Only a pseudo-scientist will find significant discrepancy between Dr. Jayant's comments and my several posts on this subject. As I have written, the eyes will see and read what the mind knows. Not many neurons are needed to know that the even a fraction of the field of cancer management cannot be compressed into a few paragraphs on Goanet bulletin board.
I would like to expand on Dr. Jayant's writings on prostate cancer, as this is a common cancer among Goan men. When Dr. Jayant said no surgery, he means 'doing nothing' (an oversight reference to a trial). The non-surgical approaches (see below) are more widely used in the treatment of prostate cancer that surgery. There are several options that patients have in treating localized prostate cancer. These are: 1. Radical Prostatectomy (preferably robotic prostatectomy rather than open surgery) 2. External radiation therapy (no surgery involved) 3. Radioactive seed implant into the prostate (minimal surgery - brachytherapy) 4. Cryosurgery (freezing the prostate) 5. Watchful waiting - closely following the patient with PSA evaluation. The best option for an individual patient can only be determined by a joint evaluation of the patient by a surgeon (urologist) and a radiation oncologist - similar to breast cancer. Localized prostate cancer can be detected early by regular check-ups with blood tests. When done so, early cancer treated properly can be cured in 80-90% of patients. Thanks for allowing me to share this information with you. To Santosh, (and others) I can say, "It isn't difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill. Just add a little dirt." Kind Regards, GL -------------- Santosh Helekar JAYANT'S COMMENTS Old grandmothers in Goa did not really know much about cancer, let alone about effect of surgery. There is no such myth (that removing a cancer is dangerous) prevalent specifically in Goa. There are stories all over the world of someone who had a cancer removed and died subsequently, propagating the wrong conclusion that it was the surgery that caused the demise. Obviously, this is false logic. For prostate cancer a "surgery vs no surgery" randomized trial has indeed been done, and has proven that surgery actually saves more lives (albeit, with a risk of some different side effects, e.g. impotence and incontinence, as opposed to the bad effects of the tumour, e.g. obstruction and pain) - but it certainly saved more lives, not the other way round (see references 1 and 2). _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
