I had 28 sessions of proton radiation treatments during April-May 2021. 65y; Gleason 7(4+3); PSA 7.976; localized. Had SpaceOAR Vue injected; and 6 months (two 3-month injections) of Eligard. Proton beam’s inherent Bragg-Peak characteristic was a major consideration. The only significant side-effect that I had occurred on the 3rd day of treatment when I had a slight urinary issue. My RO told me that with some men there’s an inflammatory response to radiation and if that’s near the urethra can cause the issues that I was experiencing. He recommended that I double-up on Tamsulosin for the remainder of the sessions; that took care of it. I’ve had no other significant side-effects since. It's as if I just walked in a door, got treated (28x), and walked out the door….. After 28 full bladder/empty bowel proton beam radiation treatments later, it’s back to the way it was before the prostate cancer journey started. Here we are now, 3 years later; everything is good, bloodwork being done every 4 months, PSA varies between 0.35 ng/mL-0.55 ng/mL (most recently in May, it was 0.47), and have had no lingering adverse after-effects. Hopefully, these positive results will continue. No regrets.
(They regularly use proton radiation in pediatric centers to successfully treat kids with brain tumors, while minimizing radiation to nearby healthy brain tissue. The technology with proton is clearly there to successfully treat tumors in a walnut-size gland and avoid radiation to nearby otherwise healthy tissues and organs.)