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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Localised prostate cancer, intermediate risk says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Intermediate-risk prostate cancer has Grade Group 2 or 3 disease, a PSA between 10 and 20 or a tumour that fills more of the gland. Surgery or radiotherapy cure most men; the favourable half can sometimes be watched, and the unfavourable half is given a few months of hormone therapy with radiotherapy. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy (moderate or ultra-hypofractionated) or brachytherapy alone; active surveillance for selected men with low volume Grade Group 2 disease.
Radical prostatectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection, or external beam radiotherapy with four to six months of androgen deprivation, or external beam plus brachytherapy boost.
ArteraAI Prostate predicts benefit from short-course androgen deprivation with radiotherapy; Decipher stratifies risk.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.