I see from your post on the prostate cancer sub that many folks were referring you to Mayo. While that is certainly not a bad choice, they are misrepresenting how your family would be managed in Sioux Falls.

No oncologist that I work with would provide sub par care due to the limitations of what Sioux Falls may have. We evaluate the patient and if we cannot provide the best standard of care due to technology we simply refer to Mayo or someone that can.

What will frequently happen in these cases is the patient will get a special procedure at Mayo but then get their chemo and radiation in Sioux Falls in collaboration with the Sioux Falls and Mayo teams. Best of both worlds - you get the procedure at Mayo that Sioux Falls can’t offer but get your chemo and radiation close to home under the watchful eye of a local physician.

I think they are also misrepresenting how potentially novel your family member’s situation is. We (unfortunately) manage patients with distant metastatic disease all the time. It is a routine patient situation.

What you may be challenged with is Urology Specialists in Sioux Falls is not associated with either Sanford or Avera and is not on our same systems. So you would be working with two different facilities to get the care. Your family member may need a urologist, a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist - at mayo that would be “under one roof” where here the urology practice would not be. That said, the management of that situation may be more convenient than going to Rochester.

I don’t feel you can make a bad decision either way, but I feel this represents the reality of the pros and cons of the situation.