danb
"Met with my urologist last week and discussed my concerns about starting treatment when my 4th biopsy still only shows a gleason 6. Because my psa has risen to 8.2 he is concerned but said we would re-check the psa in 6 months. If it goes down we can continue AS. If it stays the same or go up then he will send me for an mri and we will use that as a tie breaker. I think this is a good approach and I am trying to relax for the next 6 months and not get all worked up with worrying. In the meantime I have been continuing my reasearch on the various treatments and side effects. At this time I am leaning towards cyberknife. The non invasive approach and only 5 treatments is encouraging and they have greatly improved the accuracy over the past few years. Unless someone has some war stories to share it sounds as if the side effects are the least of any of the treatments today. . "
Being on Active Surveillance given your Gleason 6 seems reasonable. What was your PSA prior to the 8.2? As you probably know, PSA velocity (how quickly it rises) is important. It is good to hear your doctor will order an MRI next, there is some good clinical evidence that MRI is performing better than TRUS for guiding biopsy results. Is Proton Therapy available in your area? -Brian (ProstateCancer.net team)
Thanks for the reply Brian. My psa was at 7.4 3 months before the 8.2. It was at 6.0 6 months before that. The velocity is pretty high so unless it drops in 6 months I will go for the mri and see what it shows. I have checked into the proton therapy a little and it's available about 3 hrs from here. Problem with that is its 5 daysa week for 5 weeks or something like that which would present a big problem.
Good luck Hope all goes well Have a great weekend