Hi ReadingALot and welcome to the board,
Welcome to the Board to you and your DH!
Baptista has reviewed the key facts from the table, so I'll just comment on the significance. The main purpose of the Partin Tables is to indicate the odds of success for prostate cancer surgery, though they are also used for a number of other purposes in case assessment. I have the 2001 version of the tables, and those earlier tables, while giving fairly similar results, give an even higher probability of 46% for penetration of the capsule, which substantially lowers the odds of success for surgery: if the cancer is already established outside the capsule, removal by surgery will not cure the cancer.
On the other hand, sometimes the cancer does extend outside the capsule but is weak and not viable, and the patient can still be cured by surgery involving only the capsule and perhaps seminal vesicles.
In your husband's circumstances, based on the Partin results, radiation appears to have advantages over surgery. A key advantage is that modern radiation, while equally as good as surgery in destroying cancer that has not penetrated the capsule, can also kill cancer in those vital few millimeters beyond the capsule. Usually cancer that has spread is still close to the capsule when the case has been caught fairly early. Radiation to the pelvic bed can kill cancer at a considerably greater distance.
Accumulating studies are suggesting that radiation, at a center of excellence, is probably superior to surgery, at a center of excellence, even for low-risk cancer. Your husband's cancer, unfortunately, would be considered high-risk as more than one of the key case characteristics are on the higher risk side: PSA is more than 10; the Gleason is more than 6; and the stage is more than T2a. In contrast to that bad news, the good news is that radiation, at a center of excellence, has a fair shot at curing even high risk prostate cancer. Usually it would be combined with a course of up to two years of hormonal blockade therapy. (The latter has been my sole therapy for a high risk case. I'm now at the 12th year point and doing very well.)
There are three books that I consider vital for high risk prostate cancer patients:
"A Primer on Prostate Cancer -- The Empowered Patient's Guide," Dr. Stephen B. Strum, MD, and Donna Pogliano, 2nd ed 2005, a great orientation that mentions many best practices
"Beating Prostate Cancer -- Hormonal Therapy & Diet," Dr. Charles "Snuffy" Myers, MD (an expert and a patient himself), 2006 as I recall the year
"Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers," Ralph Blum and Mark Scholz, MD, 2010
I'm glad you like to read. That's the route to empowerment, and empowerment is key for those of us with challenging cases.
Take care,
Jim
