Rating: 
Summary: Be an informed patient...
Review: An extremely well written book referred to me by my urologist. Many of my friends also referred this book to me once they learned that I had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. While cancer is fearful, knowledge will lessen that fear and provide you with a course of action. Reading the book will enable you to more readily understand and validate the advice of physicans. Understanding this disease will also help you in asking the right questions about what you will be facing in the future. The book is written for the lay person to easily understand prostate cancer. The subject matter is organized in a manner that will enable you to initially skip some chapters depending at what stage of the disease you are at when you acquire the book. For example, if you already know that you have cancer as the result of a biopsy, you can go immediately to "your options to fight the disease" without first reading what the prostate gland is and where it is located. You can save the basics for a later date. Even if you don't have prostate cancer I would highly recommend this book to any man. If nothing else, it will inform you why your annual physical consists of a digital exam and a PSA analysis of your blood. Knowledge of the prostate is important to all men...be informed. I am greatful to my urologist and friends that they recommended this book to me. In return, I have recommended it to other friends and I recommend it to you. If you have prostate cancer, I wish you the best. It is highly curable.
Rating:
Summary: Must Have for PCa Victim
Review: At 46 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer (PCa), a disease that grows in men my age at an accelerated rate, and a disease that took my father at 50. The shock was tremendous. I opted for radical prostatectomy and denial. My wife, on the other hand, read Dr. Walsh's first book "The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women Who Love Them." I cured my denial in time to read his newer book "Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer." Both books are extremely informative and have gone a very, very long way in helping me with coping with this disease and understanding that it does not have to be terminal and that even if it is, I can live a much longer life than I fretted over. In the newsgroups I now attend, it is considered by most to be THE definitive work on prostate cancer.
Rating: 
Summary: Read with careful consideration
Review: Be aware that there are essentially equal but very different approaches to treating various stages of prostate cancer. You will find dramatically different points of view (all well supported with nearly equal pros and cons in the medical literature). The major treatments are surgery, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy. This author is a surgeon and this book is biased toward surgical intervention. Please be aware that radiation therapy (either IMRT external beam or brachytherapeutic seed implants) is a popular choice and that serious advanced prostate cancer can often be shut down with hormone therapy. To be fair to yourself, you need to consider ALL options and become well informed on all of them before you choose because you only get one opportunity to choose. What is done is done and cannot be undone or revised.
I have prostate cancer myself, so this is a first person review of this book. I won't tell you what my choice was because your choice needs to be what is right for you, not what someone else convinces you was right for them!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource
Review: I did not find any ego or significant bias in this book. I actually found it remarkably wide-ranging in identifying and describing the available options, and setting forth the pertinent facts from a number of scientic studies (someone might see the statistics in it as self-promotion, but I found that all of the doctors that I spoke with had their own statistical arguments). As I learned more it was clear that the procedure with the highest probability of success was the radical prostatectomy. It is, however, the most invasive with the longest recovery period. So I took that route and am now in the recuperative process. My cancer is completely gone and the nerves controlling continence and potency were saved. Before I read this book, I would not have understood the significance of that. Bottom line? Read as much as you can, but this book is a must in that process.
Rating: 
Summary: A hard sell for surgery
Review: If it wasn't for the obligatory overview of the prostate and a
rather clear description of what prostate cancer is, I would have used fewer stars due to the overbearing presence of Walsh's
ego. Its reads like Walsh's "brand" of treatment and while he
tries to say a few comforting words, I found his viewpoint depressing and thus, less helpful than it could be. A much more honest and comforting recent read is A Hit Below the Belt by a Dr with prostate cancer.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent ; especially if you're leaning toward surgery.
Review: My husband and I ordered and read many books on prostate cancer when he was first diagnosed in the Spring of 2002, at the age of 53. Of all the books we read, this one seemed to be the most comprehensive, even though it did have a slant toward surgery. It does, however, also explore alternatives to surgery. After reading several books, and after gathering all the information we could on his individual case, we eventually opted for surgery. Consequently, because this book discussed surgery in great detail, we found it very useful.
Rating:
Summary: A pioneering resource for the field of men's health...
Review: Not satisfied with having revolutionized the field of prostate cancer surgery, Dr. Walsh has teamed with Janet Farrar Worthington to produce a book that may well be the gold standard for communication about the disease and its treatment. Their lens is wide, embracing discussions about the epidemiology of the disease (e.g. variations among population groups, risk factors, associated lifestyle patterns, trends), the diagnostic tests available, the current approaches to staging the disease, the treatment options, and the experience under those options with potentential side effects, like incontinence and impotence. They draw fully upon the available medical literature and offer substantial detail on the anatomy, physiology, pathology, psychology, analytical chemistry of the disease and its diagnosis, as well as the approaches to treatment. Detail of this intricacy could be tedious or confusing, yet the authors present it in an unusually accessible fashion. For the curious, the book offers an informative and thought-provoking review of the role of possible dietary and lifestyle triggers in the etiology of prostate cancer. For those sorting through--and preparing for--treatment options, the book offers important insights and practical guidance. Because prostate cancer is a disease fraught with uncertainty, and much is being learned daily about its possible causes, about the diagnostic limitations, and about the effectiveness of various current and emerging treatments, the book is aiming at a moving target. Written in 2002, there are 2004 elements the authors would no doubt add. But, as is, Dr. Walsh's Guide is itself a pioneering resource both for those with immediate concerns about prostate cancer, and for the nascent field of men's health. It is a wonderfully helpful contribution.
Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile "first opinion"
Review: The book is very thorough, and does have a noticeable bias toward surgery. BUT it does an excellent job with that viewpoint, and surgery is indeed the "gold standard" for cure in many cases. That being said, I'd suggest buying this one but also reading "A Primer on Prostate Cancer" by Stephen Strum and Donna Pogliano, which is the best overall PC resource book I've seen, and better balanced.
Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile "first opinion"
Review: The book is very thorough, and does have a noticeable bias toward surgery. BUT it does an excellent job with that viewpoint, and surgery is indeed the "gold standard" for cure in many cases. That being said, I'd suggest buying this one but also reading "A Primer on Prostate Cancer" by Stephen Strum and Donna Pogliano, which is the best overall PC resource book I've seen, and better balanced.
Rating:
Summary: a guide to coming clean
Review: This book explains EVERYTHING you would want to know about this all too common of illnesses. This book is a true guide with a whole lot of insider information. If you have a prostate or love any one with one this is the book to buy.
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