Jan 9th 2025 diagnosis

Welcome aboard mate. You've clearly got a cracking sense of humour looking at the name you have used, so that will help you!

It's a difficult choice that we all have to make, and there is no right answer. Everybody is different.

I can only offer advice based on my own situation. I tried AS for a while but it didn't work for me. I suppose it put off having treatment for a few months, so in a way it wasn't all bad, but unfortunately my disease progressed to T3a and I had to have it dealt with.

I chose surgery, as I wanted the best chance of being rid of the tumours. You'll maybe see some horror stories on here, but there are also plenty of success stories. The surgery itself is a doddle. Bit sore for a few days, and no lifting, bending etc etc, but to be honest it was nowhere near as bad as expected. The side effects are a pain, but then they are much better than the alternative.

Ask lots of questions on here before you go for your meeting. Get advice from people who have had all forms of treatment (they are a great bunch on here, so plenty will be offered) and don't feel pressured into making a decision until you are ready.

Good luck with whatever you decide mate, and keep us posted.

Ian.

Hello mate,

I'm sorry that you've had to join the club but welcome to the forum.

The link below suggests that your BRCA1 puts you at a bit more risk regarding 'disease progression' and therefore may question the use of active surveillance

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405456919301464

The good news is your PSA and your Gleason score are relatively low and the cancer is confined to the prostate.

I believe there is something in the link suggesting that because of your BRCA, surgery may be more effective than RT?

I'm not medically trained, but unless you're told otherwise, I don't think you need to rush in making a further treatment decision.

My only advice is take one step at a time and try not to worry about 'what ifs'

If you decide on surgery, the fitter you are the better, so shedding a couple of pounds would be a good idea.

I took the surgical route. Here's how I've got on so far.

https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/posts/t30214-Almost-a-year-on-after-RARP

Whatever decisions you make. I wish you and your family the best of luck mate.👍

I also love your sense of humour. I can't think of a better username for this site. Nice one, mate. 😂

Perhaps, after the op, you'll change your name to I. P Knightley? 😬

Edited by member 15 Jan 2025 at 10:57  | Reason: Typo

Agreed that six cores seems way too few, even then assuming they focused and took two or three of the cores from the area of concern that leaves only three or four for the rest of your entire prostate. I would be very leery of basing an AS decision or other major treatment decision with so little. My biopsy was a fusion MpMRI directed at a PIRADS 4 lesion and three cores were taken from the lesion and then a grid random 12 cores from the rest of the prostate. My lesion actually turned out benign but 5 of the other cores contained cancer even one core of Gleason 8. I would not make such a major decision believing that, that is all you have is one core of a 7. (3+4) when they BARELY biopsied you. Maybe it is but at least have them gather enough tissue from around the prostate to have confidence in their finding.