radiation vs surgery

Hi , Have you done biopsy and know your Gleason score? It seems your PSA reading is pretty low and depending on your Gleason score in a post biopsy and also the size of lesion and if local to prostate or not usually your urologist/oncologist can recommend and discuss Active surveillance, Radiation or Surgery.
I’m about your age and I had Gleason score Of 3+4=7, cancer was local to prostate which was considered intermediate level with regard to how aggressive the cancer is, also last PSA was around 13 and after discussion and recommendation with my doctors decided with radiation. I’ve share all my experience going through this with more data and facts in my thread “Sharing my radiation Therapy Experience”.
There are plenty of good comments and feedbacks in this forum, try to educate and learn about all available treatments. Ask as many question comes in mind from your medical team and forum as such as this one.


All the best in your new journey and decision making.

Hello To start the following link has pretty good information on different treatments:
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer/treating.html
At the end of the day you want to go with treatment which best suite you with regard to effectiveness against your condition, your life style and preferences, duration of treatment, availability of these treatment in your region, side effects and so on.


For example you will find out through reading and research that surgery side effects more and less are immediate vs radiation side effects are kind of delayed side effects, surgery is couple of days or shorter hospitalization vs radiation which usually sessions lasts anywhere from a week to 45 days and that requires daily visit to cancer center and that also depends what type of radiation therapy selected, I.e.if SBRT (cyberknife) is selected treatment which seems more advanced and preferred radiation technique and more precisely focused on cancer location usually requires less days of treatment about a week. In my case this technique was not available in my area and I had 20 days of VMAT radiation which is form of External radiation treatment.


With that said you will find the folks and moderators in this forum share great amount of useful experience and feedbacks which helps you with your decision making process but ultimately the decision is a mutual decision between you and your medical team. I find out by reading and posting through this forum and web search helps to understand the process, terminology and how to ask right questions from medical team.


Also by posting and sharing experiences here you will find out that you are not alone with this condition and so many others out there like you experiencing what you experience and I’ve find that also it helps with anxiety level while your going through this.


All the best with your design making and feel free sharing your experiences.

Hi Tonylam,
I'm 57 years old. In Feb 2022 my PSA was 6.79 and my Gleason was 4+3=7
A MRI found the cancer to be on both sides of my prostate.
I was worried about the long-term effects of living without a prostate and opted for radiation therapy. After researching the different kinds of therapy available, I chose to have MRI guided radiation therapy. The machine used is called MR-Linac. It's made by a company in Sweden called Elekta. The treatment is only 5 days with 1 hour each day. It was spaced out over 10 days to reduce toxicity. I underwent the therapy in mid July. Today 20 Sept, I took my first PSA test following the treatment. I'm happy to say my level is now 2.20. I expect it to continue dropping over the next 18 months.
I want to add that during the treatment I had very little side effects. Only some discomfort when sitting. This lasted for a couple weeks following the treatment. Now I feel completely fine. I'm super happy with my decision. Good luck with whatever treatment you opt for.

You need to discuss all available options, including Active Surveillance, with your doctor. Also, get a second opinion as well. The decision must be taken after detailed discussions with your specialists keeping in mind the results of investigations done so far. Wish you the best outcome.