We want to emphasize that the way you ask your questions is essential. If you’re
asking about your own cancer, and not, for example, why Dr. Myers suggests prostate
cancer patients avoid flaxseed, he needs enough information about your specific
case to address it in an informative manner. Specifically, he needs to know what
kind of prostate cancer you have and how extensive that cancer was at diagnosis.
He also needs to know about each treatment in detail and what that treatment
did to your PSA or other evidence of disease.
As you formulate your questions, please be sure to include as much of the following
as possible:
•
What was your PSA at diagnosis and how
fast was that PSA increasing?
•
What was your Gleason on biopsy?
•
If you had surgery what did the pathology of the
prostate show? What was the Gleason and the extent of the disease—one
side or both, through the capsule or not, invaded seminal vesicles or bladder
neck, lymph nodes positive or negative, angiolymphatic or perineural invasion
or not?
•
If you had surgery, what was the PSA 4-8 weeks afterward?
•
If you had radiation therapy as initial treatment
was it 3D conformal, IMRT, or seeds? How low did your PSA go after radiation
and how long did it take to get to the low point?
•
If you had hormonal therapy which specific drugs
were used: Lupron, Zoladex, Trelstar or Eligard? Were Casodex, Avodart
or Proscar used and if so, for how long?
•
If you have metastatic disease, is it painful or
not? Where are the metastatic lesions?
•
For all patients, PSA doubling time is very, very
important. Please estimate or provide Dr. Myers with a series of PSA levels
so he can calculate.
•
Please mention if you have any other medical problems
such as heart disease
