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Brachytherapy? Anyone have thoughts?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Sep 13 1:03pm | Replies (24)Comment receiving replies
I've had LD Brachy and have done a ton of research into it and I wouldn't go any other way with my Gleason 9,..... PSA 50, cancer. I also had 25 external Beam treatments and 19 months of Lupron. My cancer is either cured or in remission. Brachy concentrates the radiation in the prostate at a much higher dose than they can deliver from the outside without burning the other areas, like your colon. The survival rates are close to 100 percent at 10 years with my treatment. My psa at 2 years post treatment is .02 !!! Don't listen to your Radiologist unless he offers you Brachy. The payment to the Radiation oncologist is only about 10 percent for brachy as for Proton or External Beam because they have to radiate you 40 times, whereas the brachy is done on an outpatient basis. One and done...
Replies to "I've had LD Brachy and have done a ton of research into it and I wouldn't..."
... Of course there are the 25 external beam squirts, but that's a lot less than the 40 or 45 external beam treatments. If you think about it, you will realize that Brachy radiates the cancer cells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that when the cancer cells attempt to divide, the radiation is there to kill it when it is weakest. It's that simple! After the implantation, you will swear that they didn't do the procedure, it's that painless!!! My oncologist showed me the post procedure x-ray so I would believe he had done it! I was a Gleason 9 and pretty worried but now I know I got the most effective treatment there is. My cancer is no longer a part of my life. ( Do Your homework and check me out. Start with "prostatecancerfree.org" and contact me here for more info. )
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I’m glad that you had good success with LDR brachytherapy. I formerly was a member of a local prostate cancer support group and I know a number of other men like yourself had low-dose brachytherapy in combination with external beam radiation and ADT. I also know other men who had Brachytherapy as solo primary treatment for low risk prostate cancer, and sadly a third of them, including myself had recurrences of higher risk disease that were difficult to treat because the “radiation card” had already been played.
Best wishes to stay cancer free!