ProstateCancerTopics.com
This website is dedicated to prostate cancer (PCa) survivors, their families, and PCa healthcare providers.
No treatment advice is provided here, just links and a compilation of
information distilled into a semi-unique format.
Various topics presented are discussed from the vantage point of advanced prostate cancer survivors, designed for consumption by other PCa patients and their families in
search of a detailed and current understanding of this complex disease and the still evolving equally complex treatment protocols.
Most survivors report an overwhelming experience in which the patient and their family must acquire vast amounts of medical information in
order to correctly “Pick the best Treatment Procedure.”
Unfortunately, all too frequently, the patient finds that having “Picked the Right Procedure,” another Secondary Procedure, Salvage Procedure,
Adjuvant Procedure, or otherwise unanticipated treatment awaits them when their hoped for “Cure” becomes instead, a statistical waiting game due to the reality of
much higher long term recurrence rates than were implicated when their initial procedure was selected.
This site proposes that instead of hasty "Procedure Picking," patients diagnosed with Prostate Cancer may well optimize their medical
experience by first self-educating themselves in the actual PC disease mechanism – including not only the
early stages of PCa, but also the far more complex interplay of this disease with various treatments,
especially systemic treatments classically reserved for later stages of PCa.
Many patients feel that they have been sufficiently self-educated by the time their practitioners ask for their
initial Procedure Selection. Typically though, the actual disease mechanism is little understood and seems to be kept under
wraps in what amounts to a “Need to Know” phenomenon.
Some practitioners seem to feel that everyone’s time is best served if the disease details are simply left for future discussions, especially
under their HOPE that a complete cure will result from the initial procedure leaving no need for the patient to understand the actual dynamics of the disease progression
or the possibilities of COMBINED procedures offering significantly reduced recurrence rates. One example is the use of hormone therapy prior to and during external beam radiation treatment.
Recurrent patients are often “passed downstream” from one procedure specialist to another
as a result of post-procedure PSA tests showing “rising levels.” A mental whiplash results when what seems like bad luck not only
steals away the concept of “cure,” but also snaps the bonds built between the patient and their
initial specialist – new specialists must be interviewed and hired.
It is hoped that in some small way, patients can make better decisions if they have a factual and detailed
up-to-date understanding of the PCa disease model. Recent studies reveal that "decision regret" rates are running as
high as 50% among post-treatment PCa patients. The best way to reduce this high decision regret rate is to enable more patients
to make better informed treatment decisions based on a deeper understanding of the PCa disease itself rather than just an understanding
of the various "recommended procedures."
Good Luck - prostatecancertopics.com
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