When the diagnosis landed, the options arrived as a flood — five kinds of doctors, five philosophies, and every one of them certain. This is the map I drew while deciding, written from the patient’s seat, not the exam room. Your mileage (and your tumor) will vary.
- Surgery — Open or Laparoscopic (robot-assisted preferred)
- Radiation — CyberKnife, SBRT, IMRT, or Proton Therapy
- Hormone Therapy — Typically for later-stage cases (ADT info)
- Focal Therapy — HIFU, TULSA, Cryoablation, or NanoKnife
Where I landed
Surgery — a robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP), with Dr. Reiter at UCLA. The eviction was executed December 8, 2025, and the story of that day starts here.