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…and when you do, it doesn’t have to be killer although that is the default. I was aware of my rising PSA score but hearing the news about the 2nd biopsy coming back positive for this disease was still chilling.
But it doesn’t need to be the end of life as we know it. Of all the serious cancers, this one is about the easiest to handle. First off, it never really comes as a surprise, because as a guy you’re getting your PSA checked every year once you’re 50 anyway. You ARE, aren’t you? If not, make the appointment today and start tracking it.  It’s best if you start in your 40’s, especially if you have relatives who’ve had prostate cancer, as I do.

Listen up now:  YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO LET THIS GO UNTIL IT BITES YOU.

As far as I know, this is the only cancer that has an easy-to-detect signal like this. If your PSA is in the 2+ range, then you gotta watch it and should get it checked more often, say every 6-9 months. When mine went over 4, I had a biopsy done and it came back negative, but a year or so later it was over 4 again and this time the biopsy was positive so I started visiting oncologists who specialize in dealing with prostate cancer. I talked to 4 of them, read a book and researched on the internet before settling on a decision to attack it by one of the common methods:
Surgery:  You can have the offending organ removed, either in the traditional way or by hiring a surgeon who can run the new DaVinci robot.  I wanted to go with DaVinci but due to a ‘73 wreck caused by a drunk driver I have too much scar tissue down there for good odds via surgery.
Radiation:  There’s HDR (high dose radiation) dual therapy which involves needles inserted into the prostate to hit it with iridium 192, after which you get 5 weeks of external beam radiation.  You can also do HDR monotherapy, where they just do HDR needles with iridium/gamma radiation a 2nd time.  This is what I did.  You can also have radioactive seeds implanted permanently, and finally you can do all-external beam radiation for 9 weeks.  All of the radiation results are pretty good, generally being in the 90% success range which is about as good as the surgery option.
Hormone and other therapies:  These are generally used when the others cannot be and so they’re usually not the first choices.

One of the major determinants of success in tackling prostate cancer is the “earliness” of detection, and in this regard as men we are fortunate to have such an easy way of detecting the disease, namely, by the simple blood test to determine your PSA score.  So go get it done once or twice in you 40’s and then annually in your 50’s and up. 
   Some types of prostate cancer can be pretty fast moving, so this means catching it early might be the only thing that saves you.

Right now, I’m supine on the couch after completion of my 2 HDR treatments which involves two 36 hour stays at Swedish in Seattle a week apart.  I’m not going to sugar coat the process:  It’s uncomfortable and involves a minute or two (cumulative) of pain.  Too, it looks like I’m going to be on this darn couch a lot for the next week, or 2, or 3, I don’t know.  It’s uncomfortable for me to walk or sit, so I lie here and read, and type.  Guess what though.  This beats dyin’ by any amount you can say and once you’ve got this problem then death or treatment are pretty much the only alternatives.

Prostate cancer has a high cure rate, but you must play an active role in the process.  Don’t put it off, and do stay on it.  Life’s worth it.