage. Still classified as “investigational”, it’s been around for seven years. Doctor Sperling in Florida gets a big thumbs up from me.
Listen to your doctors but be your own patient advocate; do your research, talk to people, question things. Don’t let it sneak up on you. That would be bad. As in, cancer-spreading, slow, painful death bad. I did all the above, and I think I dodged a bullet. But 34,000 fatalities per year and countless injured guys weren’t so lucky. And girls, share this with the guys you know. Hopefully this helps somebody.
