DON'T BE SO QUICK TO DO SURGERY!
Fact: Regular screenings and early detection tests are the best and most proactive way to staying on top of your health. Should these exams uncover a cancer growth, physicians would undergo specific considerations depending on the patient's diagnosis. If the cancer is "low grade" or too small in size/volume (less than 5mm), ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE is often the recommended step over any interventional procedure.
ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE DEFINED: Closely watching a patient’s condition but not giving any treatment unless there are changes in test results that show the condition is getting worse. Active surveillance may be used to avoid or delay the need for treatments such as radiation therapy or surgery, which can cause side effects or other problems. During active surveillance, certain exams and tests, such as blood tests, imaging tests, and biopsies, are done on a regular schedule to monitor the condition. Active surveillance may be used in certain types of prostate cancer and in some other types of cancer. It is a type of expectant management.
According to NYC cancer radiologist Dr. Robert Bard, "prostate cancer is extraordinarily common as you grow older. So the question is, how deadly is it? According to the highly referenced textbook "Ewing's Sarcoma", active prostate cancer is extraordinarily rare in the prostates. But as we grow older and we start biopsying things, we find cancer- but a lot of it is low grade cancer- and evidently, the body fights it off naturally. It's abnormal, it's invasive but the body is strong enough to counteract it. So the question is not "do you have prostate cancer in your 50's?", but "will it kill you or will you die with it?"
Active surveillance is a logical next step for anyone with Low-Risk or low-grade Prostate Cancer. Today's diagnostic community actually has the proper technology that shows what it is, where it is, and how aggressive it is. You can follow your tumor aggression as we have been able to do for the last 30 years.
Through clinical imaging, we follow tumor aggression. We use the same tracking solutions to monitor treatment efficacy or recurrence. In Jim's case, active surveillance allowed us to constantly monitor for any abnormalities beyond the status of a low-grade tumor. Within 6+ years of monitoring, we saw very little activity to NOT jump into any clinical procedure. He had time to research on what's available out there, while maintaining his health to keep his tumor controlled.
Aside from regular scanning with 3D Doppler Ultrasound, he also received MRI scans as part of his monitoring program. The MRI is important because it shows if this cancer has broken out of the prostate and into the bones, because that's something you can't feel when it's metastasized through the body. In his case, it stayed localized and intact within the capsule. We can see this better on the 3D Doppler ultrasound, then with MRI.
