Treated 2000 · Posted 2003 · Updated 2015
When Charles was first diagnosed, he chose hormones and Cryosurgery. Then his PSA rose to 15. Next came Proton. PSA is 0.02 four years after treatment.
Most everybody already knows this. Prostate cancer is a big business. It became apparent to me that many physicians are quite narrow-minded when it comes to offering advice.
My cancer was first detected in Houston in the fall of 1992. PSA around 6, and a Gleason of 6. In this case my urologist told me that because of its location, the apex, I should undergo radiation. He was against the radical prostatectomy.
I then went to a well-known urologist and he convinced me that the best solution was nerve-sparing surgery. So everything was lined-up for a prostatectomy, when a friend told me about Cryosurgery (I had remarried in 1993 and the last thing I wanted was to be impotent!).
I went up to Rochester MI to talk to a specfic doctor who, as it turned out, was not available so I spoke to his # 2. They did 6 more biopsies and I was told that they could freeze the part of the prostate with the cancer and spare the nerves. Today they would freeze the whole prostate.
I went on combined hormone therapy for 6 months, and underwent the cryo in early 1994. Unfortunately the cryo did not get all of the cancer and over the next 4 years my PSA slowly climbed back from 0.6 to around 15. I probably hold the world record in biopsies, over 50 during that period! Yet they could find no evidence of cancer.
It wasn’t until 99 when, by a quirk, my regular doctor was not in and another doctor did the biopsies. He found the cancer and advised me not to have a 2nd cryo treatment, but to go the radiation route. By this time I had heard of Loma Linda and proton treatment, so the rest is pretty much history.
When I went to Loma Linda in early 2000 I was given proton and photon. Today, almost four years later, my PSA is .02! My only regret is that I didn’t find out about proton a lot sooner.
Update: 2015
It has now been 15 years since my proton treatment. I am in excellent health. Prior to proton, I underwent cryosurgery and it was unsuccessful. Then I had proton treatment followed by photon radiation. Had I known about proton in 1996, I would have gone straight to Loma Linda University Cancer Center. Oh yes - and My PSA? It is .02!