Prostate Cancer: A Survivor's Guide

"No other book explains the alternative treatments to prostatectomy, and no other describes the tests, stages, statistics and long-term options as this title. The result is excellent coverage."

Bookwatch

“This book is a must-read for men diagnosed with prostate cancer - and their families."

Paul Johnson, M.D. Chief of Surgery ret.
Ballard Hospital, Seattle, WA

Prostate Cancer: A Survivor's Guide describes the radioactive seed implant therapy for prostrate cancer for which there is a 91% success rate. This is a critically important book because there is anew case of prostate cancer diagnosed every two and a half minutes, with 200,000 new cases expected this year! Yet many urologists are not telling their patients about all the available treatment options. Men need to be better informed about available therapies so that they may make better decisions about their health in general, and their prostate cancer in particular. Prostate Cancer makes this kind of information more accessible, more understandable, because it proceeds from the patient's point of view when confronted with life-threatening choices. Don Kaltenbach was originally advised to undergo a radical prostatecotmy. Instead, because he became aware of radioactive seed implant therapy he opted for this treatment -- and it worked, saving him from both the cancer and the effects of prostatectomy.

Midwest Book Review

"What a great book you wrote -- Prostate Cancer: A Survivor's Guide! I absolutely commend you for doing this work. This should be required reading for every man older than 40. A book like yours at the time of my diagnosis would have been a marvelous find."

Ken Humphrey, patient

"I was diagnosed in January of 1994 and your book has helped to relieve a lot of my anxiety. It's the best I've read, and I know it will help others." Don Cox, patient "As one who has experienced prostate cancer firsthand, in his excellent book Don Kaltenbach insightfully describes what it is like to cope with the disease, and provides other prostate cancer patients with up-to-date information on both conventional and investigational therapies currently available."

Norm Jones, M.D. Piedmont Hospital Atlanta, GA

I'm 58 years old and I'm not exaggerating when I say that Don Kaltenbach's book saved me, and in more ways than one. I was diagnosed with a Stage T2C prostate cancer in 2003. My PSA was 10 and my biopsy-Gleason score was 7. I was told by one of the top urologists in Los Angeles that I should make an appointment to have "a radical prostatectomy without delay" to remove my prostate. He also told me that most men with prostate cancer like mine have surgery, that I could be cured but that I would also run the risk of having one or more long-term side effects like incontinence and impotence (even with Viagra). My doctor didn't tell me that a small percentage of patients actually die from surgery, but I found that out after a friend of my wife gave me this book. I also learned from this book that my doctor was dead wrong: the fact is according to the latest statistics most men today with prostate cancer like mine are being treated with radiation "seeds" instead of surgery. I can tell you this whole prostate experience was the biggest scare of my life, and this book helped me cut through a lot of the confusion and myths that are out there. It even helped me see through the advice I was getting from an otherwise reputable doctor who was just a little too anxious to have me go under his knife.

So like the author, Kaltenbach (who's also a lawyer and a family man like I am) I had the seed implants, after a short run of external beam radiation. I went to a clinic in Seattle for the seeds and didn't even have to go to a hospital. And now I've done my homework and know that the odds are stacked in my favor -- that the cancer won't come back! I found out only recently that this was the same way former mayor Giuliani was cured of his prostate cancer. So I credit this book not only with saving my life, but also with saving my sex life and my marriage. If you've been diagnosed with this disease, take it from someone who's been there, you can save yourself a lot of anguish just by reading this book, getting yourself a second opinion and doing some hunting on the internet. And if you're lucky, you'll have a wife like mine who will help you.

Robert Tracy, patient