This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
I thankfully received informative responses to my last posting and thought I'd try again.
While considering radiation, either brachy of EBT, for primary treatment following diagnosis, I wonder what are the long term (10-15 year) risks to nearby organs ( i.e. bladder, kidney, colon, etc) from short term exposure to radiation? I have had more than 1 friend that died, not from the cancer, but from radiation to other areas of the body. Are there any studies or data compiled re those secondary organ disease or failure? Thanks again to all.
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
Jeff,
I had both EBRT and Brachy six months ago, so I wonder what my long term effects will be!! Approaching age 75 I will gladly take another 15 years, but I do not wish to be facetious.
Since my last update I have had another consultation with the urologist and the radiation oncologist. They are both very happy with my situation, PSA 0.05 and testosterone normal(for a man of my age!). I came off the Flomax after 4 months without any long term side effects. I see them both again in early August and after that I will bring my story up to date. I did not wish to tempt providence by sounding too "cocky"
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
I was 60 years old when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The urologist gave me a choice of radiation or surgery. I searched the internet first before making any decision and I came across the HIFU treatment system. When I talked to the urologist involve with HIFU in Toronto he was surprised that my urologist would recommend radiation. He stated that radiation is for much older men than me so I went with the HIFU system. I had my Sonablate HIFU treatment on March 29, 2008 as from my reading there is considerable less long term effects of this procedure. Incontinence is virtually non existent and erectile dysfunction quite low if nerve sparing procedure can be done. There is no damage to surrounding organs. There can be some issues with swelling that may restrict the urethral open but this is not common. I have read that the Proton beam radiation is quite effective and apparently also has very little long term side effects. You might want to look at some of the stories of people who have had proton beam therapy. It is costly and I am not sure if it is covered by US insurance. HIFU is not an accepted procedure by the FDA in US but there are clinical trials taking place in several US centers that if you were accepted, might not cost you anything.
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
Jeff modern EBRT particularly with gold seed markers is now accurate to within 1cm of the prostate, even taking into account positional variations, which can be substantial. Thus confining the beam to the target area with only minimal spillover to other organs, should lead to a substantial decline in long term radiation problems.
3D Conformal ERBT has only been around for about 5 years in Australia, so long term data (15 years) is not available. But short term data thus far is encouraging. No doubt most of us would like long term data to be favorable, prior to making a treatment decision. Ah the fun of playing Russian Roulette, LOL.
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
Jeff,
I had 45 sessions of IMRT this past winter and recieved a relatively high dose of radiation (8100 cGy).
The radiation was guided by gold seed implants which makes it very accurate.
There were very minor side effects toward the end of the treatment but they all disappeared within a few weeks and there have been no lingering problems.
I read a study that said theoretically, there is a risk of secondary cancers to adjacent organs 10-15 years down the road.
This is because of the high dosage.
You have to balance that against the fact that higher doses are more effective toward eradicating the tumor you already have.
The only organs I would be concerned about are the bladder and bowel.
The kidneys are too far from the prostate to be affected by radiotherapy.
I would expect brachy to be less likely to irradiate adjacent organs since the radiation field is very localized.
Studies indicate that this risk of secondary cancer is in the range of about 1%.
The first order of business is to still be alive 10-15 years from now.
Then I'll worry about that 1%.
Re: Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
Here is a very unsual side effect of EBRT.A man had RT about two years ago. There were no side effects until three months ago when he started suffering excruciating pain in the area of the anus and penis. He is in so much pain that he is now using pain patches. The experts think that the pain that he is experiencing around the penis could be from a boil type sore on what remains of the prostate. They have no idea why after almost two years, there is so much pain around the anus. He is now undergoing treatment in a pressure tank and is desperately hoping that a solution can be found. He is 60 years old.
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
I came off of 40 sessions of IMRT/IGRT six weeks ago. I still have chronic rectal pain, that began about halfway through my treatments. The doc tells me that this should go away but I feel no improvement. Three months ago, befoRe I began treatment I felt fine. I am now wondering why I chose IMRT/IGRT -- it seems so many men who go this route have never ending problems. Has anyone here gone though this problem and how long did it last? Feel free to e-mail me.
Re: Followup ? Long term side effects of radiation( EBT v. Brach)
Aloha Jeff,
My EBRT was from Sept 4 to Oct 26, 2007.
I don't know how many of my comments you have read, but if your GS is 8-9, all biopsy samples have cancer, some up to 70% cancer, PSA 10-12, you should consider that cancer has spread outside the prostate, even though undetected by MRI, CAT, & bone scan. In the past five years, with EBRT, the first half of 39-40 sessions, will target the pelvic cavity, avoiding the bladder and minimizing damage to gut & rectal. The second part of EBRT uses ultra-sound to define where the bladder & prostate are located, and the EBRT machine is focused on the prostate. It uses three shutters (mine did) to control the beam size, my shutter opening looked like a 1 cm sided triangle.
Because I had bad hemorrhoids going into rd tx, it was difficult. Then after waiting the recommended three months, I had hemorrhoid surgery & PPK Feb 5 2008. I needed the surgery badly, but now, I need toilet access at all times. It is very-very slowly getting better.
Joe
