Me as well

Well mine was >90% cancer in all cores, so yes they could all have cancer.

Yes, right chuffed as one always thinks the worse.

My fingers are crossed for you and even if the results are not as good as mine there are many treatments available that can make a big difference. My hope is that immunotherapy will provide, in the years ahead, a breakthrough in treating all cancers  and eventually stop it dead in its tracks. If as much money was poured into cancer treatments as was invested in  dealing with Covid I am sure that the breakthrough would not be that far away.

Let us know how you get on

Ivan

Just in case somebody will find this information useful, I detail below the information contained in a letter I have received from the consultant following his telephone call to me on 15/06/21. I have also been sent a weighty envelope with loads of information to enable me to decide on how to proceed. The specialist nurse assigned to me will phone me Friday (tomorrow) to garner my views etc.

Prostate cancer diagnosed June 21

Diagnostic PSA 5.76 April 2021

Prostate biopsies showing left all cores benign, right grade group 1 (Gleason 3 +3 =6) and grade group 2 (Gleason 3 +4 = 7) total core involvement 3/11 (target counted as 1)

Prostate MRI T2 M4 55 cc gland

70 out of 100 men are alive at 15 years with initial conservative treatment

75 out of 100 men treated (an extra 5) are alive because of radical treatment

Of the men who would not survive, 21 would die due to causes not related to prostate cancer

My initial thoughts are to go with active surveillance , but it would be useful to know whether anybody in a similar position to me has taken a different approach

Ivan

I think the figures he has quoted come from this website, put in your details, and choose radical or conservative treatment.

https://prostate.predict.nhs.uk/tool

I think it is a really nice tool to use. I agree radical treatment is not increasing your chances much, but it is a little bit extra. 

Thank you, Peter, for your considered and informative response.

The decision as to whether to not do anything at this stage would be a lot easier if the lesion was only 5 mm instead of 15 mm and if I was totally a 3 + 3 =6 (Category 1) rather than a mix of category 1 & category 2 ( 3 + 4 =7). I mentioned the size of my lesion to the specialist nurse that phoned me after the consultant, but she did not seem to think that the size of my lesion was of particular concern.

Yes, it tempting to do nothing at the moment, to wait and see, partly because one is always hopeful that a cancer breakthrough could just be around the corner. But, I need to take account of the present  and need to base my decision on what is available now rather than what could be available in the future.  A neighbour of mine regretted his decision to do nothing and eventually, with a PSA reading of 28 and at age 68, had his prostate removed. He is just about to celebrate his 80th birthday and for him the decision to remove his prostate was the correct one. I will have a chat with him to ascertain what his initial readings were to see if that will help me make a final decision.

But, 3 monthly PSA testing regieme sounds like a good plan coupled with, perhaps, a 6 monthly MRI scan to see if the lesion is getting bigger.

I will read the folder of paperwork just sent to me this evening so I am ready when the specialist nurse phones me tomorrow.

Ivan

I am currently waiting to hear from Lister Hospital what course of treatment the MDT meeting will recommend for me, but having just read through your thread from start to finish, at least I now know not to accept their prognosis quite so unquestioningly.

So thank you, I have found your thread very helpful.

For the sake of completeness , the specialist nurse assigned to my case (she has a caseload of over 300 prostate cancer patients)  has just phoned me to talk things through and, as we did, I took the opportunity to further question her about my condition.

As advised by Lyn in an earlier message, although my lesion is 15 mm x 8 mm that is not the actual size of the cancer and in reality it is probably a lot smaller. She confirmed that the cancer is all on the right side of my prostate and that the samples taken from it show that less than 5% of it are category 2 ( Gleason 3 + 4 = 7). Virtually all of the samples  taken from the right side are category 1 (Gleason 3 + 3 = 6), so  useful information when deciding how to proceed. The specialist nurse advised that there are trails taking place at Addenbrookes involving HT, with a view to determining whether this is a suitable treatment for Active Surveillance patients. Some of her patients are involved in the trail and she is fully aware that for some this treatment is not popular due to the side effects (which vary from patient to patient).

Because of my biopsy findings, I decided to opt for Active Surveillance and the next stage for this will be a PSA test 2 weeks before my next telephone call (3 months time) with the consultant.