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Why would my doctors recommend surgery over radiation?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 31 7:32pm | Replies (40)Comment receiving replies
'Experimental Treatment'. A few more thoughts. (Again, my treatment was proton beam (5 treatments at Mayo Rochester).
Labeling a treatment modality as experimental may be a way of biasing a patient towards the treatment that the physician offers. A reasonable question would be "does this medical facility offer that treatment".
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (different org that Prostate Cancer Research Institute) has a guide to prostate cancer. I have a particular annoyance with their guide which devotes a skimpy paragraph to proton beam treatment labeling it as "experimental", suggesting it may be expensive, and that it may cause bowel injury. Given that Loma Linda has been doing proton beam treatment for 20+ years and that Mayo has a proton beam facility in both Rochester and Scottsdale (I think building one in FL), Seattle Cancer Care Alliance also has a proton beam facility. Seems unlikely that all these places are misguided.
So, lets just say a label of "Experimental Treatment" should be questioned.
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My oncologist gave me the Prostate Cancer Foundation brochure to read after my biopsy came back positive and before we had our first face to face to discuss treatment. Prior to the visit I had read a lot online and also a book describing the various treatment modalities. To say I was somewhat surprised the Prostate Cancer Foundation labelled Proton Beam Therapy as experimental, especially when other sources rated its ability to kill the tumor as effective as photon radiation without the attendant side effects. I chose Proton Beam Therapy because I did not want to undergo surgery and from what I have read, the side effects short term are minimal compared to photon radiation. My treatment was completed in November 2022 so not enough time has passed in my case so that I can make a definite statement on effectiveness of the PBT, only time will tell.