jplasater@nospamjuno.com

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He
is 68 and lives in the Dallas, TX area. He has been given several
options of treatment including seed implants and surgery. Based on
the information he has to date he is leaning toward brachy/seed
therapy . He is willing to go almost anywhere to get the best
possible treatment. He has heard about a clinic in San Antonio that
has a lot of experience with brachytheraphy. He would appreciate any
recommendations about the choice of treatment, the best
location/clinic/doctor for this treatment. Any advice/help will be
appreciated.

georgeconklin

There are basically three schools.

1. Cut it out. Johns Hopkins and St. Louis is most militiant on this
point. If your local radiologist trained under those two schools and their
followers, that is what they will push big time.

2. Radiation. Seeds (brachytherapy). I'd try Harvard is you want to avoid
surgery.

3. Watchful waiting. Every man will have prostate cancer by 80, and most
do not die of it. So until it is proven that PSA saves lives, overtreatment
is a great fear of a minority. Our cultural biases are 'cut, cut and cut.'
But this has never been proven either. The studies under way to see which
treatment leads to longer life are 8-10 years away from completion, but up
to 8 years according to radio (NPR) interviews, surgery shows no advantages
yet. Some posting here say it will after year 12. Who knows.

leonard evens

Don't listen to this guy. He has his soapbox and he keeps repeating the
same arguments. He actually know very little about prostate cancer.

There is a germ of truth in what he says. There have been a variety of
studies trying to determine how effective various forms of treatment for
prostate cancer may be. Right now the evidence is somewhat ambiguous.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that such studies may be of
limited value for helping any given man decide what to do. Prostate
cancer is a complex disease, and a lot depends on the details of the
individual case. For example, it is possible that in the fullness of
time, it will be shown that many of the men who currently are treated
for early prostate cancer aggressively need not have been treated and
would never have had a problem with the disease. For example, one
study based on Medicare data, showed that 15 percent of men of European
descent and 35 percent of African American men might be in that
category. (That is only one study, and I wouldn't take those figures
too seriously.) Unfortunately, no one knows a way easily to
distinguish those cases needing treatment from those that don't.

If you have been diagnosed with early prostate cancer, and you would
normally have a life expectancy of at least 10 years, then it is
reasonable to consider aggressive treatment. The younger you are the
more that is the case. On the other hand if you are over 80, it is not
even clear you should be tested to see if you have prostate cancer, and
aggressive treatment would only be called for in exceptional cases. Men
in the middle range have to consider all the available information in
making a decision.

In any case, when all is said on done, you have to rely on physicians
you trust, not on people with soapboxes, including me, whom you meet
through the internet.

Harvard, by the way, to the best of my knowledge, is not a major center
for brachytherapy.

--
Leonard Evens len@math.northwestern.edu 847-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208

cosmic ray

Umm, I did not hear a whisper regarding Proton Radiation Therapy. Why is
that????
CR

georgeconklin

This simply is translated as, "The research has not been done."

For example, in my case, I

Translation": You are making assumptions again about treatment
effectiveness, once again going beyond known research into conventional
wisdom put forth that surgery is best. You prove my point.


Those statistics are based on self-selection. Basically they are
worthless. Women found that self-selection biased the HRT studies making
them also wrong, predicting many things which were backwards.

cosmic ray

Still no response to the Proton Radiation Therapy. Why is that??????
http://www.protonbob.com/homepage.asp
http://www.protonbob.com/patient.asp Link to 23 page .PDF file explains
it all in detail.
http://www.protonbob.com/testimonials.asp
http://www.protonbob.com/faqs.asp
http://www.protonbob.com/aboutus.asp
I wonder if the original poster has dropped by to see the debate that rages.
Cosmic Ray


<snip>

leonard evens

What kind of response do you want? If I remember correctly, you asked
how proton beam therapy differed from conventional radiation therapy,
and you got at least a couple of responses explaining the differences,
one from me.

You might try alt.support.cancer.prostate. One of the men who
participates there has had proton beam therapy and he is very happy with the results.

--
Leonard Evens len@math.northwestern.edu 847-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208

sebezh70@aol.com

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For more
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jplasater@nospamjuno.com

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He
is 68 and lives in the Dallas, TX area. He has been given several
options of treatment including seed implants and surgery. Based on
the information he has to date he is leaning toward brachy/seed
therapy . He is willing to go almost anywhere to get the best
possible treatment. He has heard about a clinic in San Antonio that
has a lot of experience with brachytheraphy. He would appreciate any
recommendations about the choice of treatment, the best
location/clinic/doctor for this treatment. Any advice/help will be
appreciated.

keith340@webtv.net (keith

You and your friend may wish to educate yourselves on Proton Beam
Radiation Beam Treatment at Loma Linda University Medical Center outside
of Los Angeles....visit http://www.protonbob,com....call 1800PROTONS and
request the information package from Loma Linda...Good Luck!!!

Keith Lundy/So. California
40 Proton Beam Radiation Treatments
Loma Linda Univ.Med Ctr..3/03-5/03