Table of Contents

Chapter 1: What Does a Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Mean?

Being diagnosed with cancer is a life-changing experience. It requires you to start making some hard decisions that can affect your daily life in significant ways for many years to come.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you’ll be faced with a number of different therapy options, all of which might be equally effective, but each of which also has its upsides and downsides. More than 234,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and each and every one of them will need to make very personal and individualized decisions about which treatment might be right for him. Do I undergo treatment? If yes, which treatment? Surgery? External radiation? Radiation seed implantation? Hormones? Chemotherapy? Or is active surveillance the right choice?

In this Chapter, we’ll review the basic background material you need to know about a diagnosis of prostate cancer. We’ll talk about PSA (prostate-specific antigen) and Gleason score, which factors might be important in determining outcomes and prognosis, and, most importantly, we’ll talk about why you need to surround yourself with a team of prostate cancer experts, comprising a wide variety of practice specialties, to help you find the path that’s right for you.