from Malcolm - Thanks

[Guest guest]

Hi

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

I'm reading my way through a mountain of stuff - most of which I

don't want to know about!

I have a psa which has risen over a year from 3.7 to 4.6 and I have

had a biopsy: nothing felt on DRE transposed to seven clean cores

and one core with some cells which four pathologists, including the

Professor of Pathology at University of Cardiff Hospital, Wales

cannot recognise. The first three guys said they felt there was no

concern but the Prof said that he could neither rule in nor out

malignancy and that another psa and another biopsy were merited.

Grrrrrrrrr! The only thing about not knowing the worst is that

waiting to see if we can find something nasty is even worse!

It seems from what is said that if there is a malignancy it is a

pussy-cat rather than a tiger - hopefully - and that means no

urgency to make a decision so long as psa doesn't do anything

dramatic.

At the moment I am not favouring surgery should the need arise. I am

wondering about HIFU, or as my Uro suggested, if there is a cancer

and it is confined to a small area, a " half HIFU " can be

appropriate. I am also wondering about radiotherapy - highly

focussed/localised.

Preference at the moment is extremely careful watchful waiting since

I have absolutely no symptoms at all. The sole reason for the psa

test was that my father had prostate cancer diagnosed in his early

50s and lived another 30 years on Stilboestrol and my mother had two

separate breast cancers in her late 50s and died of old age in her

80s too - so my breed-line doesn't bode too well! The good thing is

that as a result, the word " Cancer " doesn't scare me witless, even

if it does send me looking for the toilet!

Thanks again guys and if anyone knows anything/much about HIFU, I am

all eyes and ears.

Malcolm