Prostate cancer

For anyone looking at non-invasive scans you can read up on a 'Color Doppler' ultrasound. Not all Ultrasounds are the same! It will show the vascular side of things which is what you want to see if in a cancer situation, which I am going to assume you are wanting to track, you can see if a cancer area is dead or alive. The color doppler shows blood supply going in and out of the tumor or cancer area, it will show up as red and blue - then you will know that the cancer is still getting blood supply. If you see the doppler showing red and blue around an area, but into it then you can assume the cancer is dead and what you are looking at is the immune system around it. A consultant can also tell if there is infection.

Not being negative guys but as a warning do not rely on the psa test alone.
A very good friend of mine has had urinary issues for a couple of years and had regular normal psa results.

He has just been diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer which has spread to his hip and collar bone. \He has been told he has 3 - 5 years.
It would seem the particular type of cancer was supressing the psa result.

If you are having symptoms please insist on scans as well. I know i did.

I can only offer what I learned from my Husbands treatment but the consensus was if he had chosen ultrasound treatment etc and it hadn't worked that it would make surgery much trickier due to how ultrasound (and radiotherapy) affects the tissues in the area, ie hardens it and causes scarring. This made sense to me,

I do wonder if robotic technique surgery would be the surgery choice over the human hand, would be worth asking. I hope someone who has had surgery post therapy can offer another more positive perspective for you.

I would say whatever happens do make sure you get follow up support especially from the specialist nurses, there is a lot of things available to help with the recovery especially re: impotence that is inevitable post surgery.

I hope you get all the info you need to help you feel more confident about surgery.

Appropriate name you have there...

That's not what my husband was told. He was told it was possible but much trickier procedure so more risk of longer lasting nerve damage etc. It was still given as an option but with an advisory esp given hiis young age.

This was always the opinion on Prostate Cancer UK's forum too. The 'expert' on there suggested the prostate turned to, in her words, 'mush' and was much harder to operate on. The treatment plan was chemo in this scenario with some good results.
It may be with the advances in robotic surgery that the op is not so difficult now. Hopefully so.

I've been through this recently. First thing will be a PSA test and a DRE by your doctor. Note the PSA test isn't perfect and you must follow the guidelines before having it: no vigorous exercise, no ejaculation and no bike riding for at least three days beforehand otherwise you can get a false high reading. They should also test your urine for a UTI as this can give a false reading too. My PSA was a bit high and the prostate felt bigger than normal but smooth. Smooth is good.
Statistically it's highly probable your prostate is benignly enlarged and Tamsulosin will fix the urinary symptoms, which is what happened in my case. However, around 7% of men with a normal PSA reading and a enlarged prostate have cancer so I had an MRI privately just to set my mind at rest, thankfully it was clear as far as they can tell. It's unlikely the NHS will give you an MRI if you have only mild symptoms and a reasonable PSA reading but they may if you say it's really worrying you.

It's worth getting your urinary symptoms fixed as a reduced flow and not emptying the bladder completely can make UTIs more likely which is what happened to me and made me present to the quack. I'd been like you for some time and was doing the usual man thing of getting by and trying to ignore it.

Best of luck to you but do go to your doctor sooner rather than later, if only to put your mind at rest.

I'm 63 but age is irrelevant if you have the symptoms, you'll get the test. It's very, very common in men over 50 and more common the older you get. It's very likely nothing be too concerned about but if you're like me, it'll worry you until you know for sure. Ring the quack and get booked in.

The above pretty much mirrors my situation, 63 as well. I was on Tamsulsin for around 6 months and worked really well, back to normal. Then 2 months ago systems returned. Another PSA test, still normal, so I was moved onto Finasteride, a stronger med which also shrinks the prostrate, but does reduce testosterone production. Initially it worked well and back to normal, but the last couple of weeks a bit hit and miss with the odd bad day.

Hi, my experiences...

Aged 53, I'd been having water works troubles, usually when going from a hot to a cold environment, or visa versa, finally went to the Docs, the appointment lasted barely 5 mins before I was dispatched for a blood test that PM, the result, elevated PSA, so a rapid series of hospital appointments, CT / MRI (Bone scan I think) a Biopsy (delightful !!!!) I scored 8/10 on the Gleeson and Prostate cancer was confirmed, choices, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, with a recommendation of surgery, I took the latter, robotic prostate removal......

The recovery hasn't been easy, lots of frustrations, but I'm still here, I got to walk my daughter down the aisle this summer

Amusing bit, got medication for the erectile disfunction, worked great, took as recommended for a first time, but after 8 hours it was a beyond a joke, LOL, now reduced the level to 25% of the starting dose

Now over 2 years on, 6 monthly blood tests, moving to 12 monthly, life is good, a bit different but definatly good