Have you been diagnosed with prostate cancer? Is there any other news that can make you feel worse? Likely not since such news has the ability to bring your life crashing down around you.
Much like many guys, Victor Kackley had no idea prostate cancer was festering in his body. His doctor detected something unusual during a routine checkup that warranted further investigation. At 49, Kackly, a physically active account manager for a pharmaceutical company, was on the young side for such a diagnosis. Reason why he never had to deal with any of the prostate cancer symptoms or at least not sooner. Yet his doctor felt something unexpected during the DRE.
The follow up biopsy indicated prostate cancer. From there things go a little squishy when it came to what to do. This is not unusual. If you are expecting to have a path laid out for you by your physician, you're in for disappointment. Some find it hard to believe that there is no one best treatment alternative but that's just what you face.
There is and has been an ongoing debate within the medical community as to what the best course of action to take is. That's right. Doctor's disagree, sometimes strongly, on the best approach for treating prostate cancer.
As bad as it sounds prostate cancer is actually highly curable. Plus the fact that it develops slowly also helps. Deciding on which treatment option is not a decision that needs to be rushed. There's time to thoughtfully consider your choices before deciding how to best go about treating it.
And while watchful waiting, or doing nothing but monitoring the situation, is not a good way to go for someone as young as Victor, it is an option for those in their 70's. Because odds are the cancer will never reach the point where it's life threatening. And if you have to do nothing, you don't expose yourself to the unwanted side effects that plague the treatment options.
This is also why you want to thoroughly understand the benefits of each approach as well as the likelihood of side effects.
Some are quick to advocate surgery. The advantage is the cancer, if localized in the prostate which early stage cancer should be, will be completely removed. This also affords you the opportunity to have the cancer analyzed in a lab so your doctor can better understand it and any future implications there may be for cancer showing up elsewhere in your body.
But complete removal gives you the best chance of a permanent cure. And there are things that can be done to improve the odds of maintaining your manhood after such surgery. One being so called nerve sparing surgery. This gives you the best chance of maintaining your potency compared to other prostate cancer treatments. But that also hinges on the extent to which the cancer cells have developed in the prostate and where the cancer is.
Robotic technology, that you may see as Da Vinci can help too. This approach provides a degree of steadiness that some say can't be duplicated by the human hand. So more precise moves can be achieved during robot assisted procedures. Problem is the number of surgeons skilled with this technique is limited which could delay treatment.
Regardless, the skill of the person welding the scalpel still makes all the difference. And that skill set can only be perfected by repetition done over time.
So one question would be "How many procedures have you done?"
The higher the number the better your outlook.
Same applies to the number of procedures done in the hospital. US News offers a list of the top hospitals for cancer you might want to check out.
The final point to remember is you play a role in the outcome too. If you were sexually active before surgery, odds are better you will be able to recover from post-surgery too. Yet capabilities before treatment won't matter if your heart isn't beating after treatment was done. Which is to say, side effects won't matter if you don't survive treatment or the cancer.
