Proton Treatment Delimma

While awaiting treatment for prostate cancer, time is your enemy; a quality of life, if not, life threatening enemy to be sure. The following factors come into play:

---Relationship of PSA to treatment outcome. A medical study conducted in April of 2002 by James Metz M.D. contains a chart which shows a clear relationship between PSA level and prostate cancer cure. Higher PSA scores are directly related to lower cure rates. As readers of this journal know my PSA levels are rising at a fairly rapid pace.

---Cancer cell development. As I understand it cancer cells reproduce along the following lines: A single cell materializes, this cell devides into two cancer cells which in turn devides into four, four into eight, eight into sixteen and so on. The larger your tumer becomes, the faster it grows and the more difficult it is to treat.

---Metatisis the longer your prostate cancer goes untreated, the greater the chance it will spread to other organs of your body. When and if this occurs you enter into an entirely different medical realm.

The worries and concerns associated with a delay in treatment tend to be offset by the fact that prostate cancer generally develops slowly. On the other hand your case might be the exception. It's not unlike having a timebomb strapped to your waist and not knowing when it may detonate. A friend of mine likened it to having a monster in your closet. In any event the tests scheduled this week here in Jacksonville are designed in part to determine whether the cancer remains contained to my prostate.