At 67 my husband was dx with low grade prostate cancer also. He opted for an 8 week course of direct radiation therapy. His side effects were minimal, some discomfort of course and fatigue but other than that he came thru fine. Drs saw no reason for brachy therapy, he had 2 small tumors on opposite sides of the prostate. It has been well over 6 months since his treatment was done and he feels fine and the only thing that ever bothers him is low grade upper leg aches but i have no idea if that was from the therapy or perhaps something else. i do know his reg dr is having him do an androgyn blood test, which i gather has something to do with bone loss or something after the radiation...I did not go with him to the drs so i was not able to question what it was for and my husband NEVER asks questions... that is why i normally go with him as I ASK the ?'s. Good luck to you and your husband. Hoping you can get him the treatment that is best for him.

Is there any reason your doctor is not considering HIFU? This not yet approved in the US, but many go to Canada for it. It is less invasive with less chance of side effects.

I was diagnosed with PCa 1 Dec09, PSA 0.3 Gleason 7 10% of the core in the left base had cancer, bone scan clean, Seminal Vesicleswere clean. I considered Proton Beam but opted for Para rectal CT guided bracky therapy and ADT on Feb 5th 2010. My Uro felt something in the DRE that no other Uro, Rad Oncol or GP pickup on.
The use of the Cat Scan allowed the placement of the seeds to with .2 of MM ( .008 of an inch). So far so good. See if OHP will support the use of a scanner for placement of seeds locally. I am 72 and not regarded as a surgical candidate either in the US.

JeffMM,

HIFU is not covered by insurance in Canada....it's available, for $20,000.

The medical industry isn't pushing hifu, it would take millions out of cancer INC.

I would like to respond to the hifuisking. The reason HIFu is not in the U.S. is that the data is very limited. Trust me! The U.S. doctors that are performing HIFU in Canada and Mexico do not want to see HIFU in the U.S. They would never make the kind of money they are currently making out of the country.

Not everyone is solely motivated by greed.

The doctors going out of the country sometimes fly down there just to treat one man, his profit is $7,000. and he must pay his own air & hotels, and that of his team. I just flew, and it's awful now, all that security and lines to deal with. I cannot imagine flying every weekend, these doctors could be making the same money here without flying, doing surgery instead.

The doctors flying out of the country are pushing hard to get HIFU approved here, they are the ones who pushed to get the trials started.

Sonablate just halted their trial, but that is because they could see that the other trial they started (radiation failure) has a better chance of completion, and running two trials is severly costly, hundreds of millions.

Just think of all the industries that will lose money when HIFU is approved. I prefer to think of all the men who will be thrilled beyond belief they had HIFU.

Hey there

My father got diagnosed nearly 2 years ago aged 60. My thoughts are with you. At least they got it early. He had a grade 9 and a grade 10. His initial PSA or PSI whatever its called was 175.

However they were optimistic!!
They removed it via surgery, tried hormone injections and radiation.

Unfortunately after trying everything they could (chemo wasnt an option as he had a heart condition) he went terminal and was given 6-9 months to live. He died 6 weeks later.

I hope you can find what you need on here and that people will help you as much as they can.

Take care and my thoughts are with u

I'm sorry for your loss Wendy, he was way too young to pass, but a PSA of 175 along with a grade (Gleason?) of 9 is not "catching it early". A PSA of over 1. should be followed closely, a doctor told me that anything over 1. is cancer, they just monitor it to see how aggressive it is, if it goes up more than .75 in a years time then they do a biopsy to confirm and calculate how bad it is.

HI! to all.
I have been on here before but not this topic. My Hubby was diagnosed with a 4.0 and the doc was worried so he sent a biopsy to John's Hopkins and it came back bad.
MY hubby was 45 then, His PSA today was 0.5!!!!!
He is looking at his 47th birthday and we are very happy.

His Dad however was diagnosed with high PSA and they are giving him the shots. I am not sure just when he started them but he was cancer free for 5 years before this.
He is 78 years old now. The shots give him a bad mood for a few days after it is taken. But all in all that is all he does.

My hubby did the radiation for 8 weeks, we took that time as our time together too. The Doc that he had to begin with was a character had us laughing and joking but serious when needed.
He left that practice to go to Florida, then Michigan. I do hope that people get a doc that makes them feel as though things can get better! I would like to have him again.
I don't think we would have made it without him.
Not sure about the HIFU at all, haven't heard of this.
We just were happy that he is better now.
We also understand that we need to keep going and getting the blood tests when they order them.
I hope that someone was helped by this.
Keep on hoping and have faith that it will get better.
Sorry for those who lost the battle.
Take Care.
ttfn AnnieEm