I'm 80 years old. Radiation?

I am new to this forum but I wish I had found this when I was beginning my trip through cancer. My cancer journey was not through Mayo Clinic. Everyone is different and I hate to give advice when it may result in a bad outcome but I can only tell you about my experience. I was extremely healthy, never over weight, ate healthy all my life, ran most mornings, ran 5ks on the weekends, etc. I was diagnosed with acinic cell carcinoma in my parotid gland behind my right ear in 2014 when I was 62. It's very rare and I had surgery a week after my diagnosis. They removed the parotid gland, the glands and nodes in my neck, cut the right side of my face off and removed everything inside except the bone, and part of my ear canal. A few weeks later I began intensive radiation to the right side of my head every day for 7 weeks. I had no problems and went back to work 2 weeks after surgery and worked all through my radiation. A month later the side effects of trying to expel all that radiation from my body began. I was left with half of my face paralyzed, it affected my hearing and eyesight and I had rashes, blisters, nausea, extreme fatigue, thyroid problems and part of my memory was damaged. I decided long ago if I am ever faced with cancer again I may do the surgery, but the radiation is just too hard on my body. I don't think the damage done is worth the outcome. May God bless you as you make this decision and please know there are millions of positive outcomes.

Have the treatments. I was 65 when I had 38 radiation treatments for laryngeal cancer. The treatments did what they were supposed to do and the cancer has been gone for a year and a half. I go for my next 3 month checkup in Feb. If that clears, I then go to every 6 months. I have no major side effects other than being unable to hit the high notes.

@kmlnj
When you heard your doctor say proton is used for extremely precise radiation that should have been the key to why so many of us promote proton radiation.

Did you doctor tell you that photon radiation enters body full force, targets your area, AND continues through the body.

Proton is very precise and can enter body at lower dose, full dose at the location programmed AND does not exit the body stopping at the pre designated site.

If you had a tumor then photon radiation is entering body full force, treating your tumor, and continuing out the body full force. That exposes the tissues and organs before getting to your tumor, and exposes the radiation to tissues and organ beyond your turmor.

Not a medical professional so my information comes from my Mayo R/O, UFHPTI R/O, and my Mayo PCP.

Many medical institution do not have proton. It relatively new compared to photon radiation. The center I got proton was built in 2006 for 125 million. Imagine what that cost would be in todays inflation. Another center in Californina was also on line back then but only a few others.

Since then most all major medical facilities now have proton radiation. Mayo Rochester and Phoenix have it and Mayo Jacksonville is building a brand new cancer center that will have proton radiation.

Good luck and hope your treatments were successful!

@susiep303
Did you have photon radiation or proton?

Yes having Mayo Clinic is a great advantage and I have been a patient there since 2006.

Photon radiation enters the body full force, treats your cancer location, and exits the body full force.

Proton radiation enters body lower does, releases it radiation at designated point, and does not go any further and does not exit body.

This information is widely available on every major medical facility. My information posted came from my Mayo urologist, Mayo R/O, UFHPTI R/O, and my Mayo PCP.

I am in week 2. Doing fine. I trust the team is doing the best they are able. I am at Memorial Sloan Kettering, at a satellite location in NJ.
If the beam is continuing through my body, I can only hope it kills any rogue cancer it bumps into along the way. 🙂
I do appreciate your post and I have a great deal to learn.

Does the doctor giving you that opinion have access to proton therapy? If I were in your shoes, I would strongly suggest a second opinion.
( In my case, my local hospital didn't even inform me there was such thing as proton therapy. It was only because I decided to go to Mayo for a second opinion that I learned about it, and I'm very glad I went that route.

Welcome to our group. Your input is always welcome as well. All of us helping each other is what this is all about.

Photon. Actually I don't even remember them giving me a choice. They said I needed it so I just followed what they said. Maybe it wasn't available then? I don't want to sound ungrateful because I am still alive. I jokingly tell people the surgery saved my life and then they tried to kill me with the radiation.

I had no idea this site was even available to help. I am in a small town in Oklahoma. Sloan and Mayo both have great reputations for staying ahead in treatments. It all happened so quickly I was blindsided. I was perfectly healthy but then developed a tic on the right side of my face; then slowly started to lose movement. I went to an ENT who (thank goodness) recognized the symptoms and sent me to a head and neck oncologist, and within a week I had surgery and 2 weeks later radiation began. There was very little information about acinic cell carcinoma and I understood they weren't sure what worked and didn't work. The tumor had grown and involved my facial nerve and they had to cut the nerve. The right side of my face is paralyzed, but I am alive. I lost my hair on that side and suffered minimally from dry mouth and dry eye, but those are minor things. I pray you continue to do well.

Same here. Had no idea there was a choice other than the photon.