PROSTATE CANCER CALCULATOR
There is a new online tool for prostate cancer patients just unveiled that is said to be the most accurate way to predict one’s chances of long term survival.
It was nine years ago that Lew Azaroff was told by his doctor that he had prostate cancer. “He said I have good news and bad news. He said the bad news is you have prostate cancer, the good news is that it seems to be restricted to one location,” reports Lew. “He said you can go for surgery, you can go for the seeds, or you can go for radiation.”
Prostate cancer patients like Lew can better decide on the right treatment by using this online calculator. It determines a patient’s long term survival chances based on several simple questions like the PSA number and the treatment chosen. It’s the first calculator of its kind, derived from this just released study in the latest Annals of Urology.
Dr. Eric Margolis, a urologist at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey, exclaims, “I’ve never seen any data such as this that looks at long term survival.”
Aside from skin cancer, prostate cancer is the number one cancer in men. While the cancer can be deadly, 80% of the time the cancer does not spread, but instead stays localized. So knowing better one’s long-term risk could, for one thing, help patients decide whether more aggressive treatment or less aggressive treatment is appropriate.
Lew weighed the options and chose to go aggressive and have surgery, knowing the side effects he was facing. “You’re going to come out incontinent and you’re going to come out impotent. At my stage of life, I was 64 then, life was more important.”
It’s these informed decisions that help the patient, according to Dr. Margolis. “If you’re able to offer him some sort of percentage, such as opting for surgery and having a 90% chance of being alive in ten years versus doing nothing and having a 70% chance of survival, that’s a real number someone can hang their hat on. This makes it easier for them to take crucial decisions.”
That was Lew’s perspective. He’s happy he made the choice to get the surgery, which decision can be made easier today, thanks to the calculator. “I’m now 73 years old,” he exclaims happily.
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