Prostate Cancer Options

In your article on prostate cancer, you seem to promote the watch-and-wait option ["Prostate Cancer's Prognosis," September 17].

This is not an option; this can be a death sentence. Why take a chance on leaving a known cancer in your body? Five acquaintances and I have been treated, and we are all living productive lives. I chose radiation and seed therapy.

Robert Ferro
Boardman, Ohio

Thank you for "Prostate Cancer's Prognosis," but you omitted proton-beam therapy. Many who have undergone this treatment regard it as the new gold standard. Almost none have urinary incontinence, and statistics report only about 30 percent incur any impotence from this treatment. The book men need to read is Robert J. Marckini's You Can Beat Prostate Cancer: And You Don ' t Need Surgery to Do It.

John F. Kippley
Cincinnati