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Any advice or shared experiences with SpaceOAR Hydrogel?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 10 hours ago | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
I am a bit confused - or ignorant…or both! But why are fiducials being placed if you are having IMRT? They are usually used in an SBRT 5 session setting, not for 25 sessions. They are used to specifically target the gland only.
Also, the gel spacer similarly is used with fewer high dose treatments, not weeks long IMRT. Longer treatment times 25-39 sessions usually are designed to give radiation around the rectum as well, so the spacer will prevent that area from being treated.
Please don’t get upset by my questioning, but to me it seems like your RO is mixing apples and oranges. And Just because I have not seen this treatment protocol, doesn’t mean anything. It is just my layman’s opinion.
It almost seems like your RO “might’
Be suspicious that your cancer is outside the gland already (high decipher)and wants to insure that he treats it, but Gel spacer and gold markers wouldn’t be used in that case.
Maybe ask some him some Questions?
Replies to "I am a bit confused - or ignorant…or both! But why are fiducials being placed if..."
I completed 28 sessions of photon EBRT with True Beam CAT-scan guided technology at the end of December. I had fiducial markers implanted as well as a SpaceOAR gel pack. (Bracketed by 6 months of ADT using Orgovyx).
As @scottbeammeup suggests, I had a little discomfort/pressure, but only for a few days after the SpaceOAR was injected - basically felt like I needed to have a bowel movement when I didn't.
I had urinary urgency/frequency side effects starting about mid-way through the radiation treatments - these persisted through about four weeks after the end of my treatments. My only bowel-related side effect was that I started having a couple of bowel movements each day (prior to treatment, it was once a day, in the morning). But after several weeks from the end of treatments, that too has passed (so to speak).
Best of luck to you @billd511 !
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I had fiducials inserted for my 39 IMRT (VMAT) sessions. Prior to each session, a scan of my prostate was done and the fiducials helped determine the relative position of my prostate so that the VMAT beams could be sculpted properly.